weeks just weeks after the terrorist attack on our nation that killed $2977.00 innocent souls that turned lower manhattan into a disaster area destroyed part of the pentagon and made hallowed ground in a field in shanksville pennsylvania and sparked an american promise that we would never forget went to afghanistan in 2001 to root out al qaeda to prevent future terrorist attacks against the united states planned from afghanistan our objective was clear the cause was just our nato allies and partners rallied beside us and i supported that military action along with the overwhelming majority of the members of congress more than 7 years later in 2008 weeks before we swore the oath of office president obama and i were about to swear president obama asked me to travel to afghanistan to report back on the state of

the war in afghanistan i flew to afghanistan to the coun our valley a rugged mountainous region on the border with pakistan what i saw on that trip reinforced my conviction that only the afghans have the right and responsibility to leave their country and then more and less american military force could not create or sustain a durable afghan government i believed that our presence in afghanistan should be focused on the reason we went the 1st place to ensure afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack our homeland again we did that we accomplish that objective . i said among with others we'd follow some of been led to the gates of hell of need be that's exactly what we did and we got him it took us close to 10 years to put president obama commitment of the form and that's exactly what

happened with some of bin laden was gone that was 10 years ago think about that we delivered justice to been watching a decade ago and we've stayed in afghanistan for a decade sense sense then our reasons for remaining in afghanistan become increasingly unclear even as the terrorist threat there we want to fight a volved over the past 20 years the threat has become more dispersed metastasizing around the globe el shabaab in somalia al qaeda in the arabian peninsula all new server in syria isis attempted to create a caleigh fight in syria and iraq and establishing affiliates and multiple countries in africa and asia with the terror threat now many places keeping thousands of troops grounded and concentrated as one country at

a cost of billions each year makes little sense to me and to our leaders we cannot continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in afghanistan hoping to create ideal conditions for the drawl and expecting a different result i'm now the 4th united states president to preside over american troop presence in afghanistan to republicans to democrats i will not pass this responsibility on to a 5th. after consulting closely with our allies and partners with our military leaders and intelligence personnel with our diplomats and our development experts with the congress and the vice president as well as with mr ghani and many others around the world i concluded that is timed and america's longest war it's time for american troops to come home when i came to office i inherited

a diplomatic agreement duly negotiated between the government of the united states and the taliban that all u.s. forces would be out of afghanistan by may 1 2021 just 3 months after my no duration that's what we inherited that commitment is perhaps not what i would have negotiated myself but it was an agreement made by the united states government and that means something so in keeping with that agreement and with our national interest the united states will be again are fine i withdraw all began it on may 1 of this year will not conduct a hasty rush to the exit or do it we'll do it responsibly deliberately and safely and we will do it in full coordination with our allies and partners who now have more force in afghanistan than we do and the taliban should know that if they

attack us as we drawdown will defend ourselves and our partners of all the tools at our disposal our allies and partners have stood beside us shoulder to shoulder in afghanistan for almost 20 years and we're deeply grateful for the contributions they have made to our shared mission and for the sacrifices they have borne the plan has long been in together out together. u.s. troops as well as forces deployed our nato allies and operational partners will be out of ghana stand before we mark the 20th anniversary of that hannis attack on september 11th but but will not take our eye off the terrorist threat will reorganize our counterterrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent reemergence of terrorist threat to our homeland i'm over the

horizon will hold the taliban accountable for its commitment not to allow any terrorist to threaten the united states or its allies from afghan soil the afghan government has made that commitment to us as well and will focus our full attention on the threat we face today in my direction my team is refining our national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in afghanistan but anywhere they may arise and they're in africa europe the middle east and elsewhere i spoke yesterday with president bush to inform him of my decision or he and i have had many disagreements over policy throughout the years where absolutely united in our respect and support for the valor courage and integrity of the women and men of the united states armed forces who served i'm immensely grateful for the bravery and backbone that they have shown through nearly

