It’s Tuesday.
For August 17th, 2021, President Biden has probably received his daily brief. He has nothing else listed on his schedule.
President Biden has tweeted 1 time so far for Tuesday; I will be sharing it down thread.
When Biden Bits was published for Monday, President Biden had tweeted 1 time. He added 9 tweets giving him a Monday Tweeting Total of 10 tweets and 0 retweets.
All of his tweets focus on his statement yesterday regarding our leaving Afghanistan.
The video stream is 21 minutes and 42 seconds long. President Biden begins his remarks at the 1 minute and 33 second mark. His full remarks can be found here.
President Biden (2:18): 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. We severely degraded al Qaeda in Afghanistan. We never gave up the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and we got him. That was a decade ago. Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy.
President Biden (16:29): The events we’re seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, and secure Afghanistan — as known in history as the “graveyard of empires.” What is happening now could just as easily have happened 5 years ago or 15 years in the future. We have to be honest: Our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps — made many missteps over the past two decades.
President Biden (19:13): I know my decision will be criticized, but I would rather take all that criticism than pass this decision on to another President of the United States — yet another one — a fifth one. Because it’s the right one — it’s the right decision for our people. The right one for our brave service members who have risked their lives serving our nation. And it’s the right one for America.
President Biden (6:55): American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves. We spent over a trillion dollars. We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong — incredibly well equipped — a force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies.
Tuesday.
President Biden (3:07): I’ve argued for many years that our mission should be narrowly focused on counterterrorism — not counterinsurgency or nation building. That’s why I opposed the surge when it was proposed in 2009 when I was Vice President. And that’s why, as President, I am adamant that we focus on the threats we face today in 2021 — not yesterday’s threats *Today, the terrorist threat has metastasized well beyond Afghanistan: al Shabaab in Somalia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Nusra in Syria, ISIS attempting to create a caliphate in Syria and Iraq and establishing affiliates in multiple countries in Africa and Asia. These threats warrant our attention and our resources. We conduct effective counterterrorism missions against terrorist groups in multiple countries where we don’t have a permanent military presence. If necessary, we will do the same in Afghanistan. We’ve developed counterterrorism over-the-horizon capability that will allow us to keep our eyes firmly fixed on any direct threats to the United States in the region and to act quickly and decisively if needed.
*Bold text is text from Monday’s tweet. The full text is from the 1 minute and 18 second video posted on Tuesday.*
I have authorized 6,000 U.S. troops to deploy to Afghanistan to assist in the departure of U.S. and Allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan — and to evacuate our Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside the country.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 17, 2021
Our current military mission will be short in time and focused in its objectives:
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 17, 2021
Get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible.
And once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military withdrawal. We will end America’s longest war.
President Biden (13:07): Now, let me lay out the current mission in Afghanistan. I was asked to authorize — and I did — 6,000 U.S. troops to deploy to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting in the departure of U.S. and Allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan, and to evacuate our Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of Afghanistan. Our troops are working to secure the airfield and to ensure continued operation of both the civilian and military flights. We’re taking over air traffic control. We have safely shut down our embassy and transferred our diplomats. Our dip- — our diplomatic presence is now consolidated at the airport as well. Over the coming days, we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan. We’ll also continue to support the safe departure of civilian personnel — the civilian personnel of our Allies who are still serving in Afghanistan.
President Biden (16:00) [the text from the tweet not included in the video]: Our current military mission will be short in time, limited in scope, and focused in its objectives: Get our people and our allies to safety as quickly as possible. And once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military withdrawal. We will end America’s longest war after 20 long years of bloodshed.
The daily press briefing is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. D.C., time. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will be in attendance.
This is an Open Thread.
