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Biden, Setting Afghanistan Withdrawal, Says ‘It Is Time to End the Forever War’ [1]

['David E. Sanger', 'Michael D. Shear']

Date: 2021-04-14

WASHINGTON — President Biden declared on Wednesday that “it is time to end the forever war” in Afghanistan, saying that the United States had long ago accomplished its main mission of denying terrorists a haven in the country and that leaving American forces there was no longer worth the cost in blood and money.

Speaking from the same spot in the White House where President George W. Bush ordered the start of the war after the Sept. 11 attacks nearly two decades ago, Mr. Biden made a case that there was no longer any justification — if there ever was — to believe that the United States military presence could turn Afghanistan into a stable democracy.

The roughly 2,500 American troops on the ground there, he said, would be gradually withdrawn starting on May 1, with the process complete by Sept. 11, a timetable intended to signal his determination to end a vexing and largely failed chapter in American foreign policy.

Military officials suggested the exit could be even more rapid, leaving only a token guard force for the American Embassy. NATO forces, which today have a far larger presence than the United States, would also depart, European officials said.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/us/politics/biden-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal.html

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