{"id":1961905,"date":"2023-06-30T19:46:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T23:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-report-blames-both-biden-trump-admins-for-bungling-afghanistan-withdrawal\/"},"modified":"2023-06-30T19:48:52","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T23:48:52","slug":"state-department-report-blames-both-biden-trump-admins-for-bungling-afghanistan-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-report-blames-both-biden-trump-admins-for-bungling-afghanistan-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"State Department report faults Biden and Trump for mishandling Afghanistan exit."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fstate-department-report-blames-both-biden-trump-admins-for-bungling-afghanistan-withdrawal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1961905&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0630\/58a34c0b-e6c4-47d5-8bf2-7102232ae682\/audio.mp3?length=8675757&#038;duration=723\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombings at Kabul Airport killed more than 180 people, including 13 members of the United States military, and marked an ugly end to America\u2019s 20-year war against terror in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have clamored for analyses of the blundered withdrawal for nearly two years, although the GOP\u2019s rhetorical chorus has conclusively and uniformly laid sole responsibility for the calamity on the decisions, and alleged distracted indecision, by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats and Biden administration officials have countered that the genesis of the chaotic August 2021 evacuations was laid when former President Donald Trump signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban in February 2020, consenting to deplete, and then totally withdraw, U.S. forces by May 2021, a drawdown they say that fostered the rapid deterioration of the Afghan government and turned a planned, orderly departure into a retreat debacle.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2023\/06\/30\/politics\/state-deparment-afghanistan-withdrawal-report\/index.html\">an 85-page \u2018After Action Report\u2019 (AAR)<\/a> that analyzes the eight-month span between January-August 2021 released by the State Department on June 30, critics on all sides of the blame game are right: decision-makers in both administrations blundered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security,\u201d the AAR states in the first of the report\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/state-department-report-blames-both-biden-trump-admins-for-bungling-afghanistan-withdrawal\/\" title=\"State Department report faults Biden and Trump for mishandling Afghanistan exit.\">28 findings identifying mistakes made<\/a> by administration officials, by intelligence agencies, by the Pentagon, and within the State Department.<\/p>\n<p>The first finding also acknowledges that individual \u201cdecisions of both President Trump and President Biden\u201d are \u201cbeyond the scope of this review,\u201d but reflect a collective pattern that \u201cthere was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michael-mccaul-calls-on-state-department-to-release-report-on-afghanistan-withdrawal\/\" title=\"Michael McCaul calls on State Department to release report on Afghanistan withdrawal\">insufficient senior-level consideration<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nyc-could-lose-thirty-percent-of-its-police-force-fire-department-over-vaccine-mandate\/\" title=\"NYC Could Lose Thirty Percent Of Its Police Force, Fire Department Over Vaccine Mandate\">worst-case scenarios<\/a> and how quickly those might follow\u201d within both administrations\u2019 Afghanistan policies.<\/p>\n<p>The report specifically chides the Biden administration for failing to respond quickly to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-urged-afghan-president-to-change-perception-of-fight-against-taliban\/\" title=\"Biden Urged Afghan President To \u2018Change Perception\u2019 of Fight Against Taliban\">rapidly deteriorating security situation<\/a> in Kabul in the summer of 2021 as the Taliban consolidated control of the country and the Afghan government collapsed. It cites miscommunication between the State Department and the Pentagon, between intelligence assessments and reality on the ground, and between those in Kabul and decision-makers in Washington.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5001502\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2023\/01\/21\/1_21_saving-aziz-afghanistan-evacuation.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tClothes and blood stains of Afghan people who were waiting to be evacuated at the site of the Aug. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-bs-lindsey-graham-calls-biden-the-president-of-empty-promises-for-pledging-to-hunt-down-terrorists\/\" title=\"\u2018What BS\u2019: Lindsey Graham Calls Biden \u2018The President Of Empty Promises\u2019 For Pledging To \u2018Hunt Down\u2019 Terrorists\">26 twin suicide bombs<\/a>, which killed scores of people including 13 U.S. troops, at Kabul airport on Aug. 27, 2021. (WAKIL KOHSAR\/AFP via Getty Images)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h2>Troop \u2018Retrograde\u2019 Accelerated Taliban Rout<\/h2>\n<p>When Biden assumed the presidency in January 2021, there were 2,500 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, down from 13,000 in February 2020 when the Doha deal was signed.<\/p>\n<p>On April 1, 2021, Biden said the United States would not begin withdrawing the last 2,500 combat troops in May as planned, but all would be gone by Aug. 31, 2021, to ensure the proper evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies.<\/p>\n<p>Early that month, only 650 U.S. combat troops remained in Afghanistan, all in Kabul to protect Hamid Karzai International Airport and the U.S. embassy.<\/p>\n<p>The report cites the \u201cretrograde\u201d of U.S. armed forces set in motion by Trump\u2019s Taliban Doha deal as the beginning of the end of the U.S. in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMitigating the loss of the military\u2019s key enablers\u201d was never addressed in any evacuation scenario, which \u201ccompounded the difficulties\u201d undermanned State Department officials found themselves as the Taliban closed in on Kabul and thousands of Afghans seeking to escape swelled around the airport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe speed of that retrograde compounded the difficulties the [State] Department faced,\u201d the report states, citing the decision by the Biden administration to hand Bagram Air Base over to the Afghan government in July meant Hamid Karzai International Airport would be the only avenue for a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cU.S. military planning for a possible NEO had been underway for some time, but the Department\u2019s participation in the NEO planning process was hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the Department had the lead,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the confusion in Kabul can be at least partially attributed to instability within the new Biden administration, the AAR states.