Thread by @lewis_goodall

Biden addressing the nation from the White House

Pays tribute to all those US service personnel involved in the airlift, especially those 13 who lost their lives: "We owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay, but we should never, ever, ever forget."

Biden says US has leverage to ensure Taliban keeps their commitments

Reiterates that 31st August was not "an arbitrary deadline"

Blames the Trump administration for the worst bits of the deal, including the release of 5000 prisoners

"By the time I came to office the Taliban were in the strongest position since 2001"

Emphasises that once the ceasefire was over if they'd stayed more troops were necessary

"That was the real choice- between leaving and escalating."

Two things true at once

1) What Biden describes was a fundamental dilemma too many haven't reasoned with.
2) That doesn't mean the withdrawal had to be executed this way, as Biden is trying to say. Wasn't completely binary.

"There are those who say why didn't we just keep going with what we were doing...? Everything had changed."

Biden keeps making the point about Trump's deal and the choice he faced re pullout vs escalation.

Biden making many of the same points he's made in previous speeches- including the example about Bin Laden launching an attack from Yemen.

Biden's criticism isn't confined to Trump. He's implicitly criticising the Obama decision to surge (against which he argued at the time as VP).

Again, Biden making clear in the speech he believes there are few US moral obligations arising to the Afghans as a result of the intervention.

To ISIS-K Biden says "we are not done with you yet."

Biden: "As we turn the page on the foreign policy which has guided the last two decades, we have to learn the lessons. We must set missions with clear achievable goals, not ones we'll never reach. And second we must stay clearly focussed on the US national security interest."

Biden making clear the era of liberal interventionism is over

"This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It's about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries."

Biden: "I've been clear that human rights will be at the centre of our foreign policy."

But he's just said US security interests must be paramount. What happens- a la Afghanistan- when those two things cash?

Biden: "After 20 years of war in Afghanistan I refused to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago."

Biden: "We've been a nation too long at war. If you're 20 years old today you've never known an America at peace. So when I hear we should have continued the so called 'low cost' effort in Afghanistan...I don't think enough people understand we've asked of the 1% in uniform."

Most forceful we've seen Biden yet.

Repeated many of the arguments we've heard before.

Strongest argument remains that the status quo wasn't an option.

Weakest that this was the only way of withdrawing.

Didn't reconcile two central tensions...

1) Can we be truly confident the counter terrorism mission is over given Taliban are back?
2) How does the clear realism of his view of int politics reconcile with his claim that "America is back", "diplomacy is back" and that human rights are at the centre of his foreign policy?

And the fact that Biden once again made clear he doesn't seem to think there are almost any moral obligations to the country of Afghanistan arising from a 20 year intervention.