WASHINGTON, Sep 09 : The U.S. Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a lengthy report Sunday evening on its investigation into the hasty American withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, with the report detailing preparation failures and department-level mistakes that led to the deaths of 13 soldiers.<\/p>\n
The report claims that \u201cAmerica\u2019s credibility on the world stage was severely damaged\u201d with the withdrawal and that President Joe Biden failed to mitigate the \u201clikely consequences of the decision\u201d to withdraw, made by the previous administration of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Political observers noted that he report has rekindled criticism over the US\u2019 longest war, just months before the presidential election in November.<\/p>\n
The report, a result of a three-year investigation led by Representative Michael McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, slams the Biden administration on many counts, including for its delayed decision to evacuate non-combatants \u2014 formally ordered only on Aug. 16.<\/p>\n
The Doha agreement, which paved the way for the US withdrawal, was signed in February of 2020 by former President Trump. The deal was agreed to between the Trump administration and the Taliban, without involving the then-government of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Biden has been criticized for pushing through the agreement without holding the Taliban to conditions of the deal and ensuring a cease-fire between the group and the government in Kabul.<\/p>\n
\u201cBiden\u2019s decision to withdraw all US troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha agreement, or the advice of his senior national security advisors or our allies,\u201d the report claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather, it was premised on his longstanding and unyielding opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmerica\u2019s credibility on the world stage was severely damaged after we abandoned Afghan allies to Taliban reprisal killings \u2014 the people of Afghanistan we had promised to protect,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
Moreover, the Taliban\u2019s forceful retaking of Kabul has \u201cincreased threats to our homeland security, tarnished standing abroad for years to come, and emboldened enemies across the globe,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Sharon Yang, a White House spokesperson, said the report was based on \u201ccherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and preexisting biases.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of the bad deal former President Trump cut with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan by May of 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable position,\u201d to either ramp up the war against a strengthened Taliban, or end it, Yang said.<\/p>\n
House Democrats said in a statement that the report by their Republican colleagues ignored facts about Trump\u2019s role.<\/p>\n
Previous investigations conducted on the withdrawal, like the US State Department\u2019s report released in 2023, have placed blame on both the Trump and Biden administrations.<\/p>\n
Democrats also questioned the timing of the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf they have had three years to assess what happened, why are they delivering a report after Labour Day in a presidential election year?\u201d Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked on Saturday, before the report was released.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, this administration made the decision not to allow this war to be inherited by a fifth president and to end that conflict,\u201d he told US news channel CNN.<\/p>\n
President Biden has previously defended his actions to make a rapid exit from the war-torn country and refused to take blame.<\/p>\n
The Republican-authored report comes soon after Trump, who is the party\u2019s nominee for the November election, visited the Arlington military cemetery outside Washington and posed for photographs with the relatives of US service members who were killed in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
The visit led to an altercation with Arlington staff, one of whom has said she was verbally abused by Trump aides when she tried to make them aware of regulations about taking photographs and videos at the cemetery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, Sep 09 : The U.S. Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a lengthy report Sunday evening on its investigation into the hasty American withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, with the report detailing preparation failures and department-level mistakes that led to the deaths of […]<\/p>\n
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