by WASHINGTON – The White House on Thursday released a report on decisions made regarding the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, including the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 US service members.
A different classified report will be shared with members of Congress, which comes in response to requests from congressional committees, the White House said.
The 12-page report released to the public summarizes the White House’s “perspectives” and largely blames the administration of former President Donald Trump for the chaos that ensued as US troops left and Americans and Afghans evacuated the country. The Taliban took over the government of the country and have remained in power.
“President Biden’s options on how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely limited by the conditions created by his predecessor,” the summary reads.
When Trump took office in 2017, more than 10,000 US troops remained in Afghanistan, according to the summary, and he continued to order reductions during his last year in office, bringing the total down to about 2,500.
But the Trump administration “did not provide plans for how to carry out the final withdrawal or evacuate American and Afghan allies,” the White House said. “President Biden had pledged to end the war in Afghanistan, but when he took office he was faced with difficult realities left to him by the Trump administration.”
The White House said the lack of communication from the Trump administration underscores why effective coordination for the transition process is critical “especially when it comes to complex military operations,” the summary said. The Trump administration, fueled by the former president’s false claims that he had been denied re-election due to rampant fraud, largely refused to conduct traditional transition communications before Biden took office.
Biden and his team were “well aware of the challenges posed by withdrawing from a war zone” after 20 years, the White House said, and while the Trump administration left a deadline for leaving Afghanistan, “it did not provide any plans for executing it.” “.
kristen welker, mike memoli and ryan nobles contributed.