2 decades of combat deployments we as a nation are forever indebted to them and to their families you all know the us and one percent of american serving our forces remaining 99 percent and we owe them we owe them they've never backed down from a single mission that we've asked of them i've witnessed their bravery firsthand during my visits to afghanistan they've never wavered in the resolve they paid a tremendous price on our behalf. and they have the thanks of a grateful nation will not stay involved in afghanistan militarily our diplomatic humanitarian work will continue we'll continue to support the government of afghanistan we will keep providing assistance to the afghan national the fences and security forces now along with our partners we have trained and equipped

a standing force of over 300000 afghan personnel today and hundreds of thousands of for the past 2 decades and they'll continue to fight valiantly on behalf of the afghans at great cost they'll support peace talks as we will support peace talks between the government of afghanistan the taliban facilitated by the united nations and will continue to support the rights of afghan women and girls by maintaining significant humanitarian and development assistance and will ask other countries of the countries in the region to do more to support afghanistan especially pakistan as well as russia china india and turkey they all have a significant stake in a stable future for afghanistan and over the next few months will also determine what a continued u.s. diplomatic presence in afghanistan will look like included how will ensure the security of our diplomats and look i know there are many who allowed lee insists

that the pla mostly cannot succeed without a robust u.s. military presence to stand as leverage we gave that argument a decade. it's never proved effective. not when we had 98000 troops in afghanistan and not we're down to a few 1000 our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm's way us boots on the ground we have to change that i think american troops should be used as a bargaining chip between more important than other countries. you know that's nothing more than a recipe for keeping american troops in afghanistan and definitely i also know there are many who argue that we should stay stay fighting in afghanistan because withdrawal would damage america's credibility and weaken america's influence in the world i believe the exact opposite is true we want to have ghana stand because

of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago that cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021 rather then return to war the taleban we have to focus on the challenges that are in front of us we have to track and destruct terrorist networks and operations that spread far beyond of afghanistan since $911.00 that's a sharp american competitiveness to meet the stiff competition we're facing from an increasingly assertive china have to strengthen our alliances and work with like minded partners to ensure the rules of international norms that govern cyber threats and emerging technologies that will shape our future are grounded in our democratic values values not those of the autocrats we have to defeat this pandemic and strengthen the global health system for prayer for the next one because there will be another pandemic you know will be much more formidable through our

adversaries and competitors over the long term if we fight the battles for the next 20 years not the last one and finally the main argument for staying longer as what each of my 3 predecessors have grappled with no one wants to say that we should be in afghanistan forever but then insist now is not the right moment to leave and 2014 nato issued a declaration affirming that afghan security forces would from that point on have full responsibility for this country's security by the end of that year i was 7 years ago. so when will it be of the right moment to leave one more year 2 more years 10 more years 102030000000000 dollars more in a truly we've already spent not not that's how we got here and this moment there's

a significant downside risk to say maybe on may 1st without a clear timetable for departure if we instead pursue the approach where america us exit is tied to conditions on the ground we have to have clear answers to the following questions just what conditions require to be required to allow us to depart by what means and how long would it take to achieve them if they could be achieved at all and at what additional cost in lives and treasure i'm not turning to good answers to these questions and if you can answer them in my view we should not stay the fact is that later today i'm going to visit arlington national cemetery section 60 and that sacred room oriel to american sacrifice 6 insisted section 60 is where our recent war dead are buried

including many of the women and men who died fighting in afghanistan and iraq there's no there's no comfort in distance and history in section 60 the grief is raw it's a visceral reminder of the living cost of war of the past 12 years ever since i became vice president i've carried with me a card that reminds me of the exact number of american troops killed in iraq and afghanistan that exact number not an approximation around off number because every one of those. dead are sacred human beings who left behind entire families and exact a county of every single solitary one needs to be had as of the day today there are 245-2488

u.s. troops and personnel who have died in operation enduring freedom and operation freedom's sentinel our afghanistan conflicts 20722 have been wounded. on the 1st president 40 years and those amazed to have a child serving in a war zone and throughout this process my northstar has been remembered what it was like when my late son beau was deployed to iraq how proud he was the service country how insisted he was to the pleasure of his unit and the impact it had on it and all of us at home already have service members during our did you know afghanistan today whose parents served in the same war we have service members who are not yet born when our nation was attacked on 911 war in afghanistan

