White House Says Withdrawal From Afghanistan Was Right Decision, Helped US In Ukraine, China

In report on lessons learnt from Afghanistan withdrawal, the White House says Aug 2021 process was not at all chaotic, and that President Biden had to bear Trump’s poor decision and intel failure.

New Delhi: The White House has said the decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 was the right move as it enabled America to support Ukraine against Russian aggression and also face threats from China. In an after-action report released Thursday, Washington said it is "very proud" of the manner in which the US soldiers executed the withdrawal.  

In the report released Thursday that sought to assess the Joe Biden administration’s decision to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan and withdraw all troops from there by August 31, 2021, and the lessons learnt from it, the White House came down heavily on the previous Donald Trump administration for its poor decision-making on Afghanistan, including not involving the former Afghan government in the Doha deal with the Taliban as well as a failure of intelligence agencies to assess the Taliban’s moves.

“While recognizing the strategic necessity of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan, President Biden and his team were well aware of the challenges posed by withdrawing from a warzone after twenty years—especially under the circumstances that they inherited,” the report said, which will now be reviewed by the US Congress. 

The 12-page brief synopsis of the report, which was given to the media, also said: “The departing Trump Administration had left the Biden Administration with a date for withdrawal, but no plan for executing it. And after four years of neglect—and in some cases, deliberate degradation—crucial systems, offices, and agency functions that would be necessary for a safe and orderly departure were in disrepair.” 

John Kirby, the National Security Council Spokesman, said at a media briefing President Biden is “very proud” of the way in which the withdrawal was conducted by the US military.  

Kirby, however, said: “But, look, I’ve been around operations my entire life, and there’s not a single one that — that ever goes perfectly according to plan. Things happen. Sometimes enemies get a vote.  And — and you always want to learn from that.” 

Defending Biden, he said: "(the US is) Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan?  You bet. Proud of the fact that American troops were able to seize control of a defunct airport and get it operational in 48 hours?  You bet. Proud of the fact that we now have about 100,000 Afghans, our former allies and partners, living in this country and working towards citizenship? You bet.”

He added: “But does that mean that everything went perfect in that evacuation?  Of course not."

‘No Agency Predicted A Taliban Takeover In Nine Days’

The report also underscored the fact that ever since coming to power, President Biden had given directions for a US withdrawal, which included “planning for all contingencies, including a rapid deterioration of the security situation” despite a contrary intelligence assessment that said a Taliban takeover of the country is “unlikely”.

According to Kirby, there was no indication of a rapid Taliban run on the country even as Washington was assured that former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani would not flee the country. 

“No agency predicted a Taliban takeover in nine days. No agency predicted the rapid fleeing of President Ghani, who had indicated to us his intent to remain in Afghanistan up until he departed on the 15th of August,” said Kirby. 

He added: “And no agency predicted that more than — that the more than 300,000 trained and equipped Afghan National Security and Defense Forces would fail to fight for their country, especially after 20 years of American support.” 

Kirby said the Ghani government had also told the US that the then acting Defence Minister of Afghanistan, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, would “actually strengthen their resolve to stay and fight (the Taliban)".

“No effort here to try to obfuscate or try to bury something. It’s an effort to try to be as open, as transparent as we can be … This document and this effort isn’t about accountability today.  It’s about understanding,” he stressed, adding that the process of review is still not over.

Better Able To Deal With Ukraine And China: US

The most significant aspect of the report is that it also highlights how the White House would not have been able to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia or face the challenges posed by China had America not withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan.  

“In a destabilizing security environment, we now err on the side of aggressive communication about risks. We did this in advance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Months before the invasion, we proactively released intelligence with trusted partners,” said the report. 

It also noted: “Our clear and unvarnished warnings enabled the United States to take advantage of a critical window before the invasion to organize with our allies, plan the swift execution of our response, and enable Americans in Ukraine to depart safely."

According to Kirby, “America is on a stronger strategic footing, more capable to support Ukraine and to meet our security commitments around the world, as well as the competition with China, because it is not fighting a ground war in Afghanistan.” 

He highlighted that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping would have wanted to see America “bogged down” in a ground war in Afghanistan. 

“If you just take a look at — at what we’ve been able to do for Ukraine and how we’ve been able to really step up in a competition against China and deal with some of the tensions in the Indo-Pacific, it’s difficult to say that we would have been able to do all that we did over the last year or so without — if we were still dragged down on the ground in Afghanistan,” he said. 

Doha Agreement Had ‘Corrosive Effect’ 

In February 2020, the US government, under Trump, and the Taliban signed a so-called peace agreement to end the war in Afghanistan. The agreement was signed in the Watari capital of Doha and is officially called ‘Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan’.  

According to Kirby, the Biden administration after assuming office was not able to understand the granular details of the deal. 

“In fact, we spent quite a bit of time after coming into office — and I remember this quite clearly — trying to get our hands around the Doha Agreement and really understanding all its articles and what it meant and how it was being interpreted by the Taliban. There just wasn’t any of that fingertip feel or granular awareness that we had,” he said. 

The report noted that President Trump emboldened the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. In February 2020, the US and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the US agreed to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan by May 2021.

In return, the Taliban agreed to participate in a peace process and refrain from attacking US troops and threatening Afghanistan’s major cities—but only as long as the United States remained committed to withdrawing by the agreement’s deadline.

“Do not underestimate the effect that the Doha Agreement had on the morale and the willingness to fight on the Afghan national security and defense forces. It had a very corrosive effect on their willingness to continue to fight for their country,” said Kirby.