Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan even as a Taliban takeover appears imminent, arguing that the current offensive would have occurred even if the U.S. had stayed.
Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Blinken acknowledged that Afghan security forces have been unable to defend the nation and that the Taliban offensive has progressed more quickly than expected.
Host Jake Tapper pressed Blinken on whether the U.S. withdrawal was rushed and not well planned, pointing to the quickly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
“We were in Afghanistan for one overriding purpose: to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. That’s why we went there 20 years ago. And over those 20 years, we brought [Osama] bin Laden to justice. We vastly diminished the threat posed by al Qaeda in Afghanistan to the United States to the point where it’s not capable of conducting such an attack again from Afghanistan,” Blinken said.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}
