‘Our adversaries, together with Russia, would have…’ Blinken defends Afghanistan withdrawal in Home testimony

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan as an ending of the nation’s longest struggle that freed sources for different conflicts, in testimony within the Home of Representatives on Wednesday.

“Our adversaries, together with Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained caught in Afghanistan for one more 20 years,” Blinken advised a Home Overseas Affairs Committee listening to, in what is probably going his closing public testimony to lawmakers earlier than leaving workplace subsequent month.

Blinken’s look got here after an extended dispute with the Republican-led committee over when he would testify about one of many darkest incidents of Democratic President Joe Biden’s presidency.

Republican Consultant Michael McCaul, the panel’s chairman, blasted the administration for the deaths of 13 People in a suicide assault at Kabul’s airport in August 2021 and for hundreds of Afghans who labored with U.S. forces who couldn’t be evacuated because the Taliban took over.

“You ignored warnings of collapse from your individual personnel,” McCaul stated.

Blinken stated each American who needed to go away Afghanistan has been given the chance to go away and hundreds of Afghans have been resettled internationally, though Washington stays dedicated to serving to those that stay.

Home Overseas Affairs and the State Division had wrangled over Blinken’s look for months. Panel Republicans voted in September – weeks earlier than the presidential election – to suggest the highest U.S. diplomat be held in contempt of Congress for failing to adjust to a subpoena.

The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of struggle grew to become intensely politicized throughout the marketing campaign pitting Republican President-elect Donald Trump towards Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump, who returns to the White Home on Jan. 20, has vowed to go after these answerable for the withdrawal. Throughout his marketing campaign, he stated he would ask for the resignation of each senior official “who touched the Afghanistan calamity.”

Democrats have insisted a lot of the blame for the struggle’s messy finish – lower than seven months into Biden’s presidency – rests with Trump, who started the withdrawal course of by signing a take care of Afghanistan’s militant Islamist Taliban in 2020.

McCaul additionally introduced throughout the listening to that Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, Jake Sullivan, had agreed to temporary the committee on Dec. 17.

McCaul launched a report on September 8 on a Republican investigation of the Afghanistan withdrawal, blasting Biden’s administration for failures surrounding the evacuation. Panel Democrats additionally launched their very own investigation.