UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES / From the desk of Tom Cole
The late, great Democratic President Harry S. Truman once famously placed a sign on his desk which proclaimed, “The Buck Stops Here.” Surely, “Give ‘em Hell Harry” is rolling in his grave on the release of the Biden Administration’s reports on its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021.
Rather than accepting responsibility for his refusal to heed the advice of his own military appointees and acknowledging that the Afghanistan debacle was an unmitigated disaster, President Biden and his advisors have chosen to pass the buck.
Two weeks ago, the Biden Administration released a report that attempted to shift the blame for its shameful exodus from Afghanistan from the president to the previous administration. The purpose was a transparent attempt to absolve President Biden of the blame for the consequences of his own catastrophic miscalculations.
Those consequences included dead American soldiers, stranded American citizens and betrayed Afghan allies as well as an image of weakness that undoubtedly encouraged Vladimir Putin to launch his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
To be clear, while President Trump did plan to remove troops by May 2021, his plan was contingent on circumstance — meaning specific criteria must be met before moving on. That year, the Taliban rapidly began gaining territory in the north of Afghanistan. By July, United States troops were ordered to leave Bagram Air Base, our most significant base in providing a deterrence of Taliban incursions, a forward position for staging key assets and providing training to Afghans.
Even if the administration still believed complete withdrawal was appropriate at this time, doing so before a safer, more orderly withdrawal of civilians and important assets — not to mention Afghan partners who risked their and their families lives to help the U.S. military — defies explanation.
President Biden’s failure to understand the military realities on the ground, the strength and prowess of the Taliban forces and the contrasting weakness of the Afghan military was key to the quick collapse of stability and our sudden evacuation.
His apparent haste to beat a political deadline, the approaching 20year mark of the Afghanistan conflict, certainly did not enhance the decision-making process.
President Biden inherited a complicated, dynamic situation, but certainly not one which compelled him to act in the manner he did. There is also no evidence the Biden Administration even tried to engage or consult with its predecessors in a meaningful way on its prior plans to proceed if conditions had been met.
Twenty years of policy and effort obviously bear the mark of multiple administrations and Congresses. However, as Commander in Chief, President Biden cannot point fingers and blame anyone else for this national embarrassment of this ending but himself.
His failure on the international stage has surely and certainly emboldened our enemies.
