The Afghan government released roughly 5,000 Taliban prisoners after the Doha agreement as a condition of having peace talks with the Taliban. 'General sense of degradation and neglect' The agreement gave the Taliban significant legitimacy and has been blamed by analysts for undercutting the U.S.-backed government, which would collapse so quickly a year later. withdrawal, Biden has blamed the February 2020 agreement Trump reached with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, saying it boxed the U.S. The Taliban initially declared an 'amnesty' across Afghanistan and urged women to join their government, a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country. Taliban fighters stand guard at a checkpoint in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul, Aug. Tom Cotton tweeted Thursday that the withdrawal was "an unmitigated fiasco," adding, "Passing the buck in a blame-shifting report won't change that." "We are glad to see acknowledgement of lessons learned and are laser focused on continuing relocation and resettlement operations," VanDiver said in a statement.īut Republican Sen. Shawn VanDiver, a navy veteran and founder of #AfghanEvac, an effort to resettle Afghans fleeing the country, called the NSC report an "important next step." Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was badly wounded in the explosion, told a congressional hearing last month that the withdrawal "was a catastrophe" and "there was an inexcusable lack of accountability." Republicans in Congress have sharply criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal, focusing on the deaths of 13 service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul's airport, which also killed more than 100 Afghans.įormer Marine Sgt. In an apparent attempt to defend its national security decision-making, the Biden administration also notes that it released pre-war warnings over "strong objections from senior officials in the Ukrainian government." Republicans critical THE FIFTH ESTATE Canadian government urged to rescue Afghan interpreters long before American withdrawal, leaked emails reveal "We now prioritize earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation," the White House said. The White House says it simulated worst-case scenarios prior to the February 2022 invasion and moved to release intelligence about Moscow's intentions months beforehand. The White House asserts the mistakes of Afghanistan informed its handling of Ukraine, where the Biden administration has been credited for supporting Kyiv's defence against Russia's invasion. Kirby said of the report that "the purpose of it is not accountability," but rather "understanding" what happened to inform future decisions. "Clearly we didn't get it right," National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday, but sidestepped questions about whether Biden has any regrets for his decisions and actions leading up to the withdrawal. The report does fault overly optimistic intelligence community assessments about the Afghan army's willingness to fight, and says Biden followed military commanders' recommendations for the pacing of the drawdown of U.S. State Department and the Pentagon, which were transmitted privately to Congress on Thursday, were highly classified and would not be released publicly.Ĭrowds of people wait outside the airport in Kabul, August 25, 2021. The administration said detailed reviews conducted by the U.S. The brief document was drafted by the National Security Council at the White House, rather than by an independent entity. military and intelligence community assessments. It does acknowledge that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, and on U.S. policies around the ending of the nation's longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions and asserting that Biden was "severely constrained" by Trump's decisions. The White House publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the so-called "hotwash" of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that brought about some of the darkest moments of Biden's presidency. President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday laid the blame on his predecessor, Donald Trump, for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S.
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