State department’s findings also reflect poorly on Antony Blinken as it outlines the agency’s failure to expand crisis taskforce
A US state department report on Friday criticized the handling of the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan, saying decisions by President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw troops had “serious consequences for the viability” and security of the former US-backed government.
Adverse findings in the report also reflected badly on Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, without naming him. They included the department’s failure to expand its crisis-management taskforce as the Taliban advanced on Kabul in August 2021 and the lack of a senior diplomat “to oversee all elements of the crisis response”.
“Naming a 7th floor principal … would have improved coordination across different lines of effort,” said the report, referring to the state department’s top floor where Blinken and senior diplomats have offices.
The US troop pullout and evacuation of US and allied officials, citizens and Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution saw crowds of desperate Afghans trying to enter Kabul airport and men clinging to aircraft as they taxied down runways.
An Islamic State suicide bomber killed 13 US servicemembers and more than 150 Afghans outside an airport gate.
The state department released 24 pages of an 85-page After Action Report – the rest remained classified – on its handling of the evacuation operation launched as the last US-led international forces departed after 20 years of backing successive Kabul governments against the Taliban.
