The Biden-Harris administration pushed forward with a U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 that led to disastrous consequences over concerns and warnings from numerous sources, according to a newly released report from the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) released the findings of his years-long investigation on Monday, faulting President Joe Biden for pushing forward with the Afghanistan pullout and Vice President Kamala Harris for backing the decision.
“The Biden-Harris administration was determined to withdraw from Afghanistan, with or without the Doha Agreement and no matter the cost. Accordingly, they ignored the conditions in the Doha Agreement, pleas of the Afghan government, and the objections by our NATO allies, deciding to unilaterally withdraw from the country,” the report says.
The report also focuses on the timing of the administration’s declaration of a noncombatant emergency evacuation (NEO) in mid-August, well into the Taliban’s military reconquest of Afghanistan and after the group had reached Kabul. The lateness of the declaration threw evacuation plans for tens of thousands of stranded Americans and Afghan allies into chaos.
“The Biden-Harris administration prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel on the ground,” the report says. “The Biden-Harris administration’s failure to prepare for a NEO and order a timely NEO created an unsafe environment at HKIA, exposing U.S. Defense Department and State Department personnel to lethal threats and emotional harm.
“As a result, 13 U.S. servicemembers were murdered by a terrorist attack on August 26, 2021. It was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2012,” the report continued, referencing the terror attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate. A suicide bomber with the terror group ISIS-K detonated his device and killed 13 U.S. troops along with 170 Afghans.
Democrats on the Foreign Affairs Committee, led by ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, released a separate report to counter the GOP investigation’s findings. Meeks accused McCaul of playing politics with the Afghanistan withdrawal report. The chairman released the report just ahead of the first presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Trump made the Afghanistan withdrawal a cornerstone of his attacks on Biden before he dropped out, and Trump has since shifted fire to Harris since she took up the Democratic nomination. Harris has bragged that she was “last” in the room when Biden made the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, and that she supported that decision.
McCaul’s report also faulted the Trump administration for negotiating the Doha agreement to withdraw from Afghanistan without input from the Afghan government.
The White House attacked McCaul’s report as “partisan” and “based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases.”
“As we have said many times, ending our longest war was the right thing to do and our nation is stronger today as a result,” White House spokeswoman Sharon Yang said in a statement, according to The Hill.
McCaul’s investigation has been criticized by its former senior investigator, Jerry Dunleavy, who resigned from the investigation in protest. Dunleavy accused McCaul and the committee investigation of not pursuing leads and missing numerous chances to hold officials responsible for missteps and blunders during the withdrawal.
