Biden orders 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.
President Biden accelerated the deployment of 1,000 additional American troops on Saturday to help ensure that U.S. citizens and Afghans who worked for the U.S. government could evacuate from Kabul safely…The move brings the number of troops in Afghanistan to 5,000, but Mr. Biden made clear in a lengthy statement that he would not renege on his campaign pledge to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan…
“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan — two Republicans, two Democrats,” Mr. Biden said. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”
[Good! Stick to your gun, Mr President! That is a strong hint that he will not run for reelection.]
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The speed and ease with which the Taliban have seized control of the vast majority of the country also prompted Mr. Biden to warn that any effort to disrupt the immense evacuation effort in Kabul “will be met with a swift and strong U.S. military response.”
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The senior U.S. official said Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief American negotiator with the Taliban in peace talks in Doha, had asked the extremist group to not enter Kabul until the United States concludes the evacuation mission. Taliban officials have countered by asking that the U.S. cease airstrikes against its fighters who are rampaging across Afghanistan, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the high-level negotiations.
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In his statement, Mr. Biden said the United States had invested nearly $1 trillion in Afghanistan over the last 20 years and trained and equipped more than 300,000 Afghan security forces, including maintaining their air force.
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“One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. And an endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.”
[So right, so obviously right.]
