WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will declare, “It is time to end America’s longest war,” in a speech from the White House on Wednesday afternoon announcing the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that spurred the conflict.
“I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan – two Republicans, two Democrats,” Biden will say, according to excerpts of his speech provided by the White House. “I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.”
Since the invasion, more than 775,000 American troops have served at least one tour of duty in Afghanistan, with 98,000 troops in the country at the height of the war in 2011 before a steady decline over the last decade.
The war in Afghanistan – which sought to establish democratic governance, defeat al-Qaeda and push the Taliban out of power – has cost more than $2 trillion and more than 2,300 American lives. More than 38,000 Afghan civilians have been killed.
Biden’s exit timeline will extend military presence in Afghanistan beyond the May 1 withdrawal date previously negotiated by former President Donald Trump.
US soldiers look out over hillsides during a visit of the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General Scott Miller at the Afghan National Army (ANA) checkpoint in Nerkh district of Wardak province on June 6, 2019.
U.S forces arrive to the Intercontinental Hotel after an attack in Kabul, Afghanistan on Jan. 21, 2018. Gunmen stormed the hotel in the Afghan capital, triggering a shootout with security forces, officials said.
A U.S. Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Capt. Andrew P. Ross on Nov. 30, 2018, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Ross, 29, of Lexington, Va., was killed Nov. 27, 2018, by a roadside bomb in Andar, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.
In this July 31, 2017 photo, U.S. forces leave after a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and Islamic State fighters during an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Aug. 22, 2017. Reversing his past calls for a speedy exit, Trump recommitted the United States to the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan Monday night, declaring U.S. troops must “fight to win.”
In this Aug. 5, 2015 file photo, an Afghan National Army soldier, left, smokes as a U.S. Army soldier from Charlie Company, 2-14 Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division sits next to him in Camp Khogyani in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan. An uptick in attacks by Afghan National army soldiers against foreign troops would seem a worrisome trend ahead of the deployment of another 4,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the latest attempt by Washington to turn around the protracted war against insurgents.
In this May 3 , 2017 file photo, A damaged U.S. military vehicle is pictured at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. In an “open letter” to U.S. President Donald Trump, Afghanistan’s Taliban on Tuesday reiterated their call for a withdrawal of troops to end the protracted war.
Soldiers play football in front of the Boardwalk as the sun begins to set at Kandahar airfield on Nov. 12, 2014 in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Now that British combat operations have ended and the last UK base in Afghanistan had been handed over to the control of Afghan security forces, any remaining troops are leaving the country via Kandahar. As the drawdown of the US-led coalition troops heads into its final stages, many parts of Kandahar airfield – once home to tens of thousands of soldiers and contractors – are being closed or handed over to the Afghans.
US soldiers and service members with the NATO- led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) eat Christmas dinner at their base in Ghazni province, Afghanistan on Dec. 25, 2013. The commander of NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan spent Christmas visiting U.S. troops at bases across the mountainous region to bring them holiday greetings and gifts for a few lucky soldiers.
In this Nov. 3, 2010 file photo, an Afghan boy watches Cpt. Chris Esrey of Havelock, North Carolina, with India, 3rd Battalion 5th Marines, First Marine Division, company, scan the area during a patrol in Sangin, south of Kabul, Afghanistan. Reversing his past calls for a speedy exit, President Donald Trump recommitted the United States to the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, declaring on Aug. 21, 2017 U.S. troops must fight to win. He pointedly declined to disclose how many more troops will be dispatched to wage America’s longest war.
In this March 18, 2010 file photo, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Mathew Gorzkiewicz, of North Liberty, Indiana, with the First Battalion, Sixth Marine Regiment, Alpha company, tries out an Afghan boy’s sling during a patrol in Marjah, Afghanistan. Reversing his past calls for a speedy exit, President Donald Trump recommitted the United States to the 16-year-old war in Afghanistan, declaring on Aug. 21, 2017 U.S. troops must “fight to win”. He pointedly declined to disclose how many more troops will be dispatched to wage America’s longest war.
In this Dec. 2, 2009 file photo, U.S. soldiers stand guard near the site where Afghans, unseen, receive the food stuff donations provided by U.S. solders in Kabul, Afghanistan.
A soldier with the 3/509th of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division keeps descends from a guard tower at Forward Operating Base Zerok Oct. 7, 2009 in Zerok, Afghanistan. The soldiers at FOB Zerok, which has been attacked repeatedly from the surrounding hostile countryside of Paktika province, keep an extensive 24 hour a day watch from several locations to guard the base. October 7th marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan war in 2001; eight years later, thousands of American and international troops are camped out in field bases around the war-torn country.
