US Republicans blame Biden administration for Afghanistan withdrawal chaos

Report focuses on previous findings about the 2021 pull-out and ISIS attack that killed 13 US soldiers

Afghans prepare to board a US military plane at Kabul airport on August 21, 2021, amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Getty Images

Republicans in the US Congress on Monday published a report blaming President Joe Biden's administration for the chaotic end to the Afghanistan war and the deaths of 13 American troops, but Democrats said the review glossed over details of former president Donald Trump's deal with the Taliban before the withdrawal.

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Republicans on the House foreign affairs committee have been conducting interviews and holding hearings seeking to undermine Mr Biden.

The President ordered the withdrawal of US forces after 20 years of war, leading to a two-week evacuation effort that left thousands of American citizens and allies stranded in Kabul.

The withdrawal has damaged US credibility, committee chairman Mike McCaul said, and emboldened America's enemies, making it more susceptible to terror attacks from groups in Afghanistan.

"And the moral injury to our veterans and service members is generational," Mr McCaul said in a statement. "The administration’s unconditional surrender and the abandonment of our Afghan allies who fought alongside the US military against the Taliban – their brothers in arms – is a stain on this administration."

The pull-out will be remembered for scenes of desperate Afghans storming the runway at Kabul's airport and clinging on to the exterior of departing military planes, and for the ISIS attack on August 26 that killed 13 US troops and about 170 Afghans.

The 245-page report is largely a retelling of other statements and reviews already published by the Republican-led foreign affairs committee. Democrats say its release is an attempt to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for the withdrawal in the run-up to the November 5 election.

"With the ascendance of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket ... Republicans now claim she was the architect of the US withdrawal, though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the committee’s interview transcripts," said Gregory Meeks, the ranking Democrat on the panel.

Democrats have also criticised Mr Trump for the deal his team negotiated with the Taliban in Doha in 2019 and 2020.

They say the deal cut the Afghan government out of negotiations and set a near-impossible timeline of May 1, 2021 to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan. The Biden administration ultimately pushed that deadline back to the end of August.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who was the US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation and who led talks with the Taliban, said American military forces had advised him the time was achievable.

"A lot of emphasis was put on the Taliban making a commitment not to attack US and coalition forces after the signing of the Doha Agreement," Mr Khalilzad told The National.

"I am pleased that not a single American service person was killed by the Taliban during the 18 months of the withdrawal timeline."

The former envoy also denied that the Afghan government was frozen out of talks, saying the Doha Agreement led to historic negotiations between Kabul and the Taliban.

The US State Department described the Trump administration's withdrawal agreement as "flawed" and said the former president had emboldened the Taliban and failed to plan for a withdrawal.

Mr Biden "acted in the best interests of the American people when he decided to bring our troops home and end America’s longest war. This decision ensured another generation of Americans would not have to fight and die in Afghanistan", the department said on Monday.

Mr McCaul said the Biden administration “had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate US personnel, American citizens, green card holders and our brave Afghan allies”.

“At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security,” he said in a statement.

The end of the Afghan conflict, which the US launched shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, unfolded at dizzying speed. The western-backed Afghan military collapsed against Taliban offensives and former president Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul in mid-August 2021.

The Taliban have since brought back laws barring girls from going to school and keeping women out of the workplace.