In last week‘s blog, I discussed how Afghanistan has just been declared by the United Nations to be “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” following its takeover by the brutal Taliban. It was, of course, Joe Biden‘s bullheaded decision to pull ALL US troops from that country that directly led to this unhappy state of affairs.
As you may know, I’m a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and serve as the Ranking Republican (Lead Republican) on the Asia and Pacific Subcommittee. Our committee has within its jurisdiction many countries – one of them being Afghanistan.
Since it has been one year since the pullout from Afghanistan, after thoroughly studying all the facts and circumstances surrounding the withdrawal, Republicans on the Foreign Affairs Committee released an interim report assessing the Biden administration’s withdrawal, entitled “A Strategic Failure” (view the full report). In this week’s blog, recognizing and respecting your time constraints, I’ll hit on the high points of the report.
First, Joe Biden and his acolytes consistently blamed the previous Trump administration for forcing them to pull out of Afghanistan due to the Doha Agreement with the Taliban. The truth is, that agreement was CONDITIONS-BASED. The Taliban was breaking those conditions, but Biden decided to pull out anyway. He was not bound by Trump’s agreement because the Taliban wasn’t meeting the terms it had agreed to.
Second, Biden claimed that his top generals never recommended to him that at least SOME US troops remain in Afghanistan. In fact, General Mark Milley and General Kenneth “Frank” Mackenzie both testified under oath that they recommended a force of 2500 to 4500 US troops stay in Afghanistan to support the Afghan government and army, and to make sure the country didn’t fall to the Taliban, which of course ultimately happened.
Perhaps most appalling of all was the Biden administration‘s constant reassurances that they would make sure the women and girls of Afghanistan would be protected. How’d they do on that? Here’s what Ambassador Kelley Curie, formally of the State Department’s Office of Global Women’s Issues, had to say – “This is the legacy of the Biden administration in Afghanistan: failing to listen to the Afghan women who warned that the Taliban still were the same monsters, and who instead partnered with those monsters on a botched evacuation that cost Afghan women everything, and shamed our nation.” That really says it all.
Biden and his spokespeople during the pullout debacle lied to the American people over and over. We were told the evacuation was progressing well. It wasn’t. 13 American service members and hundreds of Afghan civilians were killed. Others were detained, beaten, and tortured when they tried to evacuate.
We were told roads to the airport were open when they weren’t. We were told fewer than 100 Americans didn’t make it out, when over 1000 were stranded in a country now under the brutal reign of the Taliban.
The bottom line is, as a result of the Biden administration‘s chaotic pullout, the United States is less safe. Our allies don’t trust us as much. The people of Afghanistan, particularly women and girls, have been condemned to a life many consider not worth living. And Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for terrorists to gather and plot against the United States and our allies.
And it was completely avoidable. But unfortunately, Joe Biden didn’t, and still doesn’t, care.