GOP Probe of Afghanistan Exit:
A congressional review issued by the House Oversight and Reform Committee Republicans on March 16 criticizes President Joe Biden for his handling of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. The review, named Failures at Every Level: The Biden Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal, comprises more than 100 pages documenting multiple issues related to the withdrawal.
The GOP report accuses President Biden of ignoring the advice of his military leadership in his decision to wholly withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by an August 31, 2021 deadline. This, investigators believe, resulted in the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the emergence of Taliban rule.
The report further lambasts Biden’s decision-making, maintaining that his neglect to appropriately plan and execute the withdrawal placed American and Afghan lives in danger, hence eroding America’s global reputation and empowering its adversaries.
However, the report also laboriously attempts to implicate Vice President Kamala Harris in the withdrawal’s supposedly disastrous repercussions. The report alleges that Harris not only participated in key meetings to discuss the withdrawal but also that she publicly supported Biden’s decision. The Republicans state that Harris, just like Biden, did not heed warnings about the possible fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
While the report also acknowledges some missteps from the Trump administration, it primarily focusses on the Biden administration.
The critics argue, despite producing substantive evidence, the correlation drawn between Harris’s participation in the meetings and her complicity in any potential missteps remains inconclusive. The Biden administration, on the other hand, continues to defend the withdrawal, arguing that prolonged war was not in the best interest of the United States.
