Joe Biden defends move to pullout US Forces from Afghanistan

New Delhi : Breaking his silence after days of criticism, Joe Biden defended his decision to move out the US Forces from Afghanistan.

"I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces," he said in a televised address from the White House.

Amid pictures of chaos and desperation coming from Kabul airport as US Air Force plane takes off from the nation, Biden said: "The buck stops with me."

Brushing off criticism that the evacuation is a debacle, he said the priority is to stop a war that had expanded far beyond its initially modest goals of punishing the Taliban for links to Al-Qaeda after 9/11.

"Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation-building," Biden mentioned in his address, vowing that despite the departure of US troops anti-terrorism operations would continue.

Meanwhile, he mentioned that thousands of Americans who have worked with the US Forces during the mission will be evacuated in coming days.

He threatened a "devastating" military response if the Taliban launch attacks in the meantime.