The State Department’s secret after-action review on the Afghanistan withdrawal blamed both President Trump and President Biden for the chaos of the 2021 exit, saying their decisions to set a timetable “had serious consequences” for the Afghan government.
Neither administration gave enough thought to worst-case scenarios, the report said, according to excerpts released by Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
And as the situation deteriorated in the summer of 2021, the State Department failed to have what it called a “7th-floor principal” — a reference to the top floor at department headquarters, where high-level leaders are located — to oversee the response.
Meanwhile, Washington gave conflicting information on which people needed to be relocated out of the country, the after-action report found.
Mr. McCaul, Texas Republican, said he was releasing some of the unclassified parts of the report, which the State Department has hidden from the public, citing some classified material included.
He said the full report undercuts the White House’s own 12-page document released earlier this month that sought to spin Mr. Biden’s decision-making as the only options available once Mr. Trump set the withdrawal in motion.
Mr. McCaul said that’s why the public needs to see as much of the full State Department review as possible.
“Upon review of the document, there does not appear to be any reason an appropriate version could not be made available for public release,” Mr. McCaul said. “I therefore call upon the Department to publicly release the After-Action Review’s already unclassified executive summary, findings, and recommendations sections immediately, and an unclassified version of the complete document within 60 days.”
The withdrawal was a seminal moment for Mr. Biden. His approval rating has been underwater ever since, and it remains a black eye he’ll likely have to explain as he seeks reelection.
Thirteen American troops died in a suicide bomb attack at one of the gates leading into the airport in Kabul, and the airlift operation that brought out Americans and Afghans left behind hundreds of Americans and thousands of qualifying Afghans.
The Biden team’s decision to give up Bagram Air Base and rely solely on the airport in Kabul has come under particular scrutiny, with the after-action review citing that as a limit on U.S. capabilities in 2021.
Faulting both the current and previous presidents undercuts both of their narratives.
Mr. Trump struck a deal with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw U.S. forces by May 2021. He was eager to be the president who ended America’s 20-year commitment.
Mr. Biden, upon taking office, stuck with the process, but delayed the final withdrawal date to Sept. 11, 2021. After criticism of the symbolism of that date, he moved the deadline to Aug. 31.
The Biden administration has presented his decision as one of either finishing the withdrawal or deploying new troops to reengage, indefinitely prolonging the U.S. role in the conflict.
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the White House said in its 12-page report earlier this month.
The State Department, though, said “decisions of both President Trump and President Biden” fueled the faster-than-expected collapse of the Afghan government and spurred the chaos of the U.S. airlift.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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