Recounting the U.S. Failure in Afghanistan

A new congressional report spells out how the Biden administration bungled last year’s withdrawal.

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Good morning. We’re thinking about the people of Afghanistan this week.

House Republicans Push Accountability for Afghanistan Withdrawal Failures

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee will release a report today on the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, outlining poor planning and its sweeping ramifications for the people of Afghanistan and for American strategic security.

Frustration over unheeded warnings—and a lack of accountability for top officials in the aftermath—underpin the report. A copy obtained by The Dispatch in advance of publication also unveils new information about the withdrawal.

Far more American citizens were left in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control than the 100 to 200 citizens the White House earlier estimated were still in the country, according to the report. The State Department confirmed it has evacuated more than 800 Americans from Afghanistan since the end of August 2021. 

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  1. Randall Briggs

    The Republicans in Congress don't give a rat's patoot about the Afghanistan withdrawal except as a means of embarrassing the Biden administration. If Trump had been re-elected, and had the withdrawal gone as badly, they'd be finding ways to praise him for his efforts.

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    MatthewRobin

    I completely missed this quote from blinken. Good job Haley.

    “Whatever happens in Afghanistan, if there is a significant deterioration in security—that could well happen, we’ve discussed this before—I don’t think it’s going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday,” Blinken told the committee. “So I wouldn’t necessarily equate the departure of our forces in July, August, or by early September, with some kind of immediate deterioration in the situation.”

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    Stephanie

    Well, it's already the next day, and I've read nothing about this report which is mentioned. It's not a story in thee Times or WaPo or Politico.

    And why an "interim," partisan, report? The timing is suspicious, seems calculated to damage public perception of Biden prior to midterms.

    We could wait for the final BIPARTISAN report.

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    Dave Conant - MO

    Does anyone else think that Antony Blinken is out of his depth as SecState?

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    Earl King

    Republicans push for accountability. We’ll that’s in to the weeds. Nobody ei ever be held accountable. Benghazi? Can you make one person who said sorry my bad!l, I should of done something?

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    Frank Lee

    The "B" in "Biden" stands for "bungle."

    The "J" in "Joe" stands for "joke."

    This explains why the US is the laughing stock of the world for how we pulled out of Afghanistan. It was a clown show.

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    Lipo Davis

    Jonah told me the federal government always makes mistakes.

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    Bryan Myrick

    It's very unfortunate that this is only a minority report and will therefore be discounted as partisan. Maybe even more unfortunate is that, based on early reporting, the authors wrote as though history began the moment that Biden took office, avoiding the clear bricklaying by the Trump administration toward the eventual calamity. Integrity could have blunted criticism of crass partisanship, and left space for this report to be something other than what it is: not an honest product of open-ended fact-finding, but a pretext to a targeted political circus under a Republican-led House.

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  9. Dapa1390

    There is a book called The Afghanistan Papers. It's not obscure or hard to find. I urge everyone to read it. I have never seen anyone refute any of the reporting, which can be summed up as: it was a lost cause in 2003, 2004. Everything we were told from Bush through Obama through Trump was a lie.
    There was no cultural or physical infrastructure there that could make the American goals happen.

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    Pat Riot

    Stay tuned for weekly "revenge impeachments" from the GOP House if they take the majority in November. It will amount to nothing except the impeachment process being denigrated. The goal of Republicans is to pave the way for Trump's 2024 victory and nothing else.

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      Rjosephpaquette

      I hope not. It would be a waste of time.
      If Republicans don't take the senate, is also far more likely not to happen.
      I do see LOTS of hearings about any and all dirt they can dig up in the future.

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        Pat Riot

        They won't dig up any *actual* dirt and it won't affect the 2024 election even though that will be the whole point. The 2024 election will be between Biden and Trump and it will have approximately the same outcome as last time.

        I'm not sure the Senate will make any difference of any kind unless one of the current SC justices croaks.


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          Rjosephpaquette

          I honestly hope 2024 doesn’t have Biden nor Trump on the ticket.

          Do you think the Benghazi hearings helped defeat Hillary? I do.

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            Pat Riot

            As Mr. French pointed out in his recent article, scandals have the opposite effect on Republicans these days. Trump getting in trouble just means the FBI/DOJ/court system is corrupt.

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