The State Department stood by the frenzied 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal in a new statement after House Foreign Affairs Republicans released a scathing 350-page report detailing dysfunction and a lack of planning leading up to the pullout.
Republicans have “issued partisan statements, cherry-picked facts, withheld testimonies from the American people, and obfuscated the truth behind conjecture,” according to a statement put out by a State Department spokesperson.
The report, led by Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Donald Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and laid much blame on a lack of planning by the State Department for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them.
“There are valid and important criticisms of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan and how it concluded, which is why the Department has remained focused on evolving and growing from this moment, learning important lessons and making sustainable changes to crisis operations,” the State Department statement said.
“The Department stands ready to work alongside any Member who expresses serious interest in finding legislative and administrative solutions. However, we will not stand by silently as the Department and its workforce are used to further partisan agendas.”
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The department said the idea that they lacked a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) plan to close operations in Afghanistan is “one of the most persistent misunderstandings.”
The State Department did not initiate a NEO to begin removing U.S. personnel and American allies until Aug. 14, as the Taliban marched into Kabul, and one day before President Ashraf Ghani fled his country in a helicopter full of cash.
There were not enough troops present to begin the NEO until Aug. 19.
The report lays blame on former Afghanistan Ambassador Ross Wilson, who instead of shrinking, increased the embassy’s presence as the security situation deteriorated – despite warnings from military officials.
The statement noted that the U.S. had intended for the embassy in Kabul to remain open after the evacuation – “a decision Congress broadly supported.”
“While U.S. military forces would end combat operations, Department personnel planned to operate out of Embassy Kabul to assist Americans and Afghan allies, coordinate diplomatic and development activity and investments, and help protect and advance U.S. national security interests after August 2021.”
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed officially on Aug. 31, 2021 and has not reopened since.
The statement said that “executing the NEO before [August 15] would have signaled to the people of Afghanistan the U.S. had lost all confidence in the then-Afghan government and precipitated the very collapse we sought to avoid.”
Still, the department admitted it had no idea Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban so quickly. “Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict the government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained.”
McCaul’s investigation found the State Department had been warned repeatedly about the Taliban takeover but refused to draw down its presence in the region.
The department said it had been recommending Americans living in Afghanistan leave since March of that year.
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“In total, between March and August, the Department sent 19 unique messages with warnings to Americans living in Afghanistan to leave, as well as offers of help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets.”
Despite such efforts, nearly 6,000 Americans remained as Kabul fell, mostly dual citizens, prompting an evacuation effort of “unprecedented scope and scale.”
McCaul contends that the State Department left some 1,000 Americans in Afghanistan, but the State Department said it evacuated “almost all” Americans by Aug. 31.
The department said it helped another 500 U.S. citizens evacuate between Aug. 31 and the end of the year – and noted that it helped some 120,000 Americans, Afghans and third-country nationals flee the country in the last two weeks of August 2021.
It also noted that when President Biden took office in January 2021, the special immigrant visa (SIV) program to offer visas to foreign nationals who assist U.S. missions abroad had a backlog of 14,000 and “there had not been a single SIV applicant interview in Kabul in nine months, going back to March 2020.”
