Biden defends decision to end Afghanistan War
Delivering remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan, President Biden said, “I refuse to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
Video Transcript
PRESIDENT BIDEN: My fellow Americans, the war in Afghanistan is now over. I'm the fourth President to have faced the issue of whether and when to end this war. When I was running for president, I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today I've honored that commitment.
It was time to be honest with the American people again. We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan, after 20 years of war in Afghanistan. I refuse to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.
After more than $2 trillion spent in Afghanistan, costs that researchers at Brown University estimated would be over $300 million a day for 20 years in Afghanistan, for two decades. Yes, the American people should hear this-- $300 million a day for two decades. You take the number of $1 trillion, as many say. That's still $150 million a day for two decades. What have we lost as a consequence in terms of opportunities? I refuse to continue the war that was no longer in the service of the vital national interest of our people.
And most of all after 800,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan, I've traveled that whole country, brave and honorable service, after 20,744 American servicemen and women injured, and the loss of 2,461 American personnel, including 13 lives lost just this week, I refuse to open another decade of warfare in Afghanistan.
We've been a nation too long at war. If you're 20 years old today, you have never known an America at peace. So when I hear that we could have, should have continued the so-called low-grade effort in Afghanistan, at low risk to our service members, at low cost, I don't think enough people understand how much we have asked of the 1% of this country who put that uniform on, willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our nation.
