Biden rebuffs criticism of Afghanistan meltdown

As Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the United States lowered the flag at its embassy in Kabul, U.S. President Joe Biden said the decision to withdraw troops from the country “is the right one for America.” In a speech Monday, Biden said he had no regrets despite the “gutwrenching images” coming out of Afghanistan after the Taliban’s swift takeover of the government.

Where do things stand in Afghanistan? Senior U.S. military officials said chaos at the airport in Kabul left seven people dead Monday, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet. The Pentagon confirmed Monday that U.S. forces shot and killed two individuals it said were armed as Biden ordered another battalion of troops — about 1,000 — to secure the airfield. Biden admitted he did not expect the Afghan military, in which international allies invested billions of dollars, to fold so quickly, but “American troops cannot and should not be fighting the war, and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.”

Dig deeper: Read Kent Covington’s report in The Sift about the collapse of the Afghan government.