Thread by @JJSchroden

Some key points of @JoeBiden's speech on #Afghanistan withdrawal in this THREAD. 1/n

- Only Afghans have the right & responsibility to lead their country
- War & endless US mil force could not create or sustain a durable Afghan govt
- We brought bin Laden to justice 10 yrs ago…our reasons for staying in #Afghanistan have since become increasingly unclear 2/n

- Terrorism threat has metastasized around the globe…makes little sense to keep thousands of troops in one place
- We can’t keep deploying troops to #Afghanistan hoping for the right conditions for withdrawal & expecting a different result 3/n

- He's the 4th President w/this responsibility, won't pass it on to a 5th
- It’s time for American troops to come home
- Inherited a commitment from the prior admin. Might not be what he would have negotiated, but it still means something. 4/n

- We’ll not conduct a hasty rush for the exit, but responsibly ICW our allies & partners
- If the #Taliban attack us as we withdraw, we’ll respond with all the tools at our disposal
- We will hold the TB accountable to its commitment to prevent attacks from #Afghanistan 5/n

- We will reorganize our CT capabilities to prevent the re-emergence of terrorism
- We will revise the US CT strategy to monitor and disrupt terrorist threats globally
- US service members have the thanks of a grateful nation. 6/n

- Our diplomatic and humanitarian support to #Afghanistan will continue, as will our support to the #ANDSF
- The #ANDSF will continue to fight valiantly on behalf of Afghans
- We will support peace talks facilitated by the @UN 7/n

- We will support the rights of women & girls by maintaining significant humanitarian & development assistance
- We will work with #Pakistan, #Russia, #China, #India & #Turkey who have interests in #Afghanistan 8/n

- We will work out what our residual diplomatic presence in #Afghanistan will look like in the months ahead
- Our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots on the ground—that argument is a recipe for indefinite presence in AFG 9/n

- Some argue that withdrawal will damage our credibility; the opposite is true.
- Rather than focus on the #Taliban, we have to focus on the global nature of terrorism, #China, alliances, democratic values, pandemics 10/n

- Need to fight the battles of the next 20 years, not those of the last 20 years
- No one wants to say we should be in #Afghanistan forever, but they say “now is not the right time to leave” 11/n

- In 2015, @NATO declared #ANDSF had the lead for security in #Afghanistan. That was 7 years ago. How many more years will it take? 12/n

- A conditions-based approach for #Afghanistan requires clear answers to: What conditions are required? What means would be required to achieve them? And at what costs of lives and treasure? Haven’t gotten any good answers to those questions—thus, we should not stay. 13/n

- He's the first President in 40 years who had a child in a war zone—saw that impact first-hand 14/n

- We were attacked, we went to war with clear goals, and those goals have been achieved—bin Laden is dead and #alQaeda is degraded in #Afghanistan
- It’s time to end the Forever War. 15/15