Kamala Harris defends decision to withdraw from Afghanistan

The recent chaos that occurred in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul comes in the heels of the insurgent group Taliban’s advancing and overthrowing of the Afghan government. As US President Joe Biden and his administration face a barrage of criticism from mostly Republicans, Vice President Kamala Harris defends the decision for the US withdrawal from the war-torn country.

Harris took to social media to defend the administration’s stance on withdrawing the US troops from Afghanistan despite the insurgent group gaining power over the country. This also follows the recent address given by Biden, acknowledging the state of the situation that has occurred. Biden had also defended his decision to withdraw the US from Afghanistan after 20 years and four administrations since the 9/11 attacks.

“For two decades, our courageous service members put their lives on the line in Afghanistan. We will always be grateful -- and proud. Ending US military involvement in Afghanistan is the right decision,” tweeted Harris.

During his address, Biden said “the buck stops with him” while reiterating that the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the best for the country. Biden also reiterated that the US went into Afghanistan to get rid of Al Qaeda and that the US wanted to make sure that the extremist group would not use Afghanistan as a base to attack the US moving forward. Biden also declared again that the US was never committed to nation-building in Afghanistan in the first place.

“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11, 2001 -- and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. That was a decade ago. Our mission was never supposed to be nation-building,” tweeted Biden.

Meanwhile, Harris is also set to visit Singapore and Vietnam next week, making her the highest-ranking US Biden administration official to visit the region. Experts say that Harris’ upcoming visit to southeast Asia would also help the US compete with China for influence in a key part of the world.

Harris’s spokesperson Symone Sanders said that the vice president plans to discuss climate change, security, the pandemic, and the rules-based international order with both governments.