Republican Party in the House of Representatives blames Biden for chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and ignores the role of the Trump administration

Nick Schifrin:

The core of the debate is whether the blame for the withdrawal lies with the Biden or Trump administration.

In February 2020, the Trump administration signed the Doha Agreement, which required the United States to leave Afghanistan by May 1, 2021, and the Taliban to refrain from attacks on U.S. troops. They also had to – quote – “prevent al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan” to threaten the United States or its allies.

President Trump then reduced troop production to 2,500 troops, which Democrats say prevented an orderly transition to the Biden administration. And that led to the first key finding of a report released today by the Democratic House Foreign Affairs Committee – quote: “The Trump administration initiated a time-bound, full withdrawal without considering the facts on the ground and failed to plan for its implementation.”

Regardless of this debate, the Republican report, and the fact that Biden had a choice, the fact remains that he could argue that the Taliban were not keeping their part of the agreement and therefore the US did not have to withdraw its troops as planned.

But the president argued against it. Expanding the war would have exposed the relatively small contingent of US troops remaining in Afghanistan to further attacks. And government officials did not believe the military when they said they could carry out their mission with just 2,500 soldiers and feared a future troop increase.

Whoever is right about this debate, the Trump administration's Doha agreement and the Biden administration's announced withdrawal were disastrous for Afghan national security forces, who lost their will to fight, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko told me in 2022.

John Sopko, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction: “They basically felt that the Taliban had made a deal with our government and, to some extent, perhaps with their own government, and they had been abandoned.”