"At the same time, the 87-page report — less than half of which was publicly released on Friday because much of it is classified — points to several factors largely beyond the Biden administration’s control to explain the chaos that followed the government’s collapse and does not directly condemn the Biden administration. It says, as Biden officials have many times before, that the coronavirus pandemic severely limited operations at the U.S. Embassy in the months ahead of the withdrawal, making it difficult to process special visas for Afghans hoping to leave the country ahead of the Taliban’s return. The report also suggests that the Trump administration had committed to withdrawing troops from Afghanistan after a 20-year occupation without planning for how the United States might maintain a diplomatic presence in the country and what to do about the tens of thousands of Afghans who, fearing Taliban reprisals, had applied for those special visas. The report says its review team “was struck by the differences in style and decision making” between the Trump and Biden administrations, “most notably the relative lack of an interagency process in the Trump administration and the intense interagency process that characterized the initial period of the Biden administration.” “This included a particular focus very early in the Biden administration on the fate of those eligible” for American visas and assistance, which the report says led to “successful” early steps to address a huge backlog of Afghans who had begun requesting to leave the country. “That movement, however, was still in its early days as Kabul fell to the Taliban,” the reports finds."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Michael Crowley, “State Department Report on Afghanistan Exit Urges ‘Worst Case’ Thinking”, New York Times, (June 30, 2023)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%932021)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
32 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) →
Related Quotes
"Despite efforts by the Taliban to disrupt these critical aid shipments, we will deliver food and seeds, vaccines and …"
"The United States, supported by many nations, is bringing justice to the terrorists in Afghanistan. We're making prog…"
"I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country. Many…"
""Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age" was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals... But an insta…"
"If the Taliban is given evidence that Osama bin Laden is involved [...] we would be ready to hand him over to a third…"
"America has given evidence to other countries, we do not say anything. If Americans are convinced that they have soli…"
"Their antiwar movement] mantra was: "Afghanistan, where the world's richest country rains bombs on the world's poores…"
"Huey: So Colonel, you guys aren’t dropping food anymore? What happened to all that concern about the starving Afghan …"
"Question: How do you see the development in Afghanistan?"
"The Taliban has been given the opportunity to surrender all the terrorists in Afghanistan and to close down their cam…"