The State Department stood by the frenzy of 2021 Afghanistan The withdrawal in a new statement came after House Foreign Affairs Republicans released a statement A scathing 350-page report It details the chaos and lack of planning that preceded the team’s withdrawal.
According to a statement released by a State Department spokesperson, Republicans have “issued partisan statements, stolen facts, withheld testimony from the American people, and concealed the truth behind the speculation.”
The report, presented by Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, was disputed Biden’s The claim that his hands were tied by the Doha Agreement Former President Barack Obama said his hands were tied by the Doha Agreement. President Donald Trump The Taliban had set a deadline for the US withdrawal by the summer of 2021, and blamed a lack of planning by the State Department for pulling out Americans and allies while troops were still there to protect them.
“There are legitimate and important criticisms of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan and its conclusion, which is why the department has remained focused on resolving this moment and moving forward, learning important lessons, and making lasting changes to crisis operations.” state Department The statement said.
“The Department stands ready to work with any member who expresses a serious interest in finding legislative and administrative solutions. However, we will not sit idly by as the Department and its employees are used to advance a partisan agenda.”
Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
US failure to gather Taliban intelligence has opened the way to Afghanistan for China and Russia
The department said the idea that they lacked a non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO) plan to wind down operations in Afghanistan is “one of the most persistent misconceptions.”
The State Department did not initiate the NEO to remove US personnel and American allies until August 14, after the Taliban entered Kabul, and a day before President Ashraf Ghani fled his country In a helicopter loaded with cash.
Not enough troops were in place to begin NEO until 19 August.
The report blames former Afghanistan ambassador Ross Wilson, who, despite warnings from military officials, increased rather than reduced embassy presence as the security situation deteriorated.
The statement said the US intended for the embassy in Kabul to remain open after the evacuation — “a decision that Congress broadly supported.”
“While the United States military force Following the end of combat operations, Department personnel plan to operate from the Embassy in Kabul to support Americans and Afghan allies, coordinate diplomatic and development activities and investments, and help protect and advance U.S. national security interests after August 2021.”
The US Embassy in Kabul officially closed on August 31, 2021, and has not reopened since.
The State Department claimed that no one had anticipated that the Taliban takeover would happen so quickly. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
“Implementing the NEO (before August 15) would have signaled to the people of Afghanistan that the United States had lost all confidence in the then-current Afghan government and would have led to the collapse we wanted to avoid,” the statement said.
Still, the department admitted it had no idea Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban so quickly. “Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained there.”
McCaul’s investigation found that the State Department had been repeatedly warned about the Taliban’s takeover but refused to reduce its presence in the region.
The department said it had been recommending that Americans who had been in Afghanistan since March of that year should leave.
A new report from the Republican Party blames the State Department’s lack of planning for evacuating American citizens and their allies, even though troops were still there to protect them. (Ministry of Defence Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
Afghan general says his country has once again become a ‘hotbed of terrorism’
“In total, between March and August, the department sent 19 specific messages to Americans living in Afghanistan warning them to leave, while also offering help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets.”
Despite these efforts, approximately 6,000 Americans, most of them dual citizens, remained there until Kabul was captured, leading to an evacuation operation of “unprecedented scope and scale”.
McCaul argues that the State Department had about 1,000 Americans left in Afghanistan, but the State Department said it had evacuated “virtually all” Americans by August 31.
The department said it helped evacuate another 500 US citizens from the country between August 31 and the end of the year — and said it helped nearly 120,000 Americans, Afghans and third-country nationals flee the country in the last two weeks of August 2021.
Click here to get the Fox News app
It also noted that when President Biden took office in January 2021, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) The program to grant visas to foreign nationals assisting U.S. missions abroad had a backlog of 14,000 applications and “not a single SIV applicant had been interviewed in Kabul in the nine months since March 2020.”
