The White House has attributed most of the blame for the disorderly withdrawal of the U.S. military from Afghanistan in 2021 to the previous administration, according to a summary of classified reports made public on Thursday by the State and Defense departments. The document, which presents after-action reports assessing the much-criticized withdrawal, claims that President Joe Biden was "severely constrained" by circumstances established by his predecessor, President Donald Trump. During a press briefing on Thursday, John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, acknowledged that although the President's intention was always to end the war, the previous administration's decisions and lack of planning significantly limited the available options.
The 12-page summary attributes a series of troop reductions from Afghanistan and the 2020 Doha Agreement with the Taliban, which committed the United States to withdrawing all American forces by May 2021, to Trump. The document states that during the transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, there were no plans provided on how to carry out the final withdrawal or evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. As a result, when President Biden took office on January 20, 2021, the Taliban had gained the strongest military position they had held since 2001, controlling or contesting almost half of the country, according to the summary.
The summary released by the White House also mentioned that in May 2021, the U.S. intelligence community had assessed that Kabul would likely not be under significant pressure until late 2021 after U.S. troops left, while the U.S. had only 2,500 troops on the ground - the lowest number since 2001. Furthermore, President Biden faced President Trump's deadline to withdraw all U.S. forces by May 2021, or risk the Taliban's resumption of attacks on U.S. and allied troops. According to Kirby, no U.S. agency had predicted that the Taliban would take over so rapidly, nor that the Afghans would fail to fight for their country, particularly after 20 years of American assistance.
It is likely that House Republicans will employ the classified reports to intensify their inquiries into the Biden administration's handling of the military withdrawal from Afghanistan. In response to John Kirby's remarks during Thursday's White House press briefing, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, a Republican lawmaker, issued a statement condemning the administration's handling of the withdrawal. He described Kirby's comments as disgraceful and insulting, asserting that President Biden had made the decision to withdraw and had even chosen the specific date, making him responsible for the significant planning and execution failures.
Chaos Caused by a Lack of Clarity
According to aid groups and evacuees, a significant amount of the chaos during the withdrawal occurred due to inconsistent policies regarding which Afghans were permitted to board evacuation flights from the country. This inconsistency has left some Afghans, including interpreters and other individuals who supported the U.S. military, vulnerable to potential retaliation by the Taliban. The imagery of numerous desperate Afghans chasing a U.S. military plane departing from Hamid Karzai International Airport, clinging to the landing gear, and some tragically falling to their deaths, has come to symbolize the withdrawal and elicited substantial criticism of the administration.
Kirby acknowledged that the initial days were challenging due to the absence of a force presence at the airport but praised the subsequent establishment of a remarkable and substantial evacuation process. According to him, during one phase of the evacuation, a plane carrying Americans and Afghans left every 48 minutes, and not a single mission was missed.
Despite the evacuation of over 124,000 American citizens, permanent residents, and Afghans, some aircraft left empty while thousands of people were left stranded in Kabul. Aid groups have attributed problems with the airlift mainly to inconsistent U.S. policies and a lack of coordination between the State Department and the Pentagon. Consequently, vulnerable Afghans were left behind while those who were not at risk were evacuated. Mark Jacobson, who played a role in organizing the evacuation efforts out of Afghanistan, said that while some elements of the State Department and Defense Department did an incredible job, they did so despite a lack of interagency coordination and incoherent direction from the White House. Jacobson served in Afghanistan as a naval intelligence officer in 2006 and as the deputy NATO representative and deputy political adviser at the International Security Assistance Force from 2009-2011.
The White House acknowledged the need to prioritize earlier evacuations in deteriorating security situations in its summary of the Afghanistan withdrawal. The summary noted that lessons from Afghanistan have been used to improve evacuation procedures in other countries such as Ethiopia and Ukraine. While this is seen as a positive step, Mark Jacobson, who assisted in organizing evacuees out of Afghanistan, said that it remains disturbing that too many brave Afghans are still stuck in camps in the UAE and other third countries without any hope of getting to the United States, and families are still left behind in Afghanistan.
Avoiding Regret: The Justification of Choices Made
President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw forces from Afghanistan after a two-decade-long war has been met with mixed reactions. While some have praised the move as a long-overdue end to a costly conflict, others have criticized the chaotic and deadly withdrawal that ensued. Despite this criticism, both President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have stood firm in their decision, stating that they have "no regrets."
The U.S. military's presence in Afghanistan began in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which were planned by the Al-Qaeda terrorist group based in Afghanistan. The initial goal of the U.S. was to dismantle Al-Qaeda and remove the Taliban, the group that had provided the terrorist organization with a safe haven in Afghanistan. While the U.S. was initially successful in achieving these goals, the war in Afghanistan became increasingly complex and protracted.
Over the course of the next two decades, the U.S. spent an estimated $2 billion and lost some 2,400 American lives fighting in Afghanistan. Despite this heavy investment, the Taliban continued to control large parts of the country, and the Afghan government remained unstable and corrupt. In April 2021, President Biden announced his decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The withdrawal was not without its challenges, and the U.S. was met with unexpected resistance from the Taliban, which quickly took control of much of the country as U.S. forces began to leave. The situation was made worse by a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, which killed 13 American soldiers and 169 Afghans.
Despite these difficulties, President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin have both maintained that they have no regrets about the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. During a press briefing in August 2021, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said that the president was "very proud of the manner" in which his administration conducted the withdrawal. Kirby also stated that the reviews done voluntarily by the departments show "how seriously the president felt about learning lessons from this withdrawal."
While many have criticized the chaotic and deadly withdrawal, others have argued that it was long overdue. In an op-ed for The New York Times, former Senator George Mitchell argued that "it was time to bring our troops home," and that "the tragic and chaotic end to the war should not obscure the significant progress that was made in Afghanistan." Mitchell went on to argue that "the war was a costly mistake that has left the United States less safe, less respected and less effective around the world."
Others have criticized the withdrawal as a failure, arguing that the U.S. has abandoned its allies and left vulnerable Afghans behind. In an op-ed for The Washington Post, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice argued that "the images of chaos and confusion" in Afghanistan "are a warning to the world that the United States is no longer the reliable partner it once was." Rice went on to argue that the U.S. has "betrayed its Afghan partners" and that "the abandonment of Afghanistan sends a message to the world that will have grave consequences for American national security and for our allies and partners."
Despite the criticism, President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin have stood firm in their decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. In a statement following the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport, President Biden stated that "we will not be deterred by terrorists, we will not let them stop our mission, we will continue the evacuation." While the situation in Afghanistan remains uncertain, it is clear that the U.S. has ended its two-decade-long war in the country, and that President Biden and Defense Secretary Austin have no regrets about their decision to do so.