08/07/2021
: US President Joe Biden announces that the US military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31, nearly 20 years after it began.
The US military has "achieved" its goals in the country -- killing Osama bin Laden, degrading Al-Qaeda and preventing more attacks on the United States, Biden said in a White House speech.
"We are ending America's longest war," he said.
"The status quo is not an option," Biden said of staying in the country. "I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan."
"The United States cannot afford to remain tethered to policies created to respond to a world as it was 20 years ago," he said. "We need to meet the threats where they are today."
