在接受美国广播公司新闻记者乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯的独家采访时，这也是自1990年秋天以来总统的首次采访阿富汗去塔利班总统先生乔·拜登他坚定地为美国撤军辩护，但第一次声称他相信混乱不可避免。
“所以你不认为这是可以处理的——这个退出本可以以任何方式更好地处理，没有错误?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问拜登。
“不，我不认为这可以用这样的方式来处理，我们会后知后觉地回头看看——但是，有一种方法可以摆脱混乱，而不会随之而来，我不知道这是如何发生的。我不知道这是怎么发生的，”拜登回答说。
“所以对你来说，这一直是决定的代价?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
“是的，”拜登回答，但随后修改了他的回答。
“现在到底发生了什么，我还没有考虑进去，”他说。“但我知道他们会有一个巨大的——听着，我们不知道的一件事是塔利班会做什么来阻止人们离开。他们会怎么做。他们现在在做什么?他们正在合作，让美国公民离开，让美国人员离开，让大使馆离开，等等，但是他们正在——当我们在那里的时候，那些帮助我们的人给我们带来了更多的困难。”
拜登的撤军决定导致阿富汗一片混乱，多达11000名美国人和数万名濒临灭绝的阿富汗人争先恐后地撤离该国。平民在喀布尔机场跑道上淹没飞机、拼命逃跑的场景，引发了两党的批评，认为拜登政府对仓促撤离处理不当。
当斯特凡诺普洛斯提到灾难现场时，拜登变得越来越有防御性。
“我们都看过照片。我们已经看到数百人乘坐C-17。我们看到阿富汗人倒下了——”
“那是四天前，五天前!”拜登插话道。
视频显示，数百人与一架美国空军C-17运输机并肩运行，这架飞机在喀布尔机场的跑道上运行。https://t.co/9KvlpGgLnMpic.twitter.com/osGnDQX9rb
—美国广播公司新闻(@美国广播公司)2021年8月16日
“当你第一次看到那些照片时，你是怎么想的?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
“我的想法是，我们必须控制这一点。我们必须加快步伐。我们必须以能够控制机场的方式行动。我们做到了，”拜登说。
美国周二晚间表示，已成功从阿富汗疏散了3200人，包括所有美国大使馆人员，但喀布尔机场的一批核心外交官除外。官员们表示，他们希望每天能够疏散9000人。
但美国政府目前没有为在阿富汗的美国公民提供安全前往机场的交通工具，目前还不清楚有多少人能够安全抵达机场，因为塔利班检查站继续加强。
尽管阿富汗的现实如此，拜登还是坚定地为自己的决定辩护。
“当你看过去一周发生的事情时，是情报、计划、执行还是判断失误?”斯特凡诺普洛斯问道。
拜登说:“听着，这是一个简单的选择，乔治。“当你有阿富汗政府，那个政府的领导人，坐上飞机，起飞去另一个国家;当你看到我们训练的阿富汗军队大幅崩溃时，多达30万人，刚刚离开他们的装备就起飞了——那是，你知道，我没有，那就是发生的事情。事情就是这样。所以一开始的问题是，门槛问题是，我们是承诺在我们设定的时间框架内撤离，还是延长到9月1日，还是投入更多的军队?”
拜登指出，最近几个月，由于特朗普政府与塔利班领导人谈判达成的一项协议，阿富汗的暴力袭击已经停止，该协议的前提是美国最终撤军。
“我听到人们说，你有2500人在那里，什么也没发生。你知道，已经没有了——但是你猜怎么着，事实是，没有发生的原因是，上一任总统在一年前谈判过，他将在5月1日之前下台，回来后，不会对美国军队发动攻击。这就是所做的。这就是为什么什么都没有发生，”拜登说。
“我有一个简单的选择。如果我说‘我们会留下来’，那么我们最好准备投入更多的军队，”他总结道。
Biden says he did not see a way to withdraw from Afghanistan without 'chaos ensuing'
In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, and the president's first since the fall ofAfghanistanto theTaliban, PresidentJoe Bidenstood firm in his defense of the United States' withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes thechaos was unavoidable.
"So you don't think this could have been handled -- this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?" Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
"No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that, we're gonna go back in hindsight and look -- but the idea that somehow, there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens. I don't know how that happened," Biden replied.
"So for you, that was always priced into the decision?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"Yes," Biden replied, but then amended his answer.
"Now exactly what happened, I've not priced in," he said. "But I knew that they're going to have an enormous -- Look, one of the things we didn't know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out. What they would do. What are they doing now? They're cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they're having -- we're having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there."
Biden's decision to withdraw has led to scenes of pandemonium in Afghanistan, with as many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of endangered Afghans scrambling to evacuate the country. Scenes of civilians swamping planes on the runway at the Kabul airport, desperate for escape, have triggered bipartisan criticism that the Biden administration handled the hasty exit poorly.
Biden grew defensive when Stephanopoulos referred to the scenes of distress.
"We've all seen the pictures. We've seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We've seen Afghans falling --"
"That was four days ago, five days ago!" Biden interjected.
Video shows hundreds of people running alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the Kabul airport.https://t.co/9KvlpGgLnMpic.twitter.com/osGnDQX9rb
— ABC News (@ABC)August 16, 2021
"What did you think when you first saw those pictures?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did," Biden said.
The U.S. said late Tuesday it has successfully evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan, including all U.S. Embassy personnel, except for a core group of diplomats at the Kabul airport. Officials have said they hope to ramp up to being able to evacuate 9,000 people each day.
But the U.S. government is not currently providing American citizens in Afghanistan with safe transport to the airport, and it remains unclear how many will be able to safely reach the airport, as Taliban checkpoints continue to harden.
Despite the reality in Afghanistan, Biden was adamant in defending his decision.
"When you look at what's happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?" Stephanopoulos asked.
"Look, it was a simple choice, George," Biden said. "When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off -- that was, you know, I'm not, that's what happened. That's simply what happened. And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set, do we extend it to Sept. 1, or do we put significantly more troops in?"
Biden noted that violent attacks in Afghanistan had paused in recent months due to a deal negotiated by the Trump administration with Taliban leaders that was predicated upon an eventual U.S. withdrawal.
"I hear people say, well you had 2,500 folks in there and nothing was happening. You know, there wasn't any more -- but guess what, the fact was, that the reason that wasn't happening, was the last president negotiated a year earlier that he'd be out by May 1st and that the return, there'd be no attack on American forces. That's what was done. That's why nothing was happening," Biden said.
"I had a simple choice. If I said, 'we're gonna stay,' then we'd better be prepared to put a whole lot hell of a lot more troops in," he concluded.
