WSJ column: "The Afghan Debacle Didn't Have to Happen"

The report below will be ignored - unless the Republicans gain control of the House. I've excerpted key points below the link.

A new report shows military commanders and allies disagreed with Biden’s full exit

Now comes a 121-page report, “ ‘A Strategic Failure’: Assessing the Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal,” from Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Led by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the lawmakers lay out a precise, damning case.

The charges include misleading the American people. Contrary to White House claims, the report says allies and senior U.S. military commanders “supported a continued conditions-based deployment in Afghanistan” of 2,500 American and 6,000 allied troops to advise and undertake selected counterterrorism missions.

But insisting, seemingly without evidence, that it would actually require “tens of thousands” of additional U.S. troops, Mr. Biden instead executed an unconditional withdrawal. This decision wasn’t backed by our military or coalition partners, whom Mr. Biden didn’t really consult in advance of his decision.

The Republicans argue that having decided to retreat regardless of conditions on the ground, the Biden administration then didn’t properly plan or prepare for our exit. Team Biden “repeatedly delayed critical action that was necessary to mitigate the likely consequences.”

The administration acted as if none of this mattered. Though Afghanistan quickly fell to the Taliban, Mr. Biden called the chaotic retreat an “extraordinary success.” Even today there are more than 100 Americans—and tens of thousands of Afghans eligible to come to the U.S. including many who supported our troops—stranded in Afghanistan because of this administration’s incompetence.

This week, the White House attacked the report in a three-page response by National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, who blamed Donald Trump. The former president negotiated a “flawed deal” with the Taliban. ...

All true, yet this hardly gets Mr. Biden off the hook. If he disagreed with the Trump deal, why didn’t he reject it? He jettisoned plenty of other Trump policies. If there were too few American troops in Afghanistan, why not increase them, even modestly? If the structures weren’t in place to evacuate Afghan allies, why didn’t the administration build them in its seven months in office before the withdrawal?

Ms. Watson also made the Orwellian claim that the U.S. surrender “strengthened our national security” and “restored our credibility on the world stage.” That’d be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

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Reluctant congressional Democrats have limited Republican opportunities to question administration officials at length about their preparations (or lack thereof) for the withdrawal, restricting the number, length and breadth of oversight hearings. So the House Republican report, while deeply researched, couldn’t be informed by extensive open hearings. The State Department also brushed off inquiries and denied access to key witnesses.

 

Comments

[Nancy]

No one hears about the dire suffering there since the withdrawal. Women and girls in particular have suffered unspeakable abuse.

[Nancy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/27/afghanistan-women-taliban-rights-violence-amnesty-international/