After delaying addressing the nation for most of the day, President Joe Biden is still avoiding the liability for the Afghanistan crisis and the deaths that have occurred during evacuation efforts.
In his White House speech, Biden called the at least 12 U.S. service members who were killed in the explosions heroes but spent minutes comparing the loss of his son Beau Biden to cancer to the pain his administration’s incompetence has caused military families.
Biden claimed he was “outraged” at the situation and attack, which took more than 100 lives, but only repeated lies and deflected blame for his botched withdrawal that caused the American evacuation crisis which he celebrated last week as being death-free.
“Those who carried out this attack and anyone who wishes America harm know this, we will not forgive,” Biden said. “We will not forget. We will hunt you down to make you pay. I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”
Biden previously promised that “any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with swift and forceful response” but made no formal commitment to use force against ISIS-K until after his commanders draw up plans.
BIDEN LAST WEEK: "Any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with swift and forceful response." pic.twitter.com/chiPr7LPou
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 26, 2021
BREAKING: Pres. Biden says he's ordered his commanders "to develop operational plans to strike ISIS-K assets, leadership and facilities."
"We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place we choose and the moment of our choosing." https://t.co/aVzjnzGos5 pic.twitter.com/kTw6VbCCSA
— ABC News (@ABC) August 26, 2021
U.S. evacuation efforts, the president said, will continue because “Americans will not be intimidated” but he could only commit to rescuing “as many Americans out as possible” instead of the approximately 1,500 U.S. citizens still stranded in Afghanistan.
“There are, will be I believe numerous opportunities to continue to provide access for additional persons to get out of Afghanistan, either through means that we provide and or are provided through in cooperation with the Taliban,” Biden said.
Shortly after, he claimed that there were no historical examples of conflicts that ended successfully with everyone being removed safely.
“As a student of history, no conflict, where, when a war was ending, one side was able to guarantee that everyone that wanted to be extracted from that country would get out,” Biden said.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former President Trump were just a few of the people who condemned the ISIS-K attack before the president issued any statement or gave a speech on Thursday.
I utterly condemn the barbaric terrorist attack in Kabul in which Afghans and members of the US military lost their lives.
The threat of terrorist attack is one of the constraints we’ve been operating under, but our evacuation effort continues with over 12,000 extracted so far. pic.twitter.com/DXCFPj9KQC
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) August 26, 2021