<\/p>\n<p>During the January-August 2021 span examined in the AAR \u201cmany critical domestic and overseas Department positions were not filled by Senate-confirmed appointees, but rather career employees serving in an acting capacity\u201d who \u201cdid an outstanding job under difficult circumstances\u201d but were never certain who was in charge of what.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cprolonged gaps in filling senior domestic or chief of mission positions overseas\u201d contributed to the chaos, the report states, citing the then-vacant South and Central Asian Affairs deputy secretary position as an example of leadership voids that hamstrung the State Department and other agencies in Kabul in August 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter how qualified the \u2018acting\u2019 person is, it is not the same as having a confirmed official in position,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4020310\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2021\/09\/28\/US-marine-corps-evacuates-Kabul-airport-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a><br \/>\n\t\tA U.S. Marine passes out water during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 21, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps\/Isaiah Campbell\/Getty Images)<br \/>\n\t<\/figure>\n<h2>Troop \u2018Retrograde\u2019 Accelerated Taliban Rout<\/h2>\n<p>When Biden assumed the presidency in January 2021, there were 2,500 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, down from 13,000 in February 2020 when the Doha deal was signed.<\/p>\n<p>On April 1, 2021, Biden said the United States would not begin withdrawing the last 2,500 combat troops in May as planned, but all would be gone by Aug. 31, 2021, to ensure the proper evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies.<\/p>\n<p>Early that month, only 650 U.S. combat troops remained in Afghanistan, all in Kabul to protect Hamid Karzai International Airport and the U.S. embassy.<\/p>\n<p>The report cites the \u201cretrograde\u201d of U.S. armed forces set in motion by Trump\u2019s Taliban Doha deal as the beginning of the end of the U.S. in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMitigating the loss of the military\u2019s key enablers\u201d was never addressed in any evacuation scenario, which \u201ccompounded the difficulties\u201d undermanned State Department officials found themselves as the Taliban closed in on Kabul and thousands of Afghans seeking to escape swelled around the airport.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe speed of that retrograde compounded the difficulties the [State] Department faced,\u201d the report states, citing the decision by the Biden administration to hand Bagram Air Base over to the Afghan government in July meant Hamid Karzai International Airport would be the only avenue for a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cU.S. military planning for a possible NEO had been underway for some time, but the Department\u2019s participation in the NEO planning process was hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the Department had the lead,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<p>Much of the confusion in Kabul can be at least partially attributed to instability within the new Biden administration, the AAR states.<\/p>\n<p>During the January-August 2021 span examined in the AAR \u201cmany critical domestic and overseas Department positions were not filled by Senate-confirmed appointees, but rather career employees serving in an acting capacity\u201d who \u201cdid an outstanding job under difficult circumstances\u201d but were never certain who was in charge of what.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cprolonged gaps in filling senior domestic or chief of mission positions overseas\u201d contributed to the chaos, the report states, citing the then-vacant South and Central Asian Affairs deputy secretary position as an example of leadership voids that hamstrung the State Department and other agencies in Kabul in August 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo matter how qualified the \u2018acting\u2019 person is, it is not the same as having a confirmed official in position,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n<h2>Intelligence Reports Were Wrong<\/h2>\n<p>The AAR states the State Department relied on a July 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment that concluded Karzai\u2019s Afghan government could survive between six-and-12 months without U.S. troops.<\/p>\n<p>The report cites another U.S. intelligence assessment issued on Aug. 10, 2021, that said Kabul could hold out at least \u201c30 to 90 days.\u201d In reality, it fell five days later.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the sudden collapse of the Afghani government and the Taliban\u2019s entry into Kabul on August 15, 2021,\u201d the report said the State Department was faced with \u201ca task of unprecedented scale and complexity \u2026 to coordinate and execute a massive humanitarian airlift and evacuation from a dangerous and often chaotic environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incorrect intelligence reports and uncertainty within the Biden administration combined to exacerbate the deterioration initiated by the Doha pact, the report said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSenior administration officials had not made clear decisions regarding the universe of at-risk Afghans who would be included by the time the operation started nor had they determined where those Afghans would be taken. That added significantly to the challenges the [State] Department and [Department of Defense] faced during the evacuation,\u201d the AAR states.<\/p>\n<p>The AAR praises individual State Department officials on the ground, noting they \u201cresponded with great agility, determination, and dedication, while taking on roles and responsibilities both domestically and overseas that few had ever anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, the report maintains the State Department specifically and the Biden administration generally should \u201chave been better prepared for a worst-case scenario, especially when it came to planning for a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) with the potential to expand into a large humanitarian airlift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report begins with a statement honoring those lost on Aug. 26, 2021, noting they gave their lives to protect people in what is the largest evacuation in U.S. history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kabul Airport suicide bombings on Aug. 26, 2021, resulted in over 180 deaths, including 13 US military personnel. It marked a grim conclusion to America&#8217;s 20-year fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. Republicans have persistently demanded investigations into the botched withdrawal for almost two years, with their rhetoric now being firmly established.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":509,"featured_media":1961906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1961905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/509"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1961905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1961906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1961905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1961905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1961905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}