House Foreign Affairs Committee drops report on Biden-Harris Afghan withdrawal
"Willful Blindness."
"Willful Blindness."
That's the title of the House Foreign Affairs Committee's 353-page report on the Biden-Harris administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The executive summary lists these five topline takeaways:
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.
The Biden-Harris administration prioritized the optics of the withdrawal over the security of U.S. personnel on the ground. For that reason, they failed to plan for all contingencies, including a noncombatant emergency evacuation (NEO) and refused to order a NEO until after the Taliban had already entered Kabul.
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. As a result, 13 U.S. servicemembers were murdered by a terrorist attack on August 26, 2021. It was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2012.
In the aftermath of the withdrawal, U.S. national security was degraded as Afghanistan once again became a haven for terrorists, including al Qaeda and ISISK. America’s credibility on the world stage was severely damaged after we abandoned Afghan allies to Taliban reprisal killings — the people of Afghanistan we had promised to protect. And the moral injury to America’s veterans and those still serving remains a stain on this administration’s legacy.
The Biden-Harris administration misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal, from before the go-to-zero order until today. This coverup included mid-level administration officials all the way up to the Oval Office. And as this investigation reveals, the National Security Council and NSA Jake Sullivan were of the source of the majority of that misinformation campaign.
A crux of the report is that the Taliban had violated what was known as the Doha Agreement, which was negotiated by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the Former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation at the U.S. Department of State. The report found Khalilzad ignored the Taliban had violated the agreement, rendering it void.
The section detailing the Doha agreement goes into deeper details, noting input from key officials was "severely limited," the fact the Taliban didn't uphold its end of the agreement were "disregarded," and "Warnings and advice from both U.S. allies and a majority of President Biden’s senior national security experts were ignored."
With regard to Biden ignoring his own military advisers, "Colonel Seth Krummrich, Chief of Staff for Special Operations Command Central during the military retrograde, reiterated the military told President Biden, 'If you start to withdraw, the Taliban are going to come pouring in and there’s nothing that’s going to stop them'."
“The president decided we’re gonna leave, and he’s not listening to anybody," Krummrich told the Committee.
More To The Story
Be sure to read the section on the "coverup."
It outlines how the Biden-Harris administration withheld information from the public about the Doha agreement and Biden's "go-to-zero" order.
Key figures who ran cover for the administration following the fall of Kabul and the murder of 13 American troops at Abbey Gate included Ned Price, spokesperson for the State Department; Rear Admiral John Kirby, spokesperson for the Department of Defense; and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the president.
Coordinating all three of those entities fell to the National Security Council. At the time, the communications strategy was led by Emily Horne.
The Committee's report also lays out direct evidence refuting the majority of the 2023 Biden-Harris document on the "US Withdrawal from Afghanistan," but. in particular, dismantles the Biden-Harris claim there was no withdrawal plan in place when Biden took office.
Reminder: Harris says she had key role in Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal decision
What was left behind when Biden pulled out?
$7.12 billion in military equipment
(Thousands of guns, tens of thousands of ammo rounds, vehicles, military aircraft, communications equipment, and much, much more)An estimated 78,000 Afghan allies
An estimated 15,000 U.S. citizens
