Biden doubles down on Afghan withdrawal – but he is dancing a fine line
The president’s address to the nation was just that – a speech carefully scripted for domestic consumption.
Never mind that around the world there was an eagerness to understand the wisdom of his decision.
With an all-American backdrop – the stars and stripes filling the space behind him – Joe Biden made a compelling case for why America needed to leave Afghanistan.
“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again.
“We did that… Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralised democracy.”
The core of his argument was that staying in Afghanistan would have been futile. He conceded that despite trillions of dollars of military equipment and training, as well as blood and sweat, the Afghan military were unable to stand alone.
“There is no chance that one year, one more year, five more years, or 20 more years of US military boots on the ground would’ve made any difference,” he said.
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In full: Biden speech
He was speaking to an American public about an issue which, according to polling, does resonate: America’s forever wars.
“How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghans – Afghanistan’s civil war – when Afghan troops will not? How many more lives, American lives, is it worth? How many endless rows of headstones at Arlington National Cemetery?”
Yet the fact is that at the point when Mr Biden decided to pull the plug, there were only 2,500 US soldiers in Afghanistan. They were not in an active combat role. They were not coming home in coffins. Afghanistan was, as one former US ambassador to Afghanistan put it to me, “not a red button issue”.
In fact, it is more of a red button issue now given the manner in which the US pulled out.
On this, the president offered little. Despite the images which continue to emerge from Afghanistan, including the tragic pictures of people appearing to fall from a plane as it pulled up from a crowded airstrip, he did not attempt to explain, defend or acknowledge the way in which the United States executed the pull out.
He said: “The scenes we’re seeing in Afghanistan, they’re gut-wrenching, particularly for our veterans, our diplomats, humanitarian workers, for anyone who has spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people.
“For those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and for Americans who have fought and served in the country, serve our country in Afghanistan, this is deeply, deeply personal. It is for me as well.”
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Kabul airport chaos as people cling to plane
He danced a fine line for the home audience, claiming in one breath that this was the right decision – the only decision – but then arguing that he was forced to follow through on a bad deal which Donald Trump struck with the Taliban.
“I inherited a deal that President Trump negotiated with the Taliban. Under his agreement, US forces would be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, just a little over three months after I took office.
“US forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001.
“The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season.”
He knows that the decision was on him. “I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me,” he said. And he expressed regret for how it’s unfolded: “I am deeply saddened by the facts we now face.”
He knows it has caused unease and upset among allies who wonder now about what the value of US commitment is or indeed wonder about the wisdom of American decisions and the quality of its intelligence.
He knows too that America’s foes will be sporting more than just a wry smile. But, he stood by the decision.
“I do not regret my decision to end America’s warfighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser-focus on our counterterrorism missions there and in other parts of the world.”
And so it was a doubling down of his decision. He chose not to appear contrite about the chaos.
Most strikingly, this did not feel at all like a message for the people of Afghanistan. He talked frequently about “commitments”, but they were commitments to the American people.
The time has come, he seems to have concluded, to end American commitments to Afghanistan, however hard that may be.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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