Welcome to the lead. I'm Jake Kapper and we begin today with the world lead. President Biden just minutes ago announcing the end of America's longest war beginning on May 1st with a plan he says to remove the remaining 2500 US service members in Afghanistan before September 11th of this year, which will be the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks that led the US into this war to begin with.

And America's longest war. We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago.

That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.

Andrew and American service members have been killed in Afghanistan in more than 20,000 physically wounded to say nothing of other kinds of wounds and to say nothing of the losses experienced by our NATO allies and the Afghan people.

Today, President Biden says U.S. diplomatic and humanitarian efforts will continue in Afghanistan, though administration officials at least for now tell CNN. There's no potential for the September 11 deadline to be extended.

Later in the day, standing amid the graves of those American service members killed in Afghanistan in section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, President Biden said this was not a difficult decision.

Quote, we went for two reasons, he said, get rid of bin Laden and to end the safe haven. I never thought we were there to somehow unify Afghanistan. It's never been done.

We're covering this story with our correspondence from the White House to Kabul Afghanistan.

Let's start with CNN's Caitlin Collins and Caitlin, just moments ago, President Biden was at section 16 in Arlington, playing his respects to the service members killed there.

Of course, Jake's section 60 is where so many of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq now rust.

And so that was the first stop that you saw President Biden make after making this announcement at the White House earlier.

And while he was at Arlington National Cemetery, Jake, the president was asked if this was a hard decision to make and he looked at the reporters and he said no to him, it was absolutely clear.

An end in sight for America's longest war.

We want to have Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago.

That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021.

President Biden announcing this afternoon, Hill withdrawn all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by September 11th, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that brought them there.

It's time to end America's longest war. It's time for American troops to come home.

Overruling warnings from the Pentagon, Biden chose a full withdrawal with no strings attached to the political conditions on the ground.

I'm now the fourth United States president to preside over American true presence in Afghanistan.

I will not pass this responsibility onto a fifth.

Biden spent months deciding whether to meet a May 1 deadline set by former President Trump.

Now he must grapple with an intelligence assessment warning the Afghan government will struggle to keep the Taliban at bay.

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