TOP NEWS: "Blame Game: Biden Administration Lays Responsibility for Afghanistan Withdrawal on Trump"

1 year ago
24

The Biden administration has publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the "hotwash" of US policies surrounding the end of the Afghanistan war, and has placed the blame on the withdrawal's deadly and chaotic events on former President Donald Trump. The report asserts that President Biden was "severely constrained" by Trump's decisions when he entered office, and while it does acknowledge that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have begun sooner, it blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, as well as on US military and intelligence community assessments. Subscribe for more content like this.
The report also faulted overly optimistic intelligence community assessments about the Afghan army's willingness to fight and stated that Biden followed military commanders' recommendations for the pace of the drawdown of US forces. Republicans in Congress have sharply criticized the withdrawal, focusing on the deaths of 13 service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul's airport, which also killed over 100 Afghans. The Biden administration also notes that it released pre-war warnings over "strong objections from senior officials in the Ukrainian government" in an apparent attempt to defend its national security decision-making. The administration says the errors in Afghanistan have informed its handling of Ukraine, where the Biden administration has been credited for supporting Kyiv's defence against Russia's invasion. The report appears to shift any blame in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport to the US military, as it confirmed that it had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate the threats. The Biden administration has blamed the February 2020 agreement Trump reached with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, for boxing the US into leaving the country. The US carried out a successful operation to kill al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri since the withdrawal, which the White House has argued is proof that it can still deter terrorist groups in Afghanistan. Thanks for watching, subscribe our channel for authenticity.

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