Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report on America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021. It was not bi-partisan; the Democrats boycotted the hearings and refused to play along. Sort of reminds me of the January 6 Committee, led by Democrats who rejected Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s two picks and selected their own Republicans – Cheney and Kitzinger.
With that caveat in mind, let’s examine the findings from this report. The Biden-Harris White House was determined to withdraw from Afghanistan by August 31, 2021, regardless of cost. They picked the timing and disregarded advice to the contrary from not only our military and diplomatic experts, but also from our NATO allies. The president was determined to end America’s longest war and move on. When announcing his decision on July 8, Biden stated categorically that the Afghan government would prevail, and Taliban takeover was not inevitable. He couldn’t have been more wrong about this.