Picture : Twitter / ANI
United States President Joe Biden said withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan to end the 20-year war was the “best” and the “right” decision for America.
He said there was no reason to continue in a war that was no longer in the service of the “vital national interest” of the American people.
“I give you my word: With all of my heart, I believe this is the right decision, a wise decision, and the best decision for America,” Biden said in his address to the nation from the White House on Tuesday.
“We’ve been a nation too long at war. If you’re 20 years old today, you have never known an America at peace. So, when I hear that we could’ve, should’ve continued the so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don’t think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1 percent of this country who put that uniform on, who are willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation,” he said.
Telling his fellow Americans that the war in Afghanistan is now over, Biden said he is the fourth President who has faced the issue of whether and when to end this war.
“When I was running for President, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. And today, I’ve honoured that commitment. It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” he said.
“After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago,” Biden added.
