KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has once again defended the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that it ended the country’s longest war and shifted resources to other conflicts.
During his testimony before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, which had long sought to question him about the Afghanistan withdrawal, Blinken said that President Biden’s decision to withdraw was the “right one.”
Blinken’s appearance came after a prolonged disagreement with the Republican-led committee over the timing of his testimony regarding one of the darkest incidents of President Joe Biden’s presidency.
“To the extent, President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said. “In the three years since the end of our country’s longest war. All of us, including myself, have wrestled with what we could have done differently during that period and over the proceeding two decades.”
“I firmly believe the president’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the right one,” he told lawmakers. “Our adversaries, including Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained stuck in Afghanistan for another 20 years,” he added.
He said the Biden administration had to proceed with the withdrawal negotiated by the previous US administration under Donald Trump, adding that Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s flee from the country and the swift collapse of the Afghan government were not anticipated and surprised everyone.
He shared details of his phone conversation with Ashraf Ghani the night before the government’s collapse. “He told me that he wanted to continue working on getting an agreement with the Taliban, but if he couldn’t, he would stay and fight to the death. He left the next day,” Blinken said.
During the testimony, Michael McCaul, the committee chair, criticized the Biden administration for the “chaotic” withdrawal, highlighting the death of 13 US service members in an ISKP attack at Kabul airport in August 2021 and the thousands of Afghans who worked with the US but were unable to evacuate during the operation.
He said that the “catastrophic event” marked the beginning of a failed foreign policy that “lit the world on fire,” noting that Russian troops began mobilizing for the Ukraine invasion soon after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The US top diplomat acknowledged the challenges faced by “Afghan allies” during the evacuation and the difficulties thousands continue to endure in other countries while awaiting US resettlement. However, he emphasized that the US had successfully evacuated and resettled over 185,000 Afghans, including 68,000 SIV applicants, since then.
He further said that around 54,000 Afghans are awaiting initial approval from the State Department, but only about 35% are likely to be approved. “Another 10,000 have been approved and are awaiting a final in-person interview, but 9,000 are still in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has no diplomatic presence.”
The US Secretary of State also acknowledged that life has deteriorated for Afghans, particularly Afghan women and girls, over the past three years of Taliban rule.
“This is a profoundly difficult period for the Afghan people, especially Afghanistan’s women and girls. But I believe the final chapter has not been written on Afghanistan,” he said.
The US and NATO military withdrawal from Afghanistan led to the swift collapse of the Western-backed republic government and the subsequent return to power of the Taliban, whom they had fought for two decades.
During the withdrawal process on August 26, a suicide bomb at Kabul airport, later claimed by ISKP, killed 13 US service members and at least 170 Afghans who rushed to the airport desperately seeking to board planes and flee the country.
Since then, US lawmakers, particularly Republicans, have consistently criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the withdrawal and engagement with the Taliban. Last year, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee launched an investigation into the withdrawal, emphasizing the need for transparency and accountability that the American people deserve.
