Under his agreement U.S. Forces will be out of Afghanistan by May 1, 2021.
この合意に基づき、米軍は2021年5月1日までにアフガニスタンから撤退します。
Just a little over three months after I took office.
U.S. Forces had already drawn down from the Trump administration from roughly 15,000 American forces.
就任してからわずか3ヶ月あまり。
米軍はすでにトランプ政権からおよそ15,000人の米軍を撤退させていました。
(drawn down 【drain】 みたいに聞こえる…… あと15,00【5】 に聞こえる)
2,500 troops in country
and the Taliban has strongest military since 2001.
(またYoutube字幕が抜けた)
2,500人の部隊が駐留しており、
タリバンは2001年以降、軍事的に最も強い状態にありました。
The choice I had to make
as your president
was either to follow through on that agreement
or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban
in the middle of the Spring fighting season.
私が、貴方方の大統領として選択しなければならなかったのは、
この合意を実行するか、
それともタリバンとの戦いに戻る覚悟をするかということでした。
春の戦闘シーズンの最中に。
(春闘シーズン……？)
There was no agreement of protecting our forces after May 1.
There is no status quo of stability without American casualties after May 1.
There was only cold reality of following through on the agreement to withdraw our forces or escalating the conflict and sending 1000 more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan.
Lunching into the third decade of conflict.
I stand squarely behind my decision.
After 20 years I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. Forces.
That's why we're still there.
We were clear-eyed about the risk.
We planned for every contingency, but I always promised the American people that I'll be straight with you.
The truth is this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.
So what's happend?
Afghanistan political leaders gave up and fled the country.
The Afghanistan military collapsed some time without trying to fight.
If anything, the developments of the past week reinforced that any U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan now was the right decision.
American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan Forces are not willing to fight for themselves.
We spent over $1 trillion.
We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong.
Incredibly well equipped.
A force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO Allies.
We gave them every tool they could need.
We paid their salaries, provided for the maintenance of their air force, something the Taliban doesn't have.
Taliban does not have an air force.
You provided close air support.
We gave them every chance to determine their own future.
We could not provide them was the will to fight for that future.
Some very brave and capable Afghans special forces units and soldiers.
If Afghanistan is unable to mount any real resistance to the Taliban now, there is no chance that one year, one more year, five more years or 20 more years, U.S. military boots on the ground would have made any difference.
Here's what I believe to my core, it is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan's own armed forces would not.
Political leaders of Afghanistan were unable to come together for the good of their people, unable to negotiate for the future of their country when the chips were down.
They would never have done so while U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan bearing the brunt of the fighting for them.
And our two strategic competitors, China and Russia, would love nothing more than the United States to continue to funnel billions of dollars in resources and attention into stabilizing Afghanistan indefinitely.
When I hosted president Ghani at the white house in June and again when I spoke by phone to Ghani in July we had very frank conversations.
We talked abount how Afghanistan should prepare to fight their civil wars after the U.S. military departs, to clean up the corruption in government so the government could function for the Afghan people.
We talked extensively about the need for Afghan leaders to unite politically.
I also urge them to engage in diplomacy, to seek a political settlement with the Taliban.
This advice was flatley refused.
Mr. Ghani insisted the Afghan forces would fight but obviously he was wrong.
Left again to ask of those who argue that we should stay, how many more generations of America's daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan's civil war when Afghan troops will not?
How many more lives, American lives, is it worth?
How many endless roads of head stones at arlington national cemetery?
I'm clear on my answer.
I will not repeat the mistakes we've made in the past, mistake of staying, fighting indefinitely for a conflict not in the national interest of the United States, of doubling down on a civil war in a foreign country, of attempting to remaining country to the endless military developments of U.S. Forces.
Those are the mistakes we cannot continue to repeat because we have significant vital interests in the world that we cannot afford to ignore.
I also want to acknowledge how painful this is to so many.
Seems we're seeing in Afghanistan -- the scenes we're seeing in Afghanistan are gut-wrenching particularly for our veterans, diplomats, humanitarian workers, for anyone who has spent time on the ground working to support the Afghan people, for those who have lost loved ones in Afghanistan and for Americans who have fought and served in the country, serve our country in Afghanistan.
This is deeply deeply personal.
This for me as well.
I've worked on these issues as long as anyone.
I've been throughout Afghanistan during this war while the war was going on, from Kabul to Kandahar to the Kunar valley.
I've traveled on four different occasions.
I met with the people, I've spoken to the leaders.
I spent time with our troops and I came to understand first hand what was and was not possible in Afghanistan.
