House Republicans on Monday released a scathing report on the Biden administration’s shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, lobbing new criticism at Democrats weeks before a hotly contested presidential election.
The 353-page report, the result of a yearslong probe by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, lays the blame for the chaotic events squarely at the feet of Biden administration officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden himself.
“This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions,” House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at a press conference on Monday. “Some say Saigon was the worst. I say this was.”
Taliban forces rapidly took control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military withdrew three years ago, leaving thousands of Americans and Afghans with ties to the U.S. mission stranded. And 13 U.S. servicemembers were killed in a terrorist attack at Abbey Gate near the airport in Kabul during the massive airlift operation.
The U.S. first agreed to withdraw from Afghanistan through the 2020 Doha Agreement, which was forged by the Trump administration and the Taliban.
According to the report, Biden administration officials were set on ending the 20-year conflict even though the Taliban was not meeting its obligations under the Doha Agreement. Since the departure of U.S. forces, Afghanistan has become a “haven for terrorists” and long-sought gains for Afghan women and girls have disappeared.
“The Biden-Harris administration was determined to withdraw from Afghanistan, with or without the Doha Agreement and no matter the cost,” the report said. “Accordingly, they ignored the conditions in the Doha Agreement, pleas of the Afghan government, and the objections by our NATO allies, deciding to unilaterally withdraw from the country.”
Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee contested that conclusion in a 59-page memorandum released alongside the majority’s investigation. The Doha Agreement, minority staff said, did not include input from the Afghan government and did not require the Taliban to respect the country’s constitution or women’s rights.
Additionally, Democrats said, any pause or reversal of the planned withdrawal would have sparked increasing hostility from the Taliban and prolonged the conflict.
“After achieving our core security objectives, the United States increasingly risked continuing its war in Afghanistan as an untenable, and unnecessary, end in itself,” Democrats wrote in their memorandum. “This risk spurred both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden to take actions during their respective administrations to fully withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan.”
Independent reviews have underscored the extent to which administrations of both parties played a role in the ultimate collapse of the Afghan government. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko in a 148-page report released last year said years of poor planning meant the Afghan military could not operate independently and was doomed to fail once the U.S. had left.
“Once we decided to sign the withdrawal agreement or peace agreement, however you want to phrase it, the die was cast,” he told reporters ahead of his report’s release. “It was only a matter of time before Afghanistan collapsed.”
Republicans have made the withdrawal a key component of their attacks on Biden and Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The report does not provide significant new information about Harris’ role but does allege that she was “the last person in the room” when Biden decided to withdraw all U.S. forces.
“Vice President Harris, despite publicly championing Afghan women’s rights, appears to have been working in lockstep with President Biden behind the scenes to withdraw all U.S. troops no matter the consequence to Afghan women and girls,” the report said.
The Harris campaign, meanwhile, has accused the Republicans of ignoring the Trump administration’s own role in the war’s end and politicizing the deaths of servicemembers. After Trump participated in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery marking the three-year anniversary of the 13 servicemembers’ deaths and filmed a video despite rules barring campaign activity at the site, Harris called the move a “political stunt” that “disrespected sacred ground.”
The Biden administration also forcefully pushed back against the report’s findings Monday. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the report was about “scoring political points” and accused Republicans of cherry-picking comments from interviewed witnesses.
“This investigation had the potential to truly be bipartisan and produce real legislative proposals to better prepare the United States for future presidents and for future parties, for future challenges,” he said. “Instead, the majority chose to seek scandal over substance.”
Both Republicans and Democrats are slated to honor the servicemembers killed in the Abbey Gate terrorist attack at a Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony on Tuesday. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will participate in the event alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
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