by Eric Lendrum
After Joe Biden further delayed efforts to withdraw all American military forces from the nation of Afghanistan earlier this year, new reports suggest that the withdrawal will be delayed indefinitely and could leave up to 1,000 troops in the country, according to CNN.
The report comes from an anonymous administration official, who claimed that the residual forces would stay behind to ostensibly secure the U.S. embassy and the airport in the capital city of Kabul. However, another anonymous official with the Department of Defense claimed that the residual forces left behind would not exceed 650.
Furthermore, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. withdrawal will not mark an end to the participation of troops from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which is continuing its “Resolute Support mission” in Afghanistan irrespective of American involvement.
“It is my understanding with the completion of US forces, retrograde, withdrawal, of US forces from Afghanistan…that does not necessarily mean the end of Resolute Support,” Kirby said to reporters on Tuesday. “Really, that is a question better posed to NATO.”
The latest backtracking by the Biden Administration further reflects their botched efforts to continue the withdrawal process that was initiated by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on ending the longest war in American history. In February of 2020, the Trump Administration signed the “Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan” plan with representatives from the Taliban and the Afghan government. That agreement originally promised to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan by May 1st, 2021. But after Biden took over, he announced an arbitrary delay of the withdrawal date, setting the new target date for September 11th, 2021.
But despite the withdrawal’s clear origins under the Trump presidency, the mainstream media has continued to give Biden sole credit for the withdrawal without acknowledging Trump’s role. This is despite Biden’s own history of supporting previous wars in the Middle East, including his vote in favor of the Iraq War while he was a senator.
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
