<p> President Joe Biden, speaking unexpectedly during a visit to the Pennsylvania site of one of the 9/11 plane crashes, again defended the widely criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the US could not "invade" every country where Al-Qaeda is present.</p>.<p>"Could Al-Qaeda come back (in Afghanistan)?" he asked in an exchange with reporters outside a Shanksville fire station. "Yeah. But guess what, it's already back other places.</p>.<p>"What's the strategy? Every place where Al-Qaeda is, we're going to invade and have troops stay in? C'mon."</p>.<p>Biden said it had always been a mistake to think Afghanistan could be meaningfully united.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/trump-slams-afghanistan-withdrawal-incompetence-on-9/11-anniversary-1029373.html" target="_blank">Trump slams Afghanistan withdrawal 'incompetence' on 9/11 anniversary</a></strong></p>.<p>Biden said American forces had achieved their central mission when a special forces team killed Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in a compound in Pakistan.</p>.<p>The US intervention in Afghanistan began after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, eventually drawing the US — joined by key allies — into its longest war.</p>.<p>Biden had begun his day Saturday in Manhattan, attending a televised ceremony marking the September 11 attacks there.</p>.<p>He had not been scheduled to make public remarks. But asked by a reporter about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and a subsequent drop in his poll numbers, he shrugged it off.</p>.<p>"I'm a big boy," Biden said. "I've been doing this a long time."</p>.<p>But he also alluded clearly to one source of that criticism, former President Donald Trump.</p>.<p>Referring to "the stuff that's coming out of Florida," he mentioned a recent statement that if General Robert E. Lee — who led the troops of the pro-slavery Confederacy during the Civil War — "had been in Afghanistan, we would have won."</p>.<p>The assertion about Lee came in a statement from Trump, who now lives in Florida.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>
<p> President Joe Biden, speaking unexpectedly during a visit to the Pennsylvania site of one of the 9/11 plane crashes, again defended the widely criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the US could not "invade" every country where Al-Qaeda is present.</p>.<p>"Could Al-Qaeda come back (in Afghanistan)?" he asked in an exchange with reporters outside a Shanksville fire station. "Yeah. But guess what, it's already back other places.</p>.<p>"What's the strategy? Every place where Al-Qaeda is, we're going to invade and have troops stay in? C'mon."</p>.<p>Biden said it had always been a mistake to think Afghanistan could be meaningfully united.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/trump-slams-afghanistan-withdrawal-incompetence-on-9/11-anniversary-1029373.html" target="_blank">Trump slams Afghanistan withdrawal 'incompetence' on 9/11 anniversary</a></strong></p>.<p>Biden said American forces had achieved their central mission when a special forces team killed Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011 in a compound in Pakistan.</p>.<p>The US intervention in Afghanistan began after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, eventually drawing the US — joined by key allies — into its longest war.</p>.<p>Biden had begun his day Saturday in Manhattan, attending a televised ceremony marking the September 11 attacks there.</p>.<p>He had not been scheduled to make public remarks. But asked by a reporter about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and a subsequent drop in his poll numbers, he shrugged it off.</p>.<p>"I'm a big boy," Biden said. "I've been doing this a long time."</p>.<p>But he also alluded clearly to one source of that criticism, former President Donald Trump.</p>.<p>Referring to "the stuff that's coming out of Florida," he mentioned a recent statement that if General Robert E. Lee — who led the troops of the pro-slavery Confederacy during the Civil War — "had been in Afghanistan, we would have won."</p>.<p>The assertion about Lee came in a statement from Trump, who now lives in Florida.</p>.<p><strong>Check out latest DH videos here</strong></p>