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02-07-2023
WASHINGTON: The US State Department did not adequately prepare for the swift collapse of the Afghan government in 2021, an internal review has found, in the latest report to criticize the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from the country.
While the so-called After Action Review (AAR) released on Friday lauded the actions of State Department staff, noting that they worked “heroically” under extreme “stress, demands and risks”, it said the department should have better prepared for the fall of the Afghan capital, Kabul.
The internationally backed Afghan government collapsed and then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country in August 2021 as the Taliban took over Kabul amid the withdrawal of US forces.
Friday’s report said the decision by US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan had “serious consequences” for the viability of the US-backed Afghan government.
“Those decisions are beyond the scope of this review, but the AAR team found that during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios,” the review reads.
The report specifically criticized the State Department for failing to set up a crisis-management task force that could have overseen the situation in Afghanistan at the time as well as clearly cooperated with the Pentagon in the case of an evacuation.
“Establishing such a task force earlier would have brought key players together to address issues related to a possible [evacuation],” the report said.
While the Pentagon was preparing for an evacuation operation, the “planning process was hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the (State Department) had the lead”, it added.
After the fall of Kabul, American troops confined to an area around the city’s airport until their final withdrawal at the end of August 2021 oversaw a massive, two-week operation to get US citizens and desperate Afghans out.
During the evacuation, a suicide bombing by the Afghanistan branch of ISIL (ISIS) killed at least 175 people, including 13 US service members.
The State Department review comes nearly three months after the White House released a wider report on the withdrawal that mostly blamed Trump for issues that led to the fraught US exit from Afghanistan. (Int’l News Desk)
