A new report from the House Foreign Affairs Committee under GOP leadership scrutinizes the Biden-Harris administration for its role in the U.S. forces’ departure from Afghanistan in 2021. This move, as detailed in the document released by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Chairman of the committee, had far-reaching and negative impacts, allegedly due to the administration’s disregard for numerous advisories and concerns.
Rep. McCaul’s investigation, which took years to compile, accuses President Joe Biden of pressing ahead with the pullout from Afghanistan and Vice President Kamala Harris of supporting this decision. The report criticizes, “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.”
It also sheds light on what it considers ill-timed actions by the administration, particularly its late noncombatant emergency evacuation (NEO) announcement made in mid-August during the Taliban’s rapid gain over Afghanistan, right up to its capital. This tardiness, according to the committee, threw the evacuation efforts of countless Americans and Afghan partners into disarray.
According to the report, “The Biden-Harris administration prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel on the ground,” and further added, “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.”
The report emphasizes the significant consequences of these alleged oversights, particularly highlighting a tragic event on August 26, 2021, where “13 U.S. servicemembers were murdered by a terrorist attack,” marking it the deadliest day for U.S. forces in the region in nearly a decade.
To counter these claims, Democrats on the committee, led by Rep. Gregory Meeks from New York, released their own report. Meeks criticized McCaul for what he perceives as politicizing the investigation, notably timed with the presidential debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump, during which Afghanistan’s withdrawal was a focal point.
The GOP’s report didn’t spare the previous administration either, critiquing the Trump administration for how it handled the negotiations of the Doha agreement without involving the Afghan government.
The White House dismissed McCaul’s findings, with spokesperson Sharon Yang defending the decision to withdraw and labeling the report as “partisan” and tarnished by “cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases.”
Questions have also been raised regarding the integrity of the investigation itself, with Jerry Dunleavy, the investigation’s former senior investigator, departing due to concerns over how the inquiry was conducted, accusing it of overlooking opportunities to hold officials accountable for the withdrawal’s failures.
