State Department review finds Biden partly responsible for failures in Afghanistan

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The report says some of Biden’s decisions posed challenges for US diplomats.

June 30, 2023, 7:35 p.m. ET

4 minute read

The State Department released a declassified version of its long-awaited report examining the US withdrawal from Afghanistan on Friday, uncovering the harshest criticism of all the administration’s efforts to examine its own handling of the crisis to date.

“President Trump’s and President Biden’s decisions to end the U.S. military mission have posed significant challenges for the [State] ministry, as it sought to maintain a strong diplomatic and assistance presence in Kabul and to provide continued support to the Afghan government and people,” the report said.

The White House released parts of its extensive review in April, drawing in part on the State Department investigation, which was completed in March 2022.

But that initial summary painted the Biden administration in much more glowing terms, saying the president “undertook a deliberate, intensive, rigorous and inclusive decision-making process” but was coerced by his predecessor.

State Department review finds some of Biden’s choices ‘compounded difficulties’ faced by diplomats in Afghanistan, such as the speed with which the military withdrew and handed over Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government in July 2021, leaving Hamid Karzai International Airport as the only escape route.

This airport then became the setting for some of the darkest and most frantic moments of the sortie, including a terrorist attack that claimed the lives of 13 US servicemen and dozens of Afghans desperate to flee as Kabul fell. in the hands of the Taliban.

While the White House previously said Biden ordered government agencies to prepare for “all eventualities,” the State Department investigation found disorganization at the highest levels of government, saying he didn’t was “unclear who in the department was leading” the evacuation efforts.

The review also claims that senior officials failed to make crucial decisions about at-risk Afghan nationals who would be airlifted before Afghanistan descended into turmoil.

Even as the Taliban gained power and moved closer to Kabul, the report says US officials did not act with the appropriate urgency and ‘appeared instead to rely on assurances received’ from the then Afghan president. that the country’s forces “would be focused on defending Kabul and believed they could keep the Taliban at bay for some time.”

While estimates of how long the Afghan military could maintain control varied, the State Department review says U.S. officials failed to adequately plan for the worst-case scenario and take action. decisive once it became clear that the scenario was a reality.

“We have already internalized many of these painful lessons and applied them in subsequent crises, including in the way we handled the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in some aspects of our response to the crisis in Sudan there. a few months,” said a senior official.

Like the previous White House statement, this report makes no mention of a message sent by dozens of diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul in July 2021 that warned the country could collapse and urged the secretary to State to expedite evacuation efforts.

Capitol Hill Republicans have urged the State Department to share its findings widely since the report was released to some members of Congress in April, but it’s unclear whether the version released Friday will satisfy conservatives. Only a quarter of the 80-page report has been made public.

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