So now we're focused on what is possible.
We will continue to support the Afghan people.
We will lead with our diplomacy, our international influence and humanitarian AID.
We'll continue to push for regional diplomacy and engagement against violence and instability.
We'll continue to speak out for the basic rights of Afghan people, of women and girls, just as we speak out all over the world.
I've been clear human rights must be the center of our foreign policy, not the periphery.
But the way to do it is not through endless military deployments.
It's with our diplomacy, our economic tool and rallying the world to join us.
Let me lay out the current mission in Afghanistan.
I was asked to authorize and I did 6,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan for the purpose of assisting the departure of U.S. and allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan and to evacuate our Afghan allies and vulnerable Afghans to safety outside of Afghanistan.
Our troops are working to secure the air field and ensure continued operation both the civilian and military flights.
We're taking over air traffic control.
We have safely shut down our embassy and transferred our diplomats.
Our diplomatic presence is now consolidated at the airport as well.
Over the coming days we intend to transport out thousands of American citizens who have been living and working in Afghanistan.
We'll also continue to support the safe departure civilian personnel, civilian personnel of our allies who are still serving in Afghanistan.
Operation allies REV JEW which I announced back in July has already moved 2000 Afghans who are eligible for special immigration visas and their families to the United States.
In the coming days U.S. military will provide assistance to move more SIB eligible Afghans and their families out of Afghanistan.
We're also expanding refugee access to cover other vulnerable Afghans who worked for our embassy.
U.S. non-government agency or the U.S. non-governmenttal organization and Afghans who otherwise are at great risk and U.S. news agencies.
I know there are concerns about why we did not begin evacuating Afghan civilians sooner.
Part of the answer some of the Afghans did not want to leave earlier, still hopeful for their country.
Partly because the Afghan government and its supporters discouraged us from organizing a mass exodus to avoid triggering as they said crisis confidence.
American troops are performing this mission as professionally and as effectively as they always do.
But it is not without risk.
As we carry out this departure, we have made it clear to the Taliban if they attack our personnel or disrupt our operation, the U.S. presence will be swift and the response will be swift and forceful.
We will defend our perople with devastating force, if necessary.
Our current military mission will be short in time, limited in scope and focused in its objectives.
Yet our people and our allies as safely, as quickly as possible and once we have completed this mission, we will conclude our military with drawal, we'll end America's longest war after 20 long years of blood shed.
The events we're seeing now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, secure Afghanistan.
That's known in history as the graveyard of empires.
What's happening now could just as easily happen five years ago or 15 years in the future.
You have to be honest, our mission in Afghanistan has taken many missteps, made many missteps over the past two decades.
I'm now the fourth American president to preside over gar in Afghanistan, two democrats and two republicans.
I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president.
I will not mislead the American people by claiming that just a little more time in Afghanistan will make all the difference, nor will I shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today and how we must move forward from here.
I am president of the United States of America and the buck stops with me.
I'm deeply saddend by the facts we now face.
But I do not regret my decision to end America's war fighting in Afghanistan and maintain a laser focus on our counter terrorism mission there and other parts of the world, a mission to degrade the terrorist threat of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and kill Osama bin laden was a success from a decades long effort to overcome centuries of history and permanently change and remaining Afghanistan was not, and I wrote and believed it never could be.
I cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country's civil war, taking casualty, suffering life-shattering injuries, leaving families broken by grief and loss.
This is not in our national security interests.
It is not what the American people want.
It is not what you're troops who have sacrificed so much over the past two decades deserve.
I made a commitment to the American people when I ran for president that I would bring America's military involvement in Afghanistan to an end.
While it's been hard and messy and yes far from perfect, I've honored that commitment.
More Importantly I made a commitment to the brave men and women who serve this nation that I wasn't going to ask them to continue to risk their lives in the military action that should have ended long ago.
Our leaders did that in Vietnam when I got here as a young man.
I vill not do it in Afghanistan.
I know my decision will be criticized.
But I would rather take all that criticism and pass this decision on to another president of the United States, yet another one, a fifth one, because it's the right one, the right decision for our people, the right one for our brief service members who risked their lives serving our nation, and it's the right one for America.
Thank you and GOD protect our troops, our diplomats, all brave Americans serving in harm's way.
*2 Garfield, Eugene (June 1998).
“The Impact Factor and Using It Correctly”. Der Unfallchirurg 101 (6): 413?414. PMID 9677838.
ttp://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/papers/derunfallchirurg_v101(6)p413y1998english.html
