Congressman Michael McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee Lead, published an interim report in August that whitewashes the Trump administration’s role in empowering the Taliban and surrendering in Afghanistan.
Entitled, A ‘Strategic Failure’: Assessing the Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal, McCaul’s 115-page report ignores an agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, without the participation of the then Afghan government, in February 2020; to lay blame entirely on the Biden administration for problems on the ground during the withdrawal.
The Trump administration’s deal with the Taliban, stipulated fighting restrictions for both sides and provided for the withdrawal of all NATO forces from Afghanistan.
H.R. McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, called it “a surrender agreement with the Taliban.” Another member of Trump’s National Security Council said it was “a very weak agreement.”
Biden’s decision to withdraw had less to do with the resulting Taliban seizure of power, the chaotic and deadly evacuation, and the long-term impact the withdrawal has had on the United States’ standing in the world and our allies in the aftermath.
You can find a breakdown of the top takeaways from the report here.
A few months after the agreement was signed, there was plenty of evidence that the Taliban wasn’t as sincere as it appeared about peace.
The United Nations said it had evidence that the Taliban and al-Qaeda still had ties.
U.S. intelligence warned that al-Qaeda was “integrated” into the Taliban. The Taliban launched dozens of attacks in Afghanistan, ramping up its violence.
Stuck with 5,000 Taliban fighters released by the Trump administration, Biden pulled the last American troops out of Afghanistan, ending the longest war in US history, which was started by President George W. Bush Jr.
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