His remarks about Russia drew shock from Ukraine and he admitted a major agenda item may have to get broken into pieces to pass. Here’s what happened.
President Biden defended the US withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly five months later.
“Raise your hand if you think anyone was going to be able to unify Afghanistan under one single government? It’s been the graveyard of empires for a solid reason: It is not susceptible to unity,” Biden said during today’s news conference.
Citing the weekly spending of nearly one billion dollars to keep American forces in the state, Biden noted what he called no possibility at a peaceful resolution.
“The question was, do I continue to spend that much money per week in the state of Afghanistan knowing that the idea that being able to succeed, other than sending more body bags back home, is highly, highly unusual,” he said.
“There is no way to get out of��Afghanistan after 20 years easily. Not possible, no matter when you did it. And I make no apologies for what I did,” the President said.
Biden did, however, express empathy for the lives lost amid the withdrawal.
“I have a great concern for the women and men who were blown up on the line at the airport by a terrorist attack against them,” he said.
Placing blame on previous administrations, Biden continued to defend the late August operation.
“Had we not gotten out, the acknowledgment is we’d be putting a lot more forces in … do I feel badly [about] what’s happening as a consequence of the incompetence of the Taliban? Yes, I do,” Biden said, adding that there are “a whole range of things around the world, that we can’t solve every problem. And so I don’t view that as a competence issue.”
