Secretary of State Berated in Congress Over US Withdrawal From Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified on Wednesday in Congress that the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was an unfortunate consequence of a justified effort to end America’s longest war.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee had been trying for months to compel Blinken to explain the withdrawal despite his initial refusals to testify.

Republicans on the committee voted in September to recommend a contempt citation for Blinken after he declined to comply with their subpoena.

They also released a report on what committee chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, called “the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan.” It is deeply critical of Blinken and the State Department.

“You had plenty of opportunity to prepare for the inevitable collapse of Afghanistan,” McCaul said.

He added, “You treated terrorists as diplomatic partners.”

He was referring to the Doha Agreement signed in February 2020 between the United States and the Taliban, which set a timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in exchange for assurances against terrorism.

Instead of abiding by the agreement, the Taliban used the U.S. military’s gradual draw down as an opportunity for a swift takeover of the capital city Kabul that triggered a humanitarian crisis.

As thousands of Afghans rushed to flee the country, a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021, killed at least 182 people, mostly civilians. Also killed were 13 American soldiers.

The United States and its allies were conducting a massive airlift operation out of the airport to evacuate their own citizens and Afghan refugees who feared Taliban reprisal for cooperating with the U.S. military.

It was the largest airlift in American history. About 124,000 people were flown out of the country in the two weeks before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, many of them relocated to the United States.

The hurried evacuation also left behind about $4 billion in U.S. equipment and weapons, some of which the Taliban are suspected of using now in a brutal repression and terrorism campaign.

It also led to the kind of criticism from Republicans that continued against Blinken Wednesday.

“To the extent President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said.

Otherwise, the United States faced “a stalemate” that would result in “remaining stuck in Afghanistan under fire indefinitely,” Blinken said.

His testimony was interrupted three times by shouting protesters. Several of them were forcibly expelled from the hearing room by police.

Blinken acknowledged the withdrawal was not smooth but added that the United States achieved significant victories. They included dismantling al-Qaida while it used Afghanistan as a launch pad for terrorist attacks against Americans.

He said the withdrawal allowed the U.S. military to reallocate its resources, such as for other Middle Eastern conflicts and aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.

“Our adversaries, including Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained stuck in Afghanistan for another 20 years,” Blinken said.

He said the hasty withdrawal resulted largely from Taliban conquests that caused the capital to fall within weeks.

“No one anticipated the collapse of the Afghan government,” Blinken said.

Democrats, such as Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, were more supportive of Blinken.

Meeks said the Republican report in September that criticized the Biden administration for ignoring warnings about an attack was “partisan and misleading.” He added that Republicans “muddled the facts.”

A lingering question is whether disputes over the U.S. withdrawal will end with the Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he would fire every senior official “who touched the Afghanistan calamity.”

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