US Plans Coordinated Withdrawal Of Its Soldiers From Afghanistan

Official says withdrawal will begin in May and end well before Sept.11; Washington to work out a coordinated pullout plan with Nato allies; UK to follow US

WASHINGTON

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday it’s “time to end” America’s longest war with the unconditional withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan where they have spent two decades in a bloody, largely fruitless battle against the Taliban.

Dubbed the “forever war,” the US military onslaught in Afghanistan began in response to the Sept.11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

Now, 20 years later -- after almost 2,400 US military and tens of thousands of Afghan deaths -- Biden is naming Sept.11 as the deadline by which the last US soldiers will have finally departed.

Biden told Americans that it’s time to accept the reality that there’s no alternative.

“We cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan hoping to create the ideal conditions for our withdrawal, expecting a different result,” he said.

“I am now the fourth American president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans. Two Democrats,” he said. “I will not pass this responsibility to a fifth.” “America does not need to fight forever wars. I applaud President Biden’s decision,” top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.