UNITED STATES: On Thursday, President Joe Biden’s administration pointed fingers at the erstwhile president, Donald Trump, in light of the US’s ruthless withdrawal from Afghanistan, which itself created a lot of issues during Biden’s tenure.
A 12-page document that was drafted by the National Security Council and conducted by the State Department and the Pentagon was released by the White House at the time when the country’s deadliest war was ending.
The blame was shifted to the August 26, 2021 suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport as per the report that said, “To manage the potential threat of a terrorist attack, the President repeatedly asked whether the military required additional support to carry out their mission at HKIA,” adding that “senior military officials confirmed that they had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate threats.”
The so-called “hotwash” of a document also asserted that Trump’s decision affected Biden’s administration. The document also portrays how the American and allied departure from Afghanistan should have been facilitated earlier, but it also blames the inefficient time management of the Afghan government and the military, as well as the military in the US and the intelligence community assessments.
The summary states, “President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor.” It also adds that “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”
After the recommendation that was followed by Biden of the military commander in light of the withdrawal of the US forces, the report showed misinformation in the positive intelligence community assessments with regard to the Afghan army’s desire to fight.
John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said, “Clearly, we didn’t get it right.” The White House mentions, “We now prioritise earlier evacuations when faced with a degrading security situation.”
Blinken was told of the possible fall of Kabul through a special “dissent channel” that permits State Department officials to give out contrarian perspectives to the high-ranking officials of the agencies.
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