Congressmen and senators were unanimous in their negative assessments of the organization of the withdrawal and evacuation.
The head of the US State Department, Anthony Blinken, was interrogated in Congress for two days in connection with the completion of the military mission in Afghanistan. According to him, the main reason for the failure was the decisions of the previous administration headed by Donald Trump. Correspondent.net tells the details.
A catastrophe of epic proportions
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken became the first representative of the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden to take part in a congressional hearing on the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
On August 13, he answered questions from the House Foreign Relations Committee for several hours, and the next day appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Congressmen and senators were unanimous in their negative assessments of the organization of the withdrawal of troops and evacuation from the Kabul airport and, in general, the outcome of the 20-year US campaign in Afghanistan.
“The American people don’t like to lose, especially to terrorists. But that’s exactly what happened,” Michael McCall, a leading Republican on the international affairs committee, told Blinken.
The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan McCall called “a disaster of epic proportions” and noted that some of the members of the new interim government of Afghanistan have a terrorist past and were detained at Guantanamo.
He noted that he never thought he would see “unconditional surrender to the Taliban” and added that the United States “left the Americans at the mercy of the enemy, the translators you, the secretary of state, and the president promised to protect.”
American politicians began to express dissatisfaction with the way the evacuation of US citizens and the Afghans collaborating with them was carried out from the first minutes of this operation. At the same time, congressmen threatened members of the administration with a summons to testify to Congress. Not only Republicans were outraged, but also Democrats.
In his opening remarks, Foreign Affairs Committee head Bob Menendez noted that during the Afghan crisis, lawmakers were in constant contact with the administration, but the information they received from the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House was often contradictory.
Then senior Republican Senator Jim Risch noted that today the Taliban are one of the most armed terrorist organizations in the world. Addressing Blinken, he called for help in resolving the issue of American weapons, which fell into the hands of the Taliban.
The US left Afghanistan. Results of the 20-year war
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks noted that the war in Afghanistan was supposed to end 19 years ago after the United States “successfully removed the Taliban from power and dismantled al-Qaeda terrorist training camps.”
Another committee chairman, Democrat Robert Menendez, described the events in Afghanistan as the culmination of a series of mistakes made by the Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years.
The USA had no choice
Blinken for two days of hearings insisted that there was no better alternative to the withdrawal of troops. He recalled that the main goal of the mission was accomplished – those responsible for organizing the terrorist attack in the United States on September 11, 2001 were defeated, and Osama bin Laden was killed ten years ago.
He noted that by the beginning of 2021, the Taliban were in the strongest position since 2001, while the United States had the least number of troops in Afghanistan at the same time. So there were two options, according to the Secretary of State – either to end the war, or to start active hostilities again.
The secretary also noted that Afghan government forces would be unable to maintain control on their own, even if US forces remained in Afghanistan.
“The emergency evacuation was triggered by the collapse of the Afghan security forces and the government. During the year, we constantly assessed their forces and considered several scenarios. But even the most pessimistic did not predict that the government forces in Kabul would surrender the city, and when the American capital still remained in the capital. troops, “Blinken said.
The diplomat noted that there is no evidence that the presence of the US military there for a longer time would make the Afghan security forces and government more stable or autonomous.
“If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment and military training were not enough, would a year, or another five, or ten years, make any difference?” He added.
At the same time, he once again pointed out that “strategic rivals of the United States, such as China and Russia, or such opponents as Iran and the DPRK, would like most of all for the United States to remain bogged down in Afghanistan for another decade.”
The United States named the reason for the victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan
Answering the question about the weapons and military equipment that remained in the hands of the Taliban after the US withdrawal, Blinken noted that it does not pose a threat to other countries, since, according to the Pentagon, it does not function or will soon cease to function because it requires maintenance.
“However, it provides the Taliban, as we have seen from numerous photographs, with military uniforms and small arms and some other equipment that are now in their hands,” he said.
Blinken also said that the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan was a forced and hasty decision due to mistakes made by the previous administration led by Donald Trump.
The diplomat added that the current head of the White House, Joe Biden, inherited agreements with the Taliban from his predecessors, which left little time for evacuation. In addition, due to Trump’s agreements, the current administration would somehow have to end the campaign in Afghanistan, Blinken is convinced.
However, it was Biden, and not Trump, that the Secretary of State named the main responsible for what happened in Afghanistan this summer, since the current president makes the main strategic decisions.
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