In his first comments since the Taliban took control of the Afghan capital, Kabul, President Joe Biden said on Monday that the collapse of the Afghan government amid the Taliban's rapid advance "did unfold more quickly than we anticipated".
"I stand squarely behind my decision," Biden said in the televised address, however.
"If anything, the developments of the past week reinforce that ending US 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.
"Our mission Afghanistan was never supposed to be about nation-building. It was never supposed to be to create a unified, centralized democracy. Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what it has always been - preventing a terrorist attack on [the] American homeland."
Biden's comments come after chaotic scenes at Kabul airport, where thousands of Afghans have gathered in a desperate attempt to leave the country amid the Taliban's rapid advance.
Videos shared on social media on Monday showed groups of people running alongside a US military jet as it prepared to depart from the airport in the capital. Another clip appeared to show at least two people falling from the sky after the plane had taken off, according to Al Jazeera.
US officials have said they remain committed to evacuating Afghans, including those who aided the country's military during its years-long mission in the country and have been approved for a special immigration visa.
Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane, reporting from the Pentagon in Washington, DC, on Monday, said the US military has taken over command of Afghan airspace.
"But they can't get any planes in or out until they get the people off the runways and the tarmac," she reported, adding that the US is trying to get another 500 soldiers in to help with the evacuation, but that cannot happen unless the airfield is clear.
The US has said it plans to evacuate 22,000 Afghans with special immigrant visas and their family members - a process that is expected to take several days, with about 5,000 people evacuated daily - but that has yet to begin, Culhane said.
Afghans cling to moving US Air Force jet in desperate bid to flee
Extraordinary footage of Afghans clinging on to a United States Air Force plane in a desperate bid to flee the country have been described as the "defining images" of the decades-long military intervention by Western powers, Al Jazeera reported Monday.
Videos shared widely on social media on Monday showed hundreds of people running alongside a US military jet as it prepared to depart Kabul airport.
One video showed several people climbing onto the plane as it progressed down the airport's runway, some of whom appeared to be hanging off its moving front wheel. Another horrifying clip appeared to show at least two people falling from the sky after the plane has taken off.
Hours earlier, five people were killed as chaos broke out in the terminals of Kabul International Airport and on the tarmac after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan's capital.
Merkel says Germany may need to rescue 10,000 people from Afghanistan
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