Biden’s Afghanistan report mainly blames Trump for chaotic US withdrawal
WITHDRAWAL WITH REFUNDS
The 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest conflict involving US troops, began under President George W Bush and continued to intensify under President Barack Obama. More than 100,000 people have been killed and about 3 million displaced, according to data from the nonpartisan Costs of War project at Brown University.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden pledged to end “permanent wars” and withdraw from Afghanistan, though he postponed the troop withdrawal Trump had agreed to for three months until the end of August 2021. The US-backed government of Kabul collapsed on August 15 as the Taliban entered the city.
The disorganization and chaos of the United States’ departure has raised questions about Biden’s leadership, the quality of US intelligence, and the US commitment to human rights and the thousands of Afghan nationals that the country has never met. This was based on.
An Islamic State suicide bomber on August 26, 2021, killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghans as they gathered outside the airport gates.
Thousands of US citizens, green card holders and Afghans who applied for Special Immigrant Visas were unable to leave during the largest US airlift on record.
In total, about 100,000 Americans, green card holders and Afghans – many of whom were not thoroughly screened – were flown out before the US withdrawal ended shortly before the 20th anniversary of the war. US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The Trump administration agreed in a February 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw all US-led international forces by May 2021. The militants agreed to stop attacking US troops. and hold peace talks with the Western-backed Kabul government.
When given the withdrawal timeline, the summary said that successive troop reductions ordered by Trump had left 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan when Biden took office in January 2021. As a result, the Taliban took control. or a dispute over half the country, the summary said.
Faced with the choice of delaying the withdrawal or increasing the number of US forces and facing new attacks by the Taliban, Biden chose the former and ordered the planning of the withdrawal and evacuation operation. , the summary said.
