Blinken subpoenaed to testify on US Afghanistan withdrawal

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Sep 2024 00:12
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Michael McCaul is threatening to hold Blinken in contempt if he fails to appear before the committee on September 19.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken tells the Senate Appropriations Committee that the US should immediately send aid to "Israel" and Ukraine at the Capitol in Washington on October 31, 2023. (AP)

US House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul has filed a subpoena to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requesting that he testify about America's exit from Afghanistan in 2021.

Issued Tuesday, the subpoena orders Blinken to appear before the committee on September 19 or face contempt charges.

"The Committee is holding this hearing because the Department of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the senior authority during the August non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO)," McCaul explained in a letter to Blinken.

"As Secretary of State throughout the withdrawal and NEO, you were entrusted to lead these efforts and to secure the safe evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies...You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization."

According to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, Blinken testified regarding the matter over 14 times and is unavailable on the committee's recommended dates.

Miller expressed that "it is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the Committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena."

McCaul's decision comes after a protracted dispute between the committee and the State Department over access to papers relating to the US departure from Afghanistan, which Republicans have characterized as chaotic and botched.

The State Department issued its Afghanistan report on June 30, blaming both the Trump and Biden administrations for the catastrophic pullout in August 2021.

According to the unclassified report, Afghanistan After Action Review (AAR), "The decisions of both President Trump and President Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security." The team found that during both administrations, "there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow."

Afghanistan withdrawal was 'complete failure' of US leadership: Pompeo

Around this time last year, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan was called a "complete failure of [US] leadership."

According to him, the analysis published by the State Department on the matter serves as a cover-up for President Joe Biden's administration.

"The Biden Admin's Afghanistan report is a cover-up. They try to pass the blame but don't explain why they abandoned our conditions-based approach ... A complete failure of leadership," Pompeo posted on X.

The report that Pompeo is referring to is one that was released on June 30. It is an analysis of US actions from January 2020 to August 2021 and involves an acknowledgment of the shortcomings and miscalculated decisions carried out by former President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in orchestrating the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

"The catastrophic handling of Afghanistan encouraged [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to invade Ukraine. Weakness is provocative, and we'll be paying for these mistakes for years," Pompeo added.

According to the report, the Trump and Biden administrations failed to consider "worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow" and the sudden withdrawal of troops deprived envoys of the necessary assistance.

It further said that the government failed to take into consideration that negotiations with the Taliban would enable a small contingent of troops to provide the security the US embassy needs.

It also said that the decision to turn Bagram Air Base over to the Afghan authorities left US forces to rely solely on Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport to evacuate people.

"Critically, the decision to hand over Bagram Air Base to the Afghan government meant that Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) would be the only avenue for a possible noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO)," the document read.

A look back

The United States, under former President George W. Bush, authorized the use of force against those he claimed were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, therefore putting Afghanistan in the US' iron sight, despite the perpetrators being actually Saudis. Through that authorization, Washington took unconstitutional measures permitting the government to invade Afghanistan, monitor the calls of US citizens, and establish the Guantanamo Bay detention camp notorious for its horrible conditions.

Event after event, government after government, the United States maintained its presence in the nation, keeping a hand in the Afghan rule after toppling the former administration, and despite its military and political advantages in the Afghan arena, Washington still suffered a loss described as one of its worst. To add insult to injury, the war on Afghanistan was America's longest war ever.

Year after year, the West-sponsored control of the country went on through successive presidents, administrations, and governments.

Despite the US and NATO allocating hundreds of billions of dollars to keep a foothold in Afghanistan, which included funding and training the Afghan National Army, the Taliban swept through the country like wildfire in August 2021, capturing nearly the key locations in just a week.

Meanwhile, the US “humiliating” exit took place over a period of two weeks, during which the US evacuated some 120,000 people, but left thousands of Afghans who assisted the US and its allies behind, not to mention a couple of hundred US nationals.

However, the story is far from over. Afghanistan's people are facing a crisis that is largely US-made.