US House Republicans will release today a long-awaited report criticizing the president from the Democratic Party Joe Biden about the failures surrounding the chaotic and deadly withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan in August 2021, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The report alleges that the administration evacuated non-combat personnel too late, not formally ordering it until August 16, failed to establish communication between agencies and officials in Washington and Kabul, and messed up the departure documentation of Afghan civilians who could have left the country.
This is the result of a three-year investigation led by Republican Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
„Credibility in the US on the world stage has suffered severely since we abandoned our Afghan allies to the Taliban's repressive killings – Afghans to whom we promised protection. And the moral wounds on America's veterans and those still serving remain a stain on this administration's legacy, the report said.
Withdrawal has become a contentious topic ahead of the November 5 US presidential election. Last month, Republican candidate and former head of state Donald Trump filmed a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery during a ceremony honoring the soldiers who died during the evacuation.
Trump during his campaign rallies also criticized Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for withdrawing from Afghanistan, holding them personally responsible for the deaths at the Kabul airport. On August 26, 2021, as U.S. troops tried to help Americans and Afghans flee the country as the Taliban movement took control of the country, a suicide bombing outside the site's entrance killed 13 Americans, cementing the U.S. sense of defeat after two decades of war.
Harris is the Democratic nominee for president.
Democrats insist that part of the blame for the war's messy end, seven months into Biden's presidency, must fall on Trump, who began the withdrawal process by signing an accord with the Taliban in 2020.
„When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan. Days before he left office, the former president ordered a further cut to 2,500, said Congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Republicans dismissed the claim as divisive along party lines, saying Biden could have ignored the Trump deal and accused a number of officials who served during Biden's presidency of allowing the Taliban to renege on their commitments.
About 800,000 US military personnel have served in Afghanistan since the US invasion of the country, triggered by the September 11, 2001 attack in New York, carried out by the Asian country-based Islamic group “Al Qaeda”.
During the war, 2,238 American servicemen died, and another nearly 21,000 were wounded. According to independent research, the number of dead Afghans – civilians and members of local security forces – is over 100 thousand people.
McColl has subpoenaed Secretary of State Anthony Blinken three times to a hearing on the Afghanistan investigation, most recently last week, demanding that he testify in person.