Move FM Global News

WASHINGTON D.C.: In its report, entitled, “After Action Report,” which was released last week, the US State Department criticized the handling of the 2021 US military evacuation from Afghanistan.

Decisions by President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw troops had “serious consequences for the viability” and security of the former US-backed government, the report stressed.

Without naming him, the report was also critical of Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

It also mentioned the department’s failure to expand its crisis-management task force while the Taliban advanced on Kabul in August 2021, as well as the absence of a senior diplomat “to oversee all elements of the crisis response.”

With regards to the State Department’s top floor, where Blinken and senior diplomats have offices, the report stated, “Naming a 7th floor principal would have improved coordination across different lines of effort.”

In response to the report, Biden’s handling of the Afghan pullout was defended by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

After the report was released she told reporters, “He had to make a decision. The US had poured billions of dollars into a war with no end in sight and that he wanted to stop, he wanted to end that.”

In an email, Steven Cheung, spokesman for Trump, said, “There is only one person responsible for the disastrous pullout of Afghanistan: Joe Biden.”

The chaotic US pullout and evacuation operation was also due to a lack of planning and a series of troop reductions by Trump after a 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw US forces, the report added.

The State Department only released 24 pages of the report, with the rest remaining classified.