Washington [US], April 7: The administration of US President Joe Biden has released a long-awaited secret report on the chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
The withdrawal, completed on August 30, 2021, shocked Americans and its allies as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan after 20 years.
13 US soldiers and 170 Afghans were killed in a suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport as crowds were trying to leave Afghanistan on Western evacuation flights.
In the summary of the report sent to Congress, the White House stressed that President Joe Biden did the best he could and largely blamed the previous administration, as well as the source of intelligence, according to AFP.
The report stated that the agreement between the Trump administration and the Taliban put the Biden administration in a difficult position, when it did not outline a specific withdrawal plan but only set a deadline for the withdrawal of troops.
At the same time, the report said that no intelligence agency predicted the catastrophic collapse of Afghan government forces. "It's clear we didn't act correctly" on intelligence, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted.
"After more than 20 years, more than $2 trillion and support for Afghanistan's 300,000-strong army, the speed and ease with which the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan suggest that no scenario can change," he said. change that trajectory, except that the US military must expand its long-term presence," the report said.
After all, President Biden "refused to send another generation of Americans to join a war that should have ended for America long ago," the report said.
In a post on Truth Social on April 6, former President Donald Trump criticized the successor administration and said it was they who were responsible for the "poor surrender in Afghanistan". "Biden is responsible, no one else!" Trump wrote.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, who is leading the Republican investigation into the troop withdrawal, also criticized and blamed the Biden administration for "huge failures in planning. planning and execution".
Source: ThanhNien Newspaper
