Washington, DC – In a brand new report, Republicans in the US Home of Representatives have positioned the blame for the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan on the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden.
The evaluation by the bulk on the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, launched late on Sunday, mentioned the Biden administration selected “optics over safety” because it oversaw a withdrawal settlement reached by former President Donald Trump and the Taliban in 2020.
Democrats, in the meantime, launched their very own minority report on the 18-month investigation on Monday, accusing Republicans of shutting them out of the probe and selecting partisan politics over the pursuit of fact
The Republican report mentioned the Biden administration “had the data and alternative to take needed steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan authorities”.
Such planning would have allowed Washington to “safely evacuate US personnel, Americans, inexperienced card holders, and our courageous Afghan allies”, mentioned the greater than 350-page report, titled Willful Blindness.
It added that Biden and his vice chairman, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, “misled and, in some situations, straight lied to the American individuals at each stage of the withdrawal” in what amounted to a White Home-led “misinformation marketing campaign”.
The evaluation got here simply earlier than Harris and Trump are to face off on Tuesday of their first presidential debate. Republicans have more and more criticised the Democratic administration over its overseas coverage document, particularly the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Democrats on the committee swiftly condemned the Republicans’ framing, saying in their very own report: “The American individuals deserve the reality.”
“We owe it to them to spotlight the information elicited on this investigation with out undue spin and with respect for the seriousness of the topic and the witnesses who’ve voluntarily testified to us about it,” the Democrats’ report mentioned.
“We should proceed to wrestle with these issues to not rewrite the previous or assign partisan blame, however to determine classes that may assist us higher struggle and finish wars sooner or later.”
Chaotic exit
The 2 reviews are solely the newest evaluations of the tip of the US involvement within the two-decade struggle in Afghanistan. Several government agencies, together with the unbiased Particular Inspector Common for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), have carried out their very own probes.
US involvement in Afghanistan started with coalition troops toppling the Taliban from energy in 2001 within the wake of the September 11 assaults. It ended with the Taliban’s lightning offensive in 2021 as American troops withdrew and the US-backed Afghan authorities crumbled.
The Taliban took management of Kabul on August 15, 2021, simply days earlier than the final US troopers left the nation.
Whereas the Biden administration had pushed again an earlier withdrawal date agreed to by the Trump administration, the ultimate days of the withdrawal devolved into chaos.
The disarray turned notably lethal on August 26, 2021, when an attack by ISIL (ISIS) outdoors the Kabul airport – the place tens of 1000’s of Afghans had gathered in hopes of boarding a Western evacuation flight – killed at the very least 170 Afghans and 13 US navy personnel.
The withdrawal additionally left a whole lot of 1000’s of weak Afghans – a lot of whom had labored straight with US forces – within the lurch, prompting an ongoing refugee crisis.
In February 2023, a report by SIGAR mentioned actions by each the the Trump and Biden administrations “in the end accelerated the collapse” of the Western-backed Afghan navy and authorities.
Biden administration responds
For its half, the Biden administration has broadly defended its determination to go ahead with the withdrawal. It has given solely muted acknowledgement to shortcomings in its execution.
As a substitute, the administration has largely emphasised Trump’s function in reaching the preliminary cope with the Taliban, which White Home officers have criticised for imposing an unrealistic timeline whereas sidelining the Afghan authorities.
On Monday, White Home spokesperson Sharon Yang mentioned the Republican report was based mostly on “cherry-picked information, inaccurate characterisations and pre-existing biases”, based on The Related Press information company.
In a prolonged assertion responding to the Republican report, the Division of State additionally mentioned the Trump deal “was, and stays a flawed settlement that hampered efforts to finish the struggle via negotiations amongst Afghans” and that Biden entered workplace to discover a “full lack of planning for a withdrawal”.
The State Division additionally pushed again on claims within the Republican report that the Biden administration relied on “severely restricted” enter from officers on the bottom in Afghanistan earlier than the withdrawal in addition to claims that US officers rewrote reviews to water down safety warnings.
The Republican report cited witness testimony and data collected all through the probe.
In its assertion, the State Division mentioned “it stands able to work alongside any member [of Congress] who expresses critical curiosity to find legislative and administrative options”.
“Nonetheless, we won’t stand by silently because the division and its workforce are used to additional partisan agendas.”
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, who led the investigation, has denied the report’s launch was timed to impression the November 5 presidential election.
Its launch comes as Republican candidate Trump has sharpened assaults in search of to tie Harris to the Afghanistan withdrawal. The previous president has often featured relations of US troopers killed through the evacuation at his marketing campaign occasions.
“This isn’t about politics to me – it by no means has been,” McCaul mentioned in an announcement.
“It’s about attending to the underside of what occurred so we will make sure that it by no means occurs once more. And it’s about discovering who was liable for this disaster to allow them to lastly, after three lengthy years, be held accountable.”