EGN NEWS DESK
The White House dismissed on Monday a brand new House Republican investigative report castigating President Biden’s administration for the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying that it provides “little or nothing new” and ignores important details.
John F. Kirby, a nationwide safety spokesman for the president, took the lectern on the White House to subject a prolonged rebuttal to the report that was launched earlier within the day. It got here greater than three years after the occasion and fewer than two months earlier than the November election.
Mr. Kirby derided what he referred to as the “one-sided partisan nature of this report” and famous that it was not the one one issued by Republicans. “This comes, after all, two years after their first report, and this one says little or nothing new,” he stated.
He identified that in pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, Mr. Biden was following a withdrawal settlement negotiated with the Taliban by President Donald J. Trump earlier than leaving workplace.
“Ending wars is harder than beginning them,” Mr. Kirby stated. “President Biden knew that. He acknowledged that. But it doesn’t imply that the choice to finish this one was flawed or that the withdrawal wasn’t performed as professionally and as bravely because it was humanly doable given the circumstances. It doesn’t imply we don’t grieve and mourn with the households of these whose lives have been tragically taken throughout the withdrawal, particularly at Abbey Gate on the twenty sixth of August of that yr.”
The report, ready by Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, accused the Biden staff of ignoring safety warnings, failing to adequately plan an evacuation and mendacity to the general public concerning the dangers and the missteps that led to the bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members at Abbey Gate outdoors the airport in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The assault, which additionally killed as many as 170 civilians, punctuated a hasty and chaotic evacuation because the Taliban superior, however Pentagon evaluations have concluded that U.S. troops couldn’t have prevented the violence.
The House report largely spared Mr. Trump of duty regardless that he sealed the unique take care of the Taliban resulting in the pullout and wished to withdraw much more unexpectedly.
The launch of the report got here as Mr. Trump has been blaming Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent within the fall election, for “the humiliation in Afghanistan.” His marketing campaign posted movies from some kinfolk of these killed at Abbey Gate criticizing her. Ms. Harris, for her half, has accused Mr. Trump of politicizing the tragedy, pointing to his photograph alternative at Arlington National Cemetery in defiance of guidelines barring political occasions.
Mr. Kirby rejected the report’s criticism, saying that planning for the withdrawal began within the spring of 2021 and that nobody had anticipated how rapidly the Taliban would take over the nation. He famous that Mr. Trump’s settlement resulted within the launch of 5,000 Taliban fighters held in Afghan prisons and that U.S. gear left within the nation was given to the Afghan authorities, to not the Taliban, and wound up in enemy arms solely when the federal government collapsed.
Mr. Kirby added that the administration continues to “look with awe and admiration on the many hundreds of women and men who waged this conflict over the course of 20 years — troops, diplomats, intelligence specialists, contractors and civilian staff from this and dozens of different nations.”
He additionally denied that the administration was not candid with the general public. “There was no deception, mendacity or lack of transparency by this administration, both throughout or after the withdrawal,” he stated. “We did one of the best we might on daily basis to maintain the American individuals knowledgeable of what was occurring. We performed our personal after-action reviews and shared these, too, with the general public.”
