On the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul that led to the sudden mass evacuation of thousands of displaced Afghans, Republicans on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee released a dossier outlining how the operation was handled. The strongly worded 121-page report pulls no punches. “Choices made in the corridors of power in DC,” he says, “have led to tragic but avoidable results: 13 dead soldiers, American lives still at great risk, increased threats to our homeland security, tarnished abroad for the next years and encouraged enemies all over the world.” It claims President Joe Biden’s administration waited “a few hours before the Taliban took over Kabul” to make key evacuation decisions. “Very little has been done to prepare for the Taliban’s takeover of the country” or the evacuation, he said. And he also claimed that despite acknowledging for months that their failure to evacuate represented a significant security risk, the government had failed to make “any effort to prioritize the evacuation of US-trained Afghan commandos and other elite units that possess sensitive knowledge of US military operations’. . Analysis: Was misinformation to blame for the Afghanistan fiasco? Many of these personnel, he continued, “were forced to seek refuge in Iran where they could be used to inform.” The report claims that even President Biden’s own officials have described the end of the US presence in Afghanistan as a “strategic failure” and an “ugly final phase.” More than 15,000 Afghans and British nationals were evacuated from the city by Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force personnel in what Defense Secretary Ben Wallace described as “the biggest British evacuation since the Second World War”. Subscribe to Out Of Afghanistan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Spreaker In its findings, the panel claims that President Biden favored an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan after consulting with senior US military advisers and allies. But it says: “There is ample evidence, including direct testimony from US military leaders and top NATO allies, that they supported a continued treaty-based deployment in Afghanistan.” This meant maintaining an advisory and counterterrorism mission of 2,500 US military personnel alongside 6,000 mostly NATO forces. The report further argues: • At the height of the evacuation, only 36 US consular officials were on the ground in Kabul, despite having to process more than 100,000 evacuees • About 1,450 Afghan children were removed without their parents • Problems during the evacuation were compounded by mixed messages from the State Department to American and Afghan allies on the ground and by a lack of adequate equipment and personnel at the airport. Image: President Biden pauses as he is asked about the Kabul airport bombings that killed at least 12 military personnel shortly before the evacuation President Biden called the operation a “tremendous success” that has flown more than 124,000 Americans and Afghans to safety and ended an “endless” war that has killed an estimated 3,500 American and allied troops and hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Then, he told the American people: “Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan – the longest war in American history. Read more: One year after Taliban takeover, crisis grips Afghanistan’s biggest children’s hospital The Taliban had promised ‘amnesty for all’ – but are responsible for most violence against civilians From Kabul to Bristol: Life as an Afghan refugee a year after the Taliban takeover The mission was a ‘tremendous success’ “We have completed one of the largest airlifts in history…more than twice what most experts thought possible. “No nation—no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States has had the ability and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today. “The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals.” The foreign affairs committee of the US House of Representatives (lower house) consists of 27 Democrats and 24 Republicans, but the report was written only by the “minority” party, the Republicans.
