Biden speech: President defends US exit from Afghanistan, pledging ‘no deadline’ to evacuate Americans

The president will address the nation to affirm his commitment to withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan by a 31 August deadline.

He will deliver remarks at 2.45pm EST.

In a statement on Monday, he said: “I will address the American people on my decision not to extend our presence in Afghanistan beyond August 31. For now, I will report that it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and of all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned. Their view was that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops, and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead.”

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday that the US “will get out any person who wants to get out,” as an estimated 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan and want to leave, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“We continue our mission to get them out, it’s just that it has shifted from a military mission to a diplomatic mission,” Mr Sullivan said. “The small number that remain, we are committed to getting out and we will work through every available diplomatic means with the enormous leverage that we have and that the international community has to make that happen.”

Between 5,500 and 6,000 Americans were evacuated, while those who remain were contacted “repeatedly” to make their way to the airport or point of contact, he said.

America’s longest war cost the lives of nearly 50,000 Afghan civilians, 2,500 US service members, 66,000 Afghan national military and police, 457 British armed forces personnel, and 50,000 Taliban and opposition fighters.

It was a war overseen by four US presidents, fought by two generations of Americans, and at a cost of an estimated $2 trillion. It ended with the defeat of a superpower by an army of guerrilla fighters, and the collapse of a decades-long state-building project in a matter of days.

The Independent’s Richard Hall on the beginning of the end of the 20-year war:

With Kamala Harris presiding, the US Senate quickly passed the Emergency Repatriation Assistance for Returning Americans Act without objections.

The measure would the Social Security Act to set up financial aid for repatriating Americans, setting aside up to $10m over the next two years.

Biden is expected to sign it into law.

Maj Gen Christopher Donahue, photographed through a night-vision lens preparing to board a C-17 cargo, was identified by the Pentagon as officially the last US service member to leave Afghanistan.

After decades of reporting from Afghanistan, Kim Sengupta reflects on at the west’s string of failures and the dark, uncertain future facing those left behind:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki will address reporters at 3.30pm EST following Biden’s remarks at 2.45pm.

His speech will “express his thanks to the commanders and service members who executed a dangerous mission in Kabul and airlifted more than 124,000 people to safety” and “offer thanks to the veterans and volunteers who supported this effort,” she said in a statement.

Biden will also “lay out his decision to end the war in Afghanistan after 20 years, including the tough decisions he made over the last seven months since he took office to bring the war to a close.”

“He will make clear that as President, he will approach our foreign policy through the prism of what is in our national interests, including how best to continue to keep the American people safe,” she said.

Republican Rep Peter Meijer of Michigan is worried that the United States could repeat its mistakes in Afghanistan – if it continues believing its own foreign policy propaganda.

“I think one of the reasons why the past couple of weeks of Afghanistan have been such a shock to some and such a disappointing confirmation to others is because of that disconnect between reality and how that reality is projected,” he told The Independent.

Eric Garcia has more:

Facebook’s “news feed” will feed less news to its users under a plan to de-emphasise content considered too political or too current.

The company confirmed in a blog post it would expand its trial to scale back breaking news and political content in and beyond the United States after receiving “positive feedback” on the changes.

The move was first reported by Axios, which said the changes could reduce traffic to news publishers or accounts that post too much political content, based on negative user feedback.

Justin Vallejo has more:

A group of GOP attorneys general have filed a federal lawsuit in Tennessee seeking to overturn guidance from the Biden administration that expands anti-discrimination protections to LGBT+ people.

In 2020, the US Supreme Court ruled that employers cannot fire workers because of their gender identity or sexuality. In June, the Education Department issued guidance informed by the ruling to protect students and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission outlined what discrimination consists of and how to file complaints, part of a range of protections under the Biden administration that aimed at combatting discrimination in schools.

The attorneys general argued that the administration overreached, and that the authority to draw up those rules lies with local governments and Congress.

“The guidance purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms, whether schools must allow biological males to compete on female athletic teams, and whether individuals may be compelled to use another person’s preferred pronouns,” according to the lawsuit filed on Monday.

“But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation,” it says.