After almost 20 years since it began, US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that the country’s military mission in Afghanistan will finally end on August 31.

“We are ending America’s longest war,” he resoundingly said during a speech from the White House. “We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build.”

American forces have been deployed to Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Biden opined that the US military has “achieved” its goals in the country to degrade Al-Qaeda and prevent more attacks on the United States.

“It is the right and the responsibility of the Afghan people alone to decide their future,” he added.

Talking about staying in the country, Biden said that he wouldn’t “send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan.” 

And for him “the status quo is not an option.”

Vehemently defending his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, Biden launched a question at his detractors: “How many more — how many thousands more Americans, daughters and sons — are you willing to risk?” 

Meanwhile, President Biden pledged to evacuate thousands of interpreters who served alongside troops in Afghanistan, as well as their families, and currently face threat from the Taliban insurgence following the withdrawal of the international troops. 

“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.”

Following his meet with the national security team on Thursday morning, Biden also renewed his call for a diplomatic solution between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

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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 trust the capacity of the Afghan military,” Biden said.

The President argued that the takeover of the Afghan government by the Taliban is not inevitable.