By Steve Herman | VOA News |
WHITE HOUSE – Declaring that “war in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multigenerational undertaking,” President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that “it is time to end the forever war” and said he would withdraw all U.S. troops from that country by Sept. 11.
Biden, in a televised speech, said the United States could no longer justify staying there two decades after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
“We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago,” Biden said at the White House. “That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.”
Biden spoke in the Treaty Room, the same place where, on Oct. 7, 2001, then-President George W. Bush announced airstrikes on Afghanistan.
“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” Biden said. “American troops shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips between warring parties in other countries.”
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