Defending his decision to pull troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden on Monday marked Veterans Day by reading injury and death toll numbers of U.S. soldiers who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
“Four presidents faced a decision, after we had gotten bin Laden, whether to end our longest war in history, in Afghanistan. I was determined not to leave it to the fifth,” the president said during a speech at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia.
“Every day, I still carry a card with me — my schedule — every single day for the last 10 years,” Biden said, pulling out a small paper card. “On the back of my schedule, it says, ‘U.S. daily troops in Afghanistan — U.S. troops died in Afghanistan, as of today: 2,465. Troops wounded in Afghanistan: 20,769. U.S. troops, Iraq, died in Iraq: 4,620. Wounded in Iraq: 32,766.’”
For years, Biden has defended his decision to fully remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021 amid criticism for the military’s chaotic exit. Thirteen American service members, and more than 100 Afghans, were killed in a suicide bombing outside Kabul’s airport as the U.S. evacuated, and the Taliban soon returned to power. Polls have shown Americans do not approve of Biden’s handling of the withdrawal.
