'Hard to explain to anybody': Biden defends US pullout from Afghanistan on 9/11 anniversary

On the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, US President Joe Biden defended America's troop pullout from Afghanistan asserting that there was no other way to have done it.

"If you had told anybody that we are going to spend $300 million a day for 20 years to try to unite the country after we got Bin Laden after Al Qaeda was wiped out there - could Al Qaeda come back? Yes. But guess what, it's already back in other places," the US president said.

Biden while paying tribute to victims of the fourth plane crash which crashed at Shanksville, Pennsylvania on 9/11 said that it wasn't feasible to invade and stay in all the places that Al Qaeda was present.

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"Every place where Al Qaeda is, we're going to invade and have troops stay in? Come on. As I read it, I'm told 70 per cent of American people think it was time to get out of Afghanistan, spending all that money but the flip side of it is- they didn't like the way we got out but it's hard to explain to anybody - how else could you get out?"

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The 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was especially poignant this time coming as it did shortly after the US ended its 20 year-long war in Afghanistan which was started by then president Bush in 2001 to root out Al Qaeda, the terrorist group behind the 9/11 attacks.

However, the chaotic evacuation in Kabul created a huge problem for the Biden administration last month as the Taliban took control of the capital.

A suicide attack at Kabul airport during the US evacuation led to the deaths of  13 US service members further complicating the US pullout. The US finally pulled out of Afghanistan on midnight of August 30, a day ahead of the deadline as the last plane carrying diplomats and troops left the country.

(With inputs from agencies)