A long-awaited GOP report analyzing the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan paints a picture of a President Biden determined to leave the country but fumbling preparations that set the stage for a chaotic and deadly exit from America’s longest war.
The report from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released in the shadow of the three-year anniversary of the U.S. exit, criticizes the president for a rushed effort undertaken regardless of counsel from allies and advisers that led to unnecessary deaths.
“The evidence proves President Biden’s decision to withdraw all U.S. troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha Agreement, or the advice of his senior national security advisors or our allies. Rather, it was premised on his longstanding and unyielding opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan,” the report states, referencing the Trump administration agreement to leave the country.
The report accuses the Biden administration of failing to see warning signs of how quickly Kabul would fall to the Taliban and delaying the planning for and calling of an evacuation – fearing both the optics of such an exit and further destabilization in the country.
In response, the White House accused Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) of cherry picking details and failing to account for the role of the Trump administration.
“Everything we have seen and heard of Chairman McCaul’s latest partisan report shows that it is based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases that have plagued this investigation from the start. As we have said many times, ending our longest war was the right thing to do and our nation is stronger today as a result,” White House spokeswoman Sharon Yang said in a statement.
“Because of the bad deal former President Trump cut with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan by May of 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable position. He could either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk or finally end our longest war after two decades and $2 trillion spent. The President refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
The report is being released ahead of the first presidential debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump, who has sought to use Afghanistan as a political issue against her.Republicans in general have sought to buttress Trump’s arguments against Harris and Biden over Afghanistan, as the 17-day evacuation from the country marked one of the lower points of the Biden administration.
Just days into the evacuation, the Taliban overtook Kabul, much more quickly than the administration had anticipated. Crowds swelled around Hamid Karzai International Airport, and dramatic images were seen of people falling as they sought to hang on to places exiting the country.
An estimated 100,000 partners of U.S. government efforts were left behind, a figure that swells when taking into account others vulnerable under Taliban rule.
