Biden administration blames chaotic Afghan pull-out on Trump
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
US President Joe Biden's administration has blamed its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on his predecessor, Donald Trump, in a new report.
A 12-page summary of the report says Mr Biden was "severely constrained" by Mr Trump's decisions, including a 2020 deal with the Taliban to end the war.
But the report also acknowledges that the government should have begun the evacuation of civilians earlier.
Mr Trump responded that the White House was playing a "disinformation game".
The deadly pull-out in August 2021 ended America's longest war.
Thirteen US soldiers and nearly 200 Afghans were killed as US troops scrambled to evacuate more than 120,000 people in a matter of days.
A review of decisions and actions leading up to the withdrawal, conducted by the State Department and the Pentagon, was sent privately to Congress on Thursday.
Republicans in the US House of Representatives, who are investigating the pull-out, had been demanding to see the report for weeks.
The document remains confidential, but a summary of its conclusions - put together by the White House National Security Council with input from President Biden himself - has been made available to the public.
When the Afghan government collapsed, there were desperate scenes at Kabul airport as huge crowds tried to flee the Taliban.
On 26 August, an attack at the airport by two suicide bombers killed 170 Afghans and 13 US soldiers.
US Marine to Congress in March on Afghan pull-out: "There was an inexcusable lack of accountability"
The US carried out a drone strike in Kabul days later, saying it had targeted a suicide bomber, only to admit that the missile had killed 10 civilians, including seven children.
British troops were also involved in the withdrawal, which Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said at the time had put the UK "in a very difficult position".
On Thursday, President Biden's national security spokesman, John Kirby, blamed the chaos on a depleted operation in Afghanistan inherited from the Trump administration.
The report refers to "neglect - and in some cases deliberate degradation" by the Trump administration.
Mr Kirby said that phrase refers to the agreement the former president had struck with the insurgents a year earlier in Qatar to end the war, as well as the drawdown of US troops during Mr Trump's tenure, the freeing of thousands of Taliban prisoners and the hollowing out of the visa program used to evacuate Afghan allies.
"Transitions matter," said Mr Kirby, as he presented a summary of the report. "That's the first lesson learned here. And the incoming administration wasn't afforded much of one."
Mr Trump shot back on social media within hours of the report's release, accusing "Morons in the White House" of playing "a new disinformation game - Blame "TRUMP" for their grossly incompetent SURRENDER in Afghanistan".
"Biden is responsible, no one else!" he said.
Michael McCaul, the top-ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also slammed the administration for a "brazen whitewashing of their failure in Afghanistan".
The report implies that the evacuation of Americans and Afghans who had assisted with the war effort could have started sooner.
"We now prioritize earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation," it says on page seven.
But the report faults the Afghan government and military for these delays, together with US military and intelligence community assessments.
Mr Kirby said that Mr Biden had "acted on the best military judgment and the best assessments from the intelligence community" but "some of those assessments turned out to be wrong".
He refused to say if the president regretted how the withdrawal was carried out, adding: "For all this talk of chaos, I just didn't see it."
Following the fall of Kabul, the Biden administration received searing criticism at home and abroad. Many expressed anger over the abandonment of Afghans and of US weaponry.
Some lessons had been learned from the end of the war in Afghanistan, especially around the failure to predict the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, Mr Kirby said.
He added this had influenced the US policy of supporting Ukraine ahead of Russia's invasion.
At a heated White House press briefing, Mr Kirby was forced to defend the timing of the release just ahead of a holiday weekend in the US.
Pushed on whether any officials involved with the withdrawal would be removed from their posts as a result of the report, Mr Kirby said its purpose "is not accountability".
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Even young children have picked up on it. Now when parents ask their children "who took the cookies from the cookie jar," the answer immediately comes back: "It was Donald Trump!"
Typical shifting of blame by the corrupt Biden administration. Whatever arrangements and dates that the Trump administration had agreed to, it was the responsibility of the inept Biden bunch of clowns to correctly asses the current situation before acting. This disastrous action is Biden's baby...he gave the final OK
That pathetic hypocrite that has the unmitigated gall to call himself our Commander in Chief, and the SECDEF, and the Chairman of the JCS are embarrassments to our military and the nation! Disgusting
He’s the anti Truman. It’s always someone else’s fault
Give it a few minutes and it will be Truman's fault.
Leaving Afghanistan was never going to end well. It is the fault of everyone who crafted the policy we had in the waning years of our presence there.
Leaving Afghanistan was never going to end well.
There was a way it could've ended well, instead of pulling out during the fighting season pull out in the winter preferably before May or later than October, leave the main airbase manned to cover withdrawal and if the Taliban ventured out from the mountains let them know we will still cover for the Afghan military and covering for the Afghan military would give it confidence that they wouldn't be just abandoned like Biden did.
And this bit about being constrained by the previous administration, BIDEN WAS PRESIDENT, he didn't have to do anything the previous president negotiated, which looking back he didn't and the pullout ended terribly.
Funny how the POS in the oval office today signed a multitude of EOs on his first day of office, reversing everything Trump, but had no idea had to change the way the withdrawal happened.
He is a dumbass to the n'th degree.
No, it wasn't. But Brandon the Human Fuck Up Machine screwed the pooch bigly. He is solely responsible for extending the withdrawal deadline- and then withdrawing all US forces before getting US civilians out.
Also, not buying the narrative that Brandon didn't know Afghanistan was going south fast. His discussion with the Afghan president sure doesn't show a great confidence in the military situation there before the collapse.
The author doesn't seem to think that Brandon didn't know things were bad in Afghanistan; but the entire phone call was BS to try and prop up a failing Afghan government. He just wanted enough time after the withdrawal and the collapse to claim it wasn't his fault.