U.S. Army Engineer Staff Sgt. Rick Atkinson of Roswell, New Mexico plays with a puppy that soldiers of Forward Operating Base Zerok adopted a few weeks ago Oct. 7, 2009 in Zerok, Afghanistan. Oct. 7th marks the anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan war in 2001; eight years later, thousands of American and international troops are camped out in field bases around the war-torn country.
Soldiers carry Afghan and U.S. military flags during a handover ceremony at the main U.S. base at Bagram north of Kabul, Afghanistan on April 10, 2008. The 101st Airborne Division is taking over in Afghanistan, replacing the 82nd Airborne after 15 months in the country. The U.S. now has some 32,000 troops in the country, the most since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
Soldiers of 4th Battallion 25th Field Artillery Regiment, attached to 10th Mountain Division, observe a few moments’ silence in memory of the people who died in the terrorist attack on World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, at an U.S. army base in Nangalam, Afghanistan on Sept. 11, 2006.
U.S. soldiers of the 82nd Airborne’s 3rd Platoon Bravo Company move into a position during a live fire training on Jan. 9, 2003 at a firing range near the U.S. base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Kandahar was the stronghold of the Taliban, the rigorously Islamic regime that was ousted from power in late 2001 by a U.S.-led military coalition.
In this Dec. 31, 2001 file picture, Marines with full battle gear prepare to board transport helicopters at the U.S. military compound at Kandahar airport for a mission to an undisclosed location in Afghanistan.
An Afghan anti-Taliban fighter looks up at an American B-52 vapor trail during an airstrike on al-Qaida positions in the White Mountains of Afghanistan on Dec 12, 2001. Afghan tribal commanders set a new deadline Wednesday for the surrender of a group of al-Qaida fighters cornered in the mountain canyon under heavy U.S. bombardment, demanding that top terrorist suspects, possibly including Osama bin Laden, also turn themselves in.
U.S. special forces troops survey the area at the airport near Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Nov. 29, 2001. Special forces troops worked Thursday to prepare the airport for humanitarian aid flights.
President Bush poses for a photo after announcing air strikes on Afghanistan from the Treaty Room in the White House on Oct. 7, 2001.
20/20 SLIDES
Biden will use his speech to counter criticism from Republicans and some Democrats who say U.S. objectives – including civil rights gained by Afghan women under the Taliban regime – could be lost if he U.S. exits. Trump faced similar pushback for his planned military departure.
“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 will say. “It is time for American troops to come home.”
For Biden, who campaigned on a promise to end America’s “forever wars,” the withdrawal from Afghanistan is arguably his most significant foreign policy action in his young presidency. He will follow up his speech with a trip to Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery to pay respects to service members who died in the war in Afghanistan.
“We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago,” Biden plans to say. “That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.
“Rather than return to war with the Taliban, we have to focus on the challenges that will determine our standing and reach today and into the years to come.”
The drawdown of the more than 3,000 U.S. troops who remain in Afghanistan will begin before May 1 in coordination with NATO allies and the withdrawal of their troops which number around 7,000. The Biden administration warned the Taliban that any attacks on the U.S. during the withdrawal will be met with a forceful response, according to the White House.
Biden will say that America’s diplomatic and humanitarian work in Afghanistan will continue – and the U.S. will still support the Afghanistan government – even though the U.S. will not stay involved militarily.
That includes training and equipping more than 300,000 members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, he will say, and supporting peace talks backed by the United Nations between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban.
Al-Qaeda used Afghanistan, under control of the Taliban, as a safe haven from which to plan the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
But instead of being driven out by military force, the Taliban now control vast swaths of the country, and it continues to be racked by violence despite U.S.-brokered peace talks. Many experts say the situation in Afghanistan will not improve no matter how much longer the United States stays, or how much more money Washington invests.
A U.S. intelligence report released Tuesday gave a bleak outlook of the immediate future for Afghanistan, predicting the “prospects for a peace deal will remain low during the next year.”
“The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support,” the assessment said.
Biden had faced increasing pressure on whether to stick to Trump’s May 1 deadline to fully withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Some of Biden’s key allies in Congress have warned a complete U.S. withdrawal would thrust Afghanistan further into chaos and violence. Others have said keeping U.S. troops on the ground any longer could spark a backlash among progressives who want to see an end to the war in Afghanistan.
