On Monday, Aug. 16, President Joe Biden gave a speech about the American troops fighting “America’s longest war” with the Taliban in Afghanistan. He went over the fight’s purpose and the reasoning behind his recent decisions. When former President Donald Trump was still in office, he negotiated with the Taliban and made a deal that strongly stated that American troops would be pulling out of Afghanistan on Sunday, May 1. When Biden took office, the decision of keeping Trump’s deal was laid in his hands. Unfortunately, Biden decided to keep the troops in Afghanistan. In his Friday, Aug. 16 speech, he stated that “this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.” And boy, did it unfold.

On Friday, Aug. 26, three months and 25 days after the U.S. troops were supposed to withdraw from Afghanistan, two Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked an airport in Kabul. This attack killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 60 innocent Afghans. While the attack was happening, Americans were being evacuated and flown out of Afghanistan. 

“Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far,” Biden said during his speech. “May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days.”

To avoid the death of the 13 U.S. service members, Biden should have stuck with the deal that he would withdraw all troops on Sunday, May 1. On Tuesday, Aug. 16, he stated that the Taliban military was the strongest that it had been since 2001. He also brought up that going with the decision to keep the American troops in Afghanistan would only “escalate the conflict.” So then why did he decide to keep the troops there? Because he did not anticipate the events that would unfold prior to May. In the same speech, he mentioned the primary thing that the military was not prepared for. The American troops in Afghanistan were there to fight with the Afghan military against the Taliban, the common enemy. But when the Afghan military gave up, the U.S. was left to fight alone. This escalated the conflict. 

“So what’s happened? Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country. The Afghan military collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight.” Biden said during a press conference. “If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that ending U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.”

Aside from the controversy about the delay to withdraw the troops, there is even more significant controversy around whether Biden should’ve withdrawn the soldiers at all. The majority of his speech was defending his decision to remove the troops. Although the troops should’ve been evacuated way before late August, I do agree with Biden’s decision to remove them in general. With the lack of support from the Afghan military, we were trying to tame a beast all on our own. Billions of dollars and countless resources and people have been used in this fight. But is this fight even one that’s worth fighting? 

“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves.” Biden said during his speech.

Choosing to keep up this fight going on for nearly 30 years would have created much more unnecessary conflict. Biden stated that the true reason the conflict with Afghanistan and the terrorists involved with the country even began was to counteract the tragic events of 9/11. Once the U.S. military felt like the threat from Al Qaeda was solved, the only motive to stay in Afghanistan was to prevent another terrorist attack on our country, to save the lives of countless innocent people. That was still the motive when Biden decided to keep the troops in Afghanistan in May. 9/11 started a seemingly unsolvable conflict between America and Afghanistan. Keeping the American soldiers in Afghanistan any longer would’ve added more and more to this unnecessary fight. Focusing on acts of terrorism that have already been handled and using that as a reason to keep expanding a conflict that should’ve been put to rest years ago will only lead to worse attacks on our country. Biden stated that he was “adamant we focus on the threats we face today, in 2021, not yesterday’s threats,” and that mindset was what led to his decision to evacuate the troops altogether. 

“Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified, centralized democracy.” Biden said during his speech. “Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been: preventing a terrorist attack on American homeland.”

In conclusion, I believe that the fight against the Taliban is one that the U.S. military should not spend millions of dollars and resources on. Pulling the troops out of Afghanistan was a decision that saved countless lives and should’ve been done even earlier than it was.