‘Silly question’: Biden bristles at question about Taliban

Ag AFP

WASHINGTON: President Biden on Thursday fired back at a reporter who asked whether he trusts the Taliban, foreign media reported on Thursday. While the US is pulling out in accordance with a deal it struck with the Taliban last year, Biden insisted his plan was not based on a belief the Taliban will live up to its end of the bargain. “No, I do not trust the Taliban,” the president. “It’s a silly question.” But Biden, who huddled with military advisers over the situation in Afghanistan Thursday before his public remarks, said he trusts “the capacity of the Afghan military” to keep key areas of the country from falling to Taliban fighters, who have made major gains in recent weeks as the US and NATO withdraw.

The US president also bristled at questions about who bears responsibility for civilian deaths and other carnage at the hands of the Taliban moving forward. He said the blame will not lie with the US.

The US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the US military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31, nearly 20 years after it began, and said" Taliban takeover of the country is not inevitable".

The US military has "achieved" its goals in the country -- killing Osama bin Laden, degrading Al-Qaeda and preventing more attacks on the United States, Biden said in a White House speech. "We are ending America´s longest war," he said."The status quo is not an option," Biden said of staying in the country. "I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan." "The United States cannot afford to remain tethered to policies created to respond to a world as it was 20 years ago," he said. "We need to meet the threats where they are today." Biden said the United States "did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build." "It is the right and the responsiblity of the Afghan people alone to decide their future." Biden pledged to continue supporting the Afghan government and security forces and said thousands of Afghan translators who worked for US forces and face threats from the Taliban would be able to find refuge in the United States. "There is a home for you in the United States, if you choose," he said. "We will stand with you, just as you stood with us."

Biden said he was confident the Afghan armed forces could stand up to the Taliban, who have made strong advances across the country since the beginning of the year."I do not trust the Taliban," Biden said, "but I trust the capacity of the Afghan military." Asked if a Taliban takeover was "inevitable," the president said: "No, it is not."He flatly rejected comparisons to the US experience in Vietnam. "The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese army," Biden said. "They´re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. "There´s going to be no circumstance where you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan," he said. "It is not at all comparable."