The war-torn country of Afghanistan rapidly fell to the hands of the insurgent group Taliban this week in the wake of the US and NATO’s departure of troops in the region. US President Joe Biden will be making an address to the country regarding the crisis that Afghanistan is currently facing.
Biden and his administration have earned a lot of backlash over the chaos that is currently happening in Afghanistan. Biden will be addressing the country Monday about the US’ evacuation from Afghanistan as a way to end what would be a 20-year conflict in the region. This comes as the planned withdrawal of US forces escalated into a fatal one in Kabul airport as thousands of residents attempted to flee when the insurgent group took over the capital.
The White House has announced that Biden will return to Washington from the Camp David retreat to make an address from the East Room in the afternoon. This would also mark Biden’s first public remarks a week since the crisis that has occurred in Afghanistan. This also comes as Biden and his security advisers were caught off-guard at the immediate takeover of the Afghan government by the Taliban.
Senior officials revealed that the chaos that occurred in Kabul airport resulted in seven people dead, including some who fell off a departing US military transport plane. Thousands of Afghans fled to the airport at the time, trying to escape as the insurgent group took hold of power and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The Pentagon also confirmed that US forces opened fire at two individuals who were armed amidst Biden’s order of an additional thousand troops to assist in an organized evacuation from the war-torn country.
Biden administration officials had also acknowledged that they did not anticipate the pace at which the Taliban managed to send the Afghan government into a collapse, including its security forces. The chaotic takeover of the insurgent group proved to be a test of Biden’s abilities as commander in chief, resulting in a lot of criticism, mostly from Republicans, saying that he had failed.
“We’ve seen that that force has been unable to defend the country, and that has happened more quickly than we had anticipated,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken to CNN, referring to the Afghan military.