US President Joe Biden in his address to the nation on Tuesday said that the country was not done with the ISIS-K even if the withdrawal of military forces may have ended from Afghanistan.

Biden added, “I firmly believe the best path to guard our safety and our security lies in a tough, unforgiving, targeted, precise strategy that goes after terror where it is today. Not where it was two decades ago.”

Tuesday’s speech also seemed to put Biden in a defensive stance about his decision to extend the August 31 deadline of withdrawing United States forces. The decision was a unanimous one and took note of considerations from top governmental officials including United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Department of Defense chief Lloyd Austin.

He said,  that the “decision to end US military presence in Afghanistan was based on a unanimous recommendation including civilian, military advisor, all service chiefs & commanders in field”, according to reports from news agency ANI.

Biden also spoke about the monetary aspects of ending the two-decade war in Afghanistan while affirming that counter-terrorism operations would not be disregarded. Biden said, while quoting estimates from a study conducted by Brown University, the war costs the country $300 million every day.

He said, “What have we lost as a consequence, in terms of opportunities? I refuse to continue a war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interests of our people.”

While speaking about the Americans who were left behind in Afghanistan, Biden said that there is no deadline for them to be evacuated from the country and that the United States will “remain committed” to extract them.

The address came a day after the United States completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan after a 20-year war.

Hours before Biden’s address, White House press secretary Jen Psaki gave a preview of the President’s speech and said that he is going to express his gratitude to the country’s service members who “executed a dangerous mission in Kabul and airlifted more than 124,000 people to safety”.

She further wrote, “He will 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.”

Biden has also faced heavy backlash from leaders of the Republican party and has been blamed for the instability introduced in the Afghan political system.

The criticism grew multifold after United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that some people, who were originally planned to be evacuated, have been left behind in war-torn Afghanistan.