LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2021

US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has called the US airlift of more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan an “extraordinary success”, a day after the last US soldiers pulled out of the country.

“We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history,” Biden said.

“No nation has ever done anything like it in all of history; only the United States had the capacity and the will and ability to do it.”

Speaking from the White House this evening, Biden said 90% of Americans who wanted to leave Kabul were able to do so and between 100 and 200 people with US nationality remain in Afghanistan.

He insisted there is “no deadline” for those who wish to leave.

“We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out,” Biden said.

The president also said the US has “leverage” to ensure that the Taliban’s commitments are met. 

Biden said the choice for the United States in Afghanistan was either to withdraw from the country or escalate the conflict.

“That was the choice: between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said.

After coming under fire from Republican opponents over the chaotic nature of the rush to the exits in Afghanistan, Biden said he did what should have been done years ago.

“I was not going to extend this forever war and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said.

“I take responsibility for the decision,” he said.

“I made a commitment to the American people that I would end this war. Today, I honored that commitment. It was time to be honest,” he said.

“After 20 years in Afghanistan I refused to send another generation of America’s sons and daughters to fight a war.”

He spoke after the United Nations warned of a looming “humanitarian catastrophe” in Afghanistan, underscoring the daunting challenges that the victorious Taliban face as they transform from insurgent group to governing power.

Biden said that the US would continue the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and other countries, and warned IS: “We are not done with you yet.”

With the departure from Afghanistan, the United States is “ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries,” he said.

“Human rights will be at the center of our foreign policy but the way to do that is not through endless military deployments.”

Getting out of the last big post-9/11 war was one of Biden’s campaign promises coming into office.

The idea was overwhelmingly popular but the US departure, culminating with a solitary airplane lifting at midnight from Kabul with the last troops and diplomats, brought home for many that the so-called “drawdown” or “retrograde” amounted to jarring defeat.

- © AFP 2021, with reporting by Michelle Hennessy.