在向全国发表的关于2006年危机的讲话中阿富汗总统先生乔·拜登承认塔利班接管了这个国家比预期的要快，但坚称他仍然“坚决支持”自己撤出美军的决定。
拜登说:“我不会重复我们过去犯下的错误——在一场不符合美国国家利益的冲突中无限期停留和战斗的错误，在外国内战中加倍努力的错误，试图通过美国军队无休止的军事部署来重建一个国家的错误。
虽然拜登说他最终要对阿富汗局势负责，宣称“我是美利坚合众国总统，责任由我承担”，但他也指责阿富汗军队应对塔利班的快速推进负责。
共和国总统拜登谈到了“冷酷的现实”，即坚持特朗普政府与塔利班达成的和平协议，在5月1日前从阿富汗撤军:“我坚决支持我的决定。”https://t.co/21YALfYhnBpic.twitter.com/7Itev0DsC5
—美国广播公司新闻政治(@美国广播公司政治)2021年8月16日
“我们给了他们决定自己未来的一切机会。我们不能给他们提供的是为未来而战的意愿，”他说。
“事实是，这确实比我们预期的发展得更快，”普雷斯说。拜登说，他补充说，阿富汗领导人逃离了这个国家，阿富汗军队“崩溃了，有时没有试图战斗。”https://t.co/WzEcUouhKEpic.twitter.com/8Bbf5MZKQ0
—美国广播公司新闻政治(@美国广播公司政治)2021年8月16日
“有一些非常勇敢和有能力的阿富汗特种部队和士兵，”总统继续说道。“但是，如果阿富汗现在不能对塔利班发动任何真正的抵抗，那么美国在地面上再多一年、五年或二十年的军事行动就没有可能产生任何影响。”
拜登还将阿富汗目前的局势归咎于他的前任，声称前总统唐纳德·特朗普在任期间与塔利班达成的协议让他只有两个选择:结束美国的军事使命或重新点燃冲突。
“我现在是第四位主持阿富汗战争的美国总统，”普雷斯说。拜登说。"我不会把这个责任推给第五任总统。"https://t.co/WzEcUouhKEpic.twitter.com/dQhFcSkoRC
—美国广播公司新闻政治(@美国广播公司政治)2021年8月16日
拜登一再指出，他是第四位主持美国驻阿富汗部队的总统，并坚定地坚持他不会把这一权力移交给第五任总司令。
“因此，我又要问那些主张我们应该留下来的人，当阿富汗军队不愿意的时候，你们会让我再派多少代美国儿女去打阿富汗内战?还有多少人的生命——美国人的生命——值得吗?”拜登说。
拜登还认为，结束在阿富汗的军事任务将释放反恐资源，以应对整个非洲和中东圣战组织对祖国构成的更广泛威胁。
但是情报界仍然担心阿富汗会重新成为极端主义的温床。参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军在一次简报会上告诉参议员，既然塔利班已经夺回了这个国家，五角大楼将重新评估基地组织构成的威胁。
随着阿富汗局势的恶化，共和党人正在猛扑过来在白宫，称撤军为国家的尴尬。
参议院少数党领袖米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)周一表示:“我们看到的是一场彻头彻尾的灾难——美利坚合众国声誉上的污点。
很少有民主党人匆忙公开为拜登政府辩护。在总统讲话前发布的一份声明中，参议院情报特别委员会主席、弗吉尼亚州参议员马克·华纳(Mark Warner)称，从阿富汗播出的画面“具有毁灭性”，并誓言“要问一些艰难但必要的问题，为什么我们没有更好地准备应对阿富汗政府和安全部队如此迅速和全面崩溃的最坏情况。”
拜登否认国家安全官员措手不及，坚称“我们对风险有清醒的认识。我们为每一个突发事件做好了准备。”
他也没有解释为什么计划中的撤军会变成混乱的撤离行动。
拜登在演讲后没有回答聚集在东厅的记者的任何问题，这是他近一周以来首次就阿富汗问题发表公开讲话。
总统此前计划在戴维营停留至周三，但返回白宫发表讲话。结束讲话后不久，他再次前往戴维营。
白宫表示，拜登在整个周末都收到了他的顾问的定期更新，并在周日的视频会议上发布了一张拜登听取简报的照片。
Biden stands by his decision, concedes Taliban takeover was faster than expected
In an address to the nation on the crisis inAfghanistan, PresidentJoe Bidenconceded that the Taliban takeover of the country unfoldedfaster than anticipated, but insisted that he remains "squarely behind" his decision to withdraw American troops.