was never meant to be a multi-generational undertake we were attacked we went to war with clear goals rechy of those objectives and ladan is dead and al qaeda is degraded in iraq and afghanistan and it's time to end the for evermore thank you all for listening may god protect our troops may god bless all those families who lost someone in this endeavor. for those of us who have just joined us a very warm welcome we have just heard from u.s. president joe biden outlining his plans to a draw all american forces from afghanistan by september 11th while here in the in the studio i'm joined by did have a correspondence on appears men and from washington our chief poll is i want to go to you 1st and you know listening to the president to what he had to say there was

a sense of fatigue and it was all about the time has come we need to move on. right later this is a historic moment and this actually could president biden's could be in president biden's most consequential foreign policy decision you know we have to keep in mind this war has been going on since 20 years so maybe i can walk us through some of the major points i want to point out i find it remarkable that he addressed the nation in the treaty room why because this is exactly the place where president bush addressed the nation in 22001 to inform them about the 1st strike in afghanistan so biden really from from the very 1st words kind of spoke there in this room he wanted to draw the bigger picture he started by

reminding on 911 what that meant this tank what it meant to this country. then very very fast kind of moved on saying that it's the right of the afghan people but also the responsibility to lead their country and i think this is kind of the red ribbon. in his speech she wants to move to give the responsibility of this country back to to the afghan people i'm sure peter's mom has some insights to share with us later what that means for the people there one thing i also really would like to stress is the timeline because there was some confusion at least in this country going on he was kind of forced by the administration to start this withdrawal really fast because donald trump had promised that all troops would be out by may 1st biden said that is not possible

only 2 months being only 2 months in the office but that he will start with drawled by may 1st and that it will be final. and without any conditions and that's also interesting he said earlier or insiders said earlier that he had said that he doesn't want to leave any space for any negotiations he wants to be crystal clear the united states will leave of gonna stand or will have left afghanistan no later than september 11th and the other thing that jumped out was also that his emphasis of course on the sacrifices that the servicemen and women have made when being deployed in afghanistan that basically the u.s. opens it to them to get out or does it the afghan people yeah that is something i would want to point out here because yes if we look at the past 20 years to was to

2400 american service members have lost their lives in afghanistan many many thousands more have been maint in just scott for life now if you look at the civilian death toll in afghanistan that's a completely different figure we possibly look it's an estimated figure because nobody really knows for sure and more than 100000 civilians killed and that doesn't include those that were maimed traumatized scarred for lives turned into orphans and so forth so we are looking at a country that has essentially had 20 years of nearly full blown war including that big element of terror but this is only those 2 decades that we have paid attention to what about the 2 decades before that because in total we're looking at 4 decades of war that would include the soviet occupation of the eighty's then the civil war after the soviet withdrawal it throughout the ninety's which then in turn led to

the taliban's rise to power and then came the international intervention left by the u.s. after september 11th attacks so that old brings us to 40 years. of war in afghanistan and looking at what president biden said he really address the american public much more than the afghan public of course what he had to say about afghanistan is that there will be diplomatic and humanitarian efforts those will continue financial support for the troops and there really depend on that financial support because otherwise you know they they don't they don't get paid the afghan state conduit itself and then he said support of peace talks facilitated by the u.n. not by the u.s. anymore plus and this i found very interesting support for women and goods through humanitarian work now what exactly does that mean i mean those are really key that section of the population that is most at risk. you know want to go in and washington listening to

a standard kind of outline also you know the lentulus onslaught of violence that the afghan population had had to endure also during this war. you know listening to president biden is this the end of us interventionism a regime change nation building is that an era that is now behind us. well we always have to keep in mind that it was president obama who started the doctrine saying like the united states will be leading from behind it was him and in a way from kind of picked it up and moved on saying you know we need our alliance to step in we need nato we all for all need germany to to pay their fair share so there that's just kind of a consequence of the foreign policy since

