07 Apr 2023; MEMO: President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday released a summary of classified reports that mostly blamed the chaotic August 2021 US pullout from Afghanistan on his predecessor, Donald Trump, for failing to plan for the withdrawal he had agreed on with the Taliban, reports Reuters.
The Democratic administration's summary, drawn from top-secret State Department and Pentagon reviews sent to Congress, ignited angry reactions from Republican lawmakers who have demanded the documents for their own investigation of the pullout.
Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, strongly criticised the administration. Biden ordered the pullout and was "responsible for the massive failures in planning and execution," McCaul said in a statement.
McCaul, who is overseeing the Republican probe, charged that his multiple threats to subpoena the State Department and Pentagon reviews, which were completed last year, finally compelled the administration to send them to Congress.
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"President Biden's choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor," said the summary of the reviews. "The outgoing administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans or Afghan allies."
The document acknowledged that the administration learned lessons from the withdrawal, and now errs on the side of "aggressive communication" about risks in a destabilised security environment.
