蜜芽传媒

President Joe Biden has come out fighting in his first response to accusations of ineptitude and incompetence in Afghanistan, a day after the Taliban took over the country.

In a speech, he told the world he stands by his decision to withdraw - and that nation building was never the mission. He criticised the failure of Afghan governments to deal with corruption and seek a political settlement with the Taliban, and added that any attack on US personnel engaged in the withdrawal operation would not be tolerated.

Ambassador Peter Galbraith, formerly deputy UN envoy to Afghanistan, says irredeemable mistakes were made by the US - caused by bad advice by the military - but these happened long before Biden became president.

"He has been long a critic of the shifting US objectives in Afghanistan. The United States of course did engage in nation-building but he thought it was a mistake and it clearly didn't work. He specifically criticised the effort to create a centralised democracy - to do so in a country that is one of the geographically and ethically most diverse was a fool's errand and it didn't work."

(Photo: Joe Biden speaking about the crisis in Afghanistan. Credit: Reuters)

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