Biden and Trump, singled out in a State Department report on the withdrawal from Afghanistan

First modification: 07/01/2023 – 04:11

In 2021, the United States decided to leave Afghanistan, where it had had a military presence for 20 years. Two years later, the United States Department of State published a report criticizing the handling of the evacuation by both the Joe Biden government and former President Donald Trump.

The document —of which only twenty of its 87 pages were released— indicates that the withdrawal of the troops had “serious consequences for the viability” and security of Afghanistan and the US-backed government. In addition, he points out that neither of the two presidents and his cabinet had the ability to foresee the consequences of the operation.

“During both administrations there was insufficient consideration at the top level of worst case scenarios and how quickly they might occur,” the document states.

In this sense, he assures that they did not take into account the possibility of a scenario like the one that occurred when the US military and its allies left the country. Shortly after the withdrawal, the Taliban advanced through Afghanistan and captured Kabul. So the US-backed government had to leave the country.

The withdrawal led to scenes of chaos in Kabul. Crowds of desperate Afghans thronged the capital’s airport, some even trying to hold on to moving planes. And shortly thereafter, an Islamic State terrorist attack killed 13 US servicemen and more than 150 Afghans outside an airport gate.

Failures in coordination and logistics

The document shows that one of the main problems was in the internal organization of those in charge of the operation. According to the text, the State Department’s planning for the evacuation “was hampered” because it was not “clear” which senior official “had the initiative.”

“The complicated structure of the Department’s task force that was created when the evacuation began was confusing to many participants, and knowledge management and communication between various lines of effort was problematic,” the document read.

However, the report does not only point to the failures of the Biden government. It also shows that the conditions under which the withdrawal took place were conditioned by the leadership of Donald Trump, who had agreed months before for the departure of US troops from the country, which left little time for preparations.

Obstacles in evacuation

Beyond the planning, there were several points that hindered the operation. One of them was the way in which the evacuations were carried out.

According to the State Department, it was impossible to ensure that people on the ground would receive calls or communications from congressmen or citizens asking for humanitarian assistance to Afghan citizens who might be at risk.

“In response to such demands, State Department employees were often put at greater risk and efforts to get more citizens out” of Afghanistan were obstructed, the document said.

According to Reuters figures, some 125,000 people, including nearly 6,000 Americans, were evacuated from Kabul before the last US soldiers left on August 30, 2021.

Both Biden and Trump defend themselves

Although both Biden and Trump are peppered by the report, both political leaders came out in defense of their management.

On Biden’s part, the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, defended the management of the current Administration: “I had to make a decision,” he said. And she added that the United States had invested “billions of dollars in a war with no end in sight.” And she concluded: “I wanted to stop that, I wanted to end it.”

The president himself was questioned on the subject this Friday. Biden did not recognize the flaws and sentenced: “Remember when I said that Al-Qaeda was not there? I said that it was not there, I said that we cannot help the Taliban. And what happens now? What is happening? Read the press. I was right.”

While on Trump’s side, his spokesman, Steven Cheung, wrote in an email: “There is only one person responsible for the disastrous withdrawal of Afghanistan: Joe Biden.”

Many point to the withdrawal of the United States and its allies as a determining factor in the decline in human rights in Afghanistan, especially for women, who have lost many of their freedoms.

With EFE and Reuters