Blinken says US troop pullout from Afghanistan ‘doesn’t mean we’re leaving’ Monday, 03 May 2021 7:06 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 03 May 2021 7:47 AM ] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Annapolis, Maryland, on April 19, 2021. Photo by AFP) As the United States officially begins pulling out its troops from war-torn Afghanistan in what President Joe Biden has claimed ending “the forever war”, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says there will still be US presence in Afghanistan even after the American troop pullout is completed. "We've been engaged in Afghanistan for 20 years, and we sometimes forget why we went there in the first place, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11. And we did. Just because our troops are coming home doesn't mean we're leaving. We're not," Blinken said on Sunday.