More BS. Brandon has undone all things Trump; but he pretends to follow through on Trump's pact with the Taliban (outside of extending the withdrawal deadline). The Taliban repeatedly violated the terms of the agreement. Brandon didn't hold them accountable once. Brandon wanted out of Afghanistan; and he was getting out of Afghanistan- Trump's deal had nothing to do with it.
Ask Brandon why we are still in Syria and Iraq? Ask him why he hasn't taken stronger actions against Iran to defend our troops there? SSDD from the Brandon administration. But hey, Brandon is sort of, almost, not quite, maybe, kind of, looking for cover from Republicans desperately, all in on Ukraine. Ok, so Ukraine isn't going to get their jet fighters. Nor are they going to get the advanced offensive missile systems (at least not right now, unless Brandon waffles under political pressure). Those tanks they really, really, really, wanted- well they are getting a few- not nearly the amount they wanted or needed. Hope the Germans can cobble together enough of their tanks to make of the difference. A great financial and military hardware quagmire that is going no where; and is draining the US of military resources while China is beating the Taiwan war drums. It almost seems like Brandon is aiding and abetting China.
If indeed Biden did not know Afghanistan was sinking fast and the Taliban were making such huge gains, that speaks volumes about the Pentagon leadership who was supposed to be advising him Austin and Miley each share huge amounts of blame for their piss poor leadership at the top of the military chain of command.
The top of the military chain for that operation was the CENTCOM Commander, GEN Kenneth McKenzie.
There are about 1000 different scenarios where it should have ended better than it did.
Describe one.
easy. start getting our folks out earlier, don't announce a withdrawal date.
Sure. I’m sure nobody would notice the sudden cumulative absence.
you asked , I answered.
sorry it wasn't what you were looking for but oh well.
They all start with the same simple step... You call the Taliban and say "we are definitely leaving but it's going to take longer than we said it was. Tough shit."
Then, you have a staged withdrawal... of everything... behind comprehensive military cover.
You take your time identifying US civilians and Afghani support personnel who will need to be evacuated and relocated and get those people out in an orderly, scheduled, efficient manner. Military personnel are the LAST people to pull out, and they are armed to the teeth with complete air support until they are safely away.
You gather up all the equipment you brought and take it out with you instead of just disabling it and leaving it for your enemy to repair.
You make sure you get everybody that the Taliban will execute if you leave behind. Under no circumstances do you withdraw before you have everybody.
You organize Farsi language support at key intake places. Google Translate doesn't do Farsi, BTW.
You get your shit together in advance so that you don't have families living in tents on the tarmacs from Germany to Arizona because you can't get them processed and into support programs.
Under no circumstances do you fuck around in such a way that the last plane out has standing room only for a 12-hour flight with civilians (including an Afghan security guard, his pregnant wife who would later miscarry and their 3yr old daughter) watching other people shit on the floor of the cargo hold they're in because they're aren't any bathrooms and pass out because they're aren't any seats.
In summary, you prioritize the safety of your people over the feelings of your enemy, and you get shit organized ahead of time.
Sounds easy peasy. I’d say that you should have sent that to Donald Trump when he was in a position to do something, but even he is probably too smart to think all those points are as easily done as said.
You asked and Jack gave you reasonable and detailed responses that you obviously did not comprehend.
What policy was that? Trump had been working on a plan to get the majority of the equipment and personnel out of there in an orderly manner
Biden should have carried out that plan instead of trying to make a political statement.
Really? Tell us about that plan.
Tell us about the waning years policy first
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John asked 1st.
Give me a break, trump couldn't even be bothered to read his daily briefs much less formulate military strategy.
trump already knew more than the generals, he even said so. he should've gone over there and personally negotiated the peace and withdrawal plan.
The question remains then.....why didn't Biden make a plan that made sense??
He's still to blame for the snafu.
That fubar situation happened on Biden's watch so he owns it. Bottom line!
Stop the hatred of Trump. Explain your asshole president. Explain the way he left Afghanistan.
And there are people actually dumb enough to forget that it was Biden that made the decision for the pull out and oversaw how it was carried out. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands of Afghani dead and the Taliban is using US military hardware.
Didn't the Pentagon play a role in the Afghanistan withdrawal? The summary seems to be claiming that the military brass needs a President to do everything for them. I doubt Joe Biden completely turned over the military chain of command when he took office. If that really is the case then the military has become nothing more than a political tool.
Clearly the summarized report is intended to cover military brass. It's the Pentagon that is looking for scapegoats. And the Afghanistan withdrawal was conducted so badly that military brass needs scapegoats up the chain; blaming the boots on the ground won't be sufficient to cover their brass. The same military thinking that resulted in Afghanistan is why Ukraine won't end well, either.
The military thought further reductions absent Taliban living up to their end of the peace agreement risked more attacks on Americans, US credibility worldwide, Afghan military morale and would the Taliban stop negotiating since they saw us leaving anyhow.
Esper didn't want to stay long-term in Afghanistan, but wanted to see a reduction in violence, progress in negotiations and a Taliban pledge renouncing terrorist groups. Esper could convince Trump that after these conditions were met, then a coordinated and deliberate drawdown could be accomplished.
The buck never, ever stops with Biden, now does it?
Blaming Trump is low even for the Biden Admin..
"The buck never, ever stops with Biden, now does it?
Why would it, when it is always so much easier to blame the opposition isn't it?
I still want to know what the Afghan withdrawal would have looked like had the May 1st 2021 deadline been adhered to as negotiated by the Taliban and the Trump Administration.
Biden Administration extended the deadline by 90 days. Should the new administration have just allowed the prior deadline to stand as previously negotiated?