#​Antony Blinken defends Biden’s Afghanistan troop withdrawal

​Secretary of State Antony Blinken dismissed criticism of President Biden’s planned troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, arguing that the US completed the goals of ensuring the country doesn’t become a haven for terror attacks and killing Obama bin Laden.

America “went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, and we went because we were attacked on 9/11, and we went to take on those who had attacked us on 9/11, and to make sure that Afghanistan would not again become a haven for terrorism directed at the United States or any of our allies and partners,” Blinken said on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“We achieved the objectives that we set out to achieve,” he added.

The country’s top diplomat said terror group al-Qaeda has been “significantly degraded” and its ability to attack the US as it did on Sept. 11 from Afghanistan “is not there.”

“And of course, Osama bin Laden was brought to justice 10 years ago,” he said.

Blinken argued that terrorist organizations have spread to other parts of the globe and the Biden administration has other pressing issues to deal with at the same time.

“The terrorism threat has moved to other places,” he said.

“And we have other very important items on our agenda, including the relationship with China, including dealing with everything from climate change to COVID. And that’s where we have to focus our energy and resources.”

Biden announced in a White House speech last week that all US combat troops would be pulled from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, keeping with an agreement the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban for a withdrawal by May 1.

The news sparked immediate criticism from both Democrats and Republicans that Taliban militants could quickly overrun Afghan government forces and take over the country once more.

In making his decision, Biden went against the Pentagon and the opinions of former generals like David Petraeus and Joseph Dunford.

“I have great respect for General Petraeus, General Dunford and others, but we had a very deliberate and fully informed process leading up to the decision by the president,” Blinken said.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” was questioned about GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell’s comments that Biden is “gift wrapping the country and handing it right back” to the Taliban.

“President Biden is not going to take his eye off the ball,” Sullivan told host Chris Wallace.

“He said in his speech that we would maintain capabilities in the region to be able to deal with any threat that reconstitutes, and our intelligence community made clear this week in public testimony that we will have months of warning before al Qaeda or ISIS could have an external plotting capability from Afghanistan,” he added.

He also said the global terror map has changed “dramatically” since the US went to war in Afghanistan two decades ago, saying that al-Qaeda has moved into Yemen, Syria and Somalia, and ISIS has stretched into Syria and some countries in Africa.

“So to really protect this country from the terrorist threat, we need to allocate our resources and capabilities across a range of countries and continents, not just focus them on Afghanistan,” Sullivan said.