Biden accuses Afghan military and Trump for messy Afghanistan exit

US President Joe Biden vigorously defended his decision to end America's longest war and withdraw all US troops ahead of an August 31 deadline – 24 hours after last of the American military planes flew out of Afghanistan. 

“I was not going to extend this forever war,” Biden said in an address from the White House on Tuesday. 

He also rejected criticism of his decision to stick to a deadline to pull out of Afghanistan this week, a move that left 100 to 200 Americans in the country along with thousands of US-aligned or at-risk Afghan citizens.

Biden called the US military airlift to extract more than 120,000 Afghans, Americans and other allies to end a 20 year war an “extraordinary success".

READ MORE: Taliban controls Kabul airport, celebrates victory after US withdrawal

Besides, the president criticised the ousted Afghan government's inability to fight back against swift Taliban advances, which forced the US and its NATO allies into a hasty and humiliating exit. 

He also highlighted the role played by former US president Donald Trump in shaping his decision to pull out of Afghanistan. 

Biden criticised former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who he said flee "amid corruption and maleficence" and handed the country to Taliban, something which significantly increased risk for US troops. 

But some of his remarks are sure to hurt millions of Afghans who had hoped US will help their country prosper after the invasion in 2001. 

The US has "no vital interest in Afghanistan" other than to ensure that the country is not used as a launchpad for an attack on American homeland and its allies, Biden said. 

Trump sealed the fate

The deal brokered by Trump with the movement authorised "the release of 5,000 prisoners last year, including some of the Taliban's top war commanders, among those who just took control," Biden said.

"By the time I came to office, the Taliban was in its strongest military position since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country," he said.

Many lawmakers had called on Biden to extend the August 31 deadline to allow more Americans and Afghans to escape, but Biden said it was "not an arbitrary deadline," but one "designed to save lives."

"I take responsibility for the decision. Now some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and couldn't this have been done in a more orderly manner. I respectfully disagree," said Biden.

Even if evacuations had begun in June or July, he said, "there still would have been a rush to the airport" by people wanting to leave.

"The US was without a clear aim as it entered the twentieth year of its war in Afghanistan."

READ MORE: As Taliban celebrates victory, Afghans remain on edge

Biden said the US "had been a nation too long at war," and he was faced with a decision of either "leaving or escalating". 

"We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan," Biden said. 

"After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”

The departure of the last US troops from Afghanistan this week as the Taliban took over caps two decades of military involvement that Biden was determined to end.

While most Americans agreed with him, that end has not come smoothly. 

Biden's presidency, which had been focused on fighting the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the economy, now faces political probes over the handling of the withdrawal as well as the logistical challenge of finding new homes for thousands of Afghans being moved to US military bases.

READ MORE: A timeline of the US intervention in Afghanistan

Republicans and some Democrats have expressed frustration and anger at the rapid fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. 

Biden said more troops would have had to go to Afghanistan and into harm's way if the exit had not occurred.