a couple of years no but i think the obvious legacy off today of of the end of this 2 day cade's long war in afghanistan is really the recognition that there are limits to u.s. military power i mean especially when it comes to altering the culture and internal politics off other states of different states so i think we see we see this this shift you are just talking about. under one of inclusion give you the final word and what will gonna stand after america look like what does it mean for the women what does it mean for the girls were does it mean just for the civil population their best case scenario which we would be probably the and acceleration of peace talks if the incentives of prisoner exchange and you will get money and international recognition and you will be removed from

the sanctions list if those could possibly give peace talks that would then come to a meaningful cease fire at 1st and of violence reduction of violence and then into a political settlement that would be the ideal outcome but i find it unlikely at this stage the more likely scenario if you lost me on a personal level is that this will lead to further by. dillon's because it's not only the fight between the afghan government and the taliban we also see infighting within the elite that was sort of created with the invasion which now represents the republic which is still the afghan state at present. and they are starting to vie for power amongst themselves instead of in the united capacity addressing the need to really sit down and negotiate with the taliban and the taliban of course can just wait and sit it out and what we also don't know is so

short there be peace talks do the representatives of the taliban leading these peace talks really narrow the rank and file and the boots on the ground there fighting is or will there be possible splits occurring and the process so it's a real quick my and my fear is that violence will increase the targeted assassinations will increase as we have seen in the past couple of months the new young elite being wiped out human rights defenders who lawyers religious scholars students even hospitals were attacked and that was the scenario that i anticipate to continue if you ask me tonight i'm not very optimistic right now. senators thank you very much and of course in washington bureau chief there thank you both for your continued coverage. we're going to pivot now our attention

to the olympics said because japan a stage a ceremony to mark the start of a $100.00 day countdown to the olympic games in tokyo organizers there are revealed the olympic rings at the top of mount it to cairo west of the japanese capital while the international olympic committee says the games will go ahead despite fears about the pandemic the i.o.c. says it has taken measures such as banning international spectators to prevent a surge in infections and to avoid the games being cancelled as they were last year . at the swimming and diving venue the high tech starting blocks for the tokyo games and the starting gun stand idle as though they were paused after the on your marks set bit of a starter's commands but 100 days out as the so-called test events continued to iron out possible wrinkles and event organization it appears the olympics are back on line. with

a. pandemic precaution will be a priority and only domestic fans will be permitted to attend now but there will be competition. and i think he killed the 2 that he must know that having discussions know so personally as much as possible i want the athletes to really feel that we're prepared to host these olympic games in japan and look at that he's going to go to all these discussions here have demonstrated that we are putting safety 1st. not every japanese is happy the olympics are scheduled to go ahead in fact pollsters say 70 to 80 percent believe it's a bad idea to hold the games with a pandemic still raging in the country. even event volunteers at this online training session have concerns. include less yet again what i'm worried about is what will happen with the new variants. and how will they spread.

the japanese have invested more than $15000000000.00 to host the tokyo 2020 olympic and paralympic games as they will still officially be called. you're watching you doing yours live from berlin my colleague brant goff will be with you in just a moment on my iraq and the land thank you so much for watching our freedom our.

enter the conflict zone to sebastian. despite fresh diplomatic talks to see a warrior who shows little sign of ending my guest this week from the yemeni capital sana'a is who shot a shot of foreign minister of the so sun government his forces stomach used to finishing shocking crimes and killing indiscriminately why would they conflict that . in 30 minutes. massive drama competition rivalry marketing numbers atmosphere power fight at times intuition love money. fans friends plan a spam and found all coupons on you tube joining us.

let's get right to the heart of the. smoking. as good times are good for the. warming doesn't. come to the surface well yet. the industry is controlling your thoughts the great bluffs of the 20th century. present a hoax that was. upgraded mainly. trying to exert its force may 3rd. thanks.

this is g.w. news from berlin ending the forever war the us president is preparing to lay out his plan for leaving afghanistan. has confirmed that he will withdraw all u.s. troops from the country by september 11th we'll go live to washington to hear more also coming up another setback in south africa where the use of the astra zeneca vaccine and already been stopped the suspension of the johnson and johnson vaccine is another huge blow to the country in its fight against coast been 19.