"I will not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past -- the mistake of staying and fighting indefinitely in a conflict that is not in the national interests of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remake a country through the endless military deployments of U.S. forces," Biden said.
While Biden said he ultimately bore responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan, declaring "I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me," he also faulted Afghan forces for the Taliban's rapid advance.
Pres. Biden on “cold reality” of following through with peace agreement the Trump administration brokered with the Taliban to pull troops out of Afghanistan by May 1: “I stand squarely behind my decision.”https://t.co/21YALfYhnBpic.twitter.com/7Itev0DsC5
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics)August 16, 2021
"We gave them every chance to determine their own future. (What) we could not provide them was the will to fight for that future," he said.
"The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated," Pres. Biden says, adding Afghan leadership fled the country and the Afghan military "collapsed, sometimes without trying to fight."https://t.co/WzEcUouhKEpic.twitter.com/8Bbf5MZKQ0
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics)August 16, 2021
"There are some very brave and capable Afghan special forces units and soldiers," the president continued. "But if Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that one more year, five more years or 20 more years of U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference."
Biden also blamed his predecessor for the current situation in Afghanistan, claiming an agreement former President Donald Trump cut with the Taliban while he was in office left him with only two options: End the U.S. military mission or reignite the conflict.
“I’m now the fourth American president to preside over a war in Afghanistan,” Pres. Biden says.“I will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth president.”https://t.co/WzEcUouhKEpic.twitter.com/dQhFcSkoRC
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics)August 16, 2021
Biden has repeatedly pointed out that he is the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan and adamantly insisted he won't pass it on to a fifth commander-in-chief.
"So I'm left again to ask of those who argued that we should stay, how many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan's civil war when Afghan troops will not? How many more lives -- American lives -- is it worth?" Biden said.
Biden also argued that ending the military mission in Afghanistan would free up counterterrorism resources to address broader threats to the homeland posed by jihadist groups throughout Africa and the Middle East.
But concerns within the intelligence community that Afghanistan will revert to an incubator for extremism remains. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators during a briefing that the Pentagon would reassess the threat posed by Al -Qaida now that the Taliban have retaken the country.
As conditions in Afghanistan deteriorate,Republicans are pouncingon the White House, calling the drawdown anembarrassment for the nation.
"What we have seen is an unmitigated disaster -- a stain on the reputation of the United States of America," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Monday.
Few Democrats have rushed to publicly defend the Biden administration. In a statement released before the president's remarks, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called the images being broadcast out of Afghanistan "devastating" and vowed "to ask tough but necessary questions about why we weren't better prepared for a worst-case scenario involving such a swift and total collapse of the Afghan government and security forces."
Biden denied that national security officials were caught off guard, insisting "we were clear-eyed about the risks. We planned for every contingency."
He also offered little in the ways of an explanation as to why the planned withdrawal had unraveled into a chaotic evacuation effort.
Biden did not take any questions from the reporters gathered in the East Room following his speech, his first public remarks on Afghanistan in nearly a week.
The president was previously scheduled to remain at Camp David until Wednesday, but returned to the White House to deliver the address. He departed again for Camp David shortly after he concluded his remarks.
The White House said Biden had been receiving regular updates from his advisors throughout the weekend and released a photo of Biden being briefed in a video conference Sunday.
