Last Updated on 09/09/2024 by Arun jain
US Republicans on Sunday released a critical report on US President Joe Biden’s fatal withdrawal of American troops in 2021. The report has reignited criticism over the US’s longest war ever just a few months ago.
The report reiterates criticisms that Republicans have repeatedly expressed. It said the rapid withdrawal caused chaos in Afghanistan, which led to the death of 13 US soldiers in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport and the immediate recapture of the capital by the Taliban.
What did the report say?
The report was written by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He accused Biden of failing to “mitigate the potential consequences of the decision” to withdraw.
The Doha agreement, which paved the way for the US withdrawal, was signed by former President Donald Trump in February 2020. The deal was agreed between the Trump administration and the Taliban without involving the then government of Afghanistan.
Biden has been criticized for moving through the deal without holding the Taliban to the terms of the deal and without ensuring a ceasefire between the group and the government in Kabul.
“Biden’s decision to withdraw all US troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha Agreement or the advice of his senior national security advisers,” the report claimed.
“Instead, it was based on his long-held and unshakable opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan.”
“America’s credibility on the world stage was severely damaged after we abandoned Afghan allies to Taliban revenge killings — the people of Afghanistan we promised to protect,” the report said.
Additionally, it has “increased threats to our homeland security, tarnished our standing abroad for years to come, and emboldened enemies around the world,” it states.
Democrats, White House Slam Report
White House spokeswoman Sharon Yang said the report was based on “cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations and pre-existing biases.”
“Because of former President Trump’s bad deal with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable position,” Yang said, “to either pursue or end the war against a strengthened Taliban.” .
House Democrats said in a statement that their Republican colleagues’ report ignored facts about Trump’s role.
Previous investigations into the withdrawal have blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations, as has a US State Department report released in 2023.
Democrats also questioned the timing of the report.
“If they had three years to assess what happened, why are they reporting after Labor Day in a presidential election year?” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asked before releasing the report on Saturday.
“Look, this administration has decided not to let the fifth president inherit this war and to end that conflict,” he told US news channel CNN.
President Joe Biden has previously defended his actions for a quick exit from the war-torn country and refused to take blame.
The Republican-authored report comes shortly after Trump, who is the party’s nominee for the November election, posed for photographs outside Washington and with relatives of US service members killed in Afghanistan.
The outburst led to altercations with Arlington staff, one of whom said she was verbally abused by Trump aides when she tried to explain the rules about taking photographs and videos at the cemetery.
mk/es (AP, AFP, Reuters)
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