President Biden has vowed to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In a speech Wednesday, Biden said it is time to end what he described as the “forever war.”
President Joe Biden: “We delivered justice to bin Laden a decade ago, and we’ve stayed in Afghanistan for a decade since. Since then, our reasons for remaining in Afghanistan have become increasingly unclear.”
Despite Biden’s remarks, The New York Times reports the United States is expected to keep relying on a “shadowy combination of clandestine Special Operations forces, Pentagon contractors and covert intelligence operatives” inside Afghanistan after September. Following his speech, Biden traveled to Arlington National Cemetery to visit the graves of soldiers lost in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Tony Blinken has just arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced trip.