Blinken reveals 'several thousand' US green card holders and 100 citizens are still in Afghanistan: Top diplomat says 'we inherited a deadline, not a plan' as he is grilled by Republicans on the withdrawal
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday praised the 'extraordinary effort' to extract Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul after the fall of the U.S. backed government, defending the chaotic pullout and the failure to predict the sudden collapse of the Afghan government.
'Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained,' testified in the first major hearing on the U.S. withdrawal.
Republicans kicked off the hearing by pounding President Biden's top diplomat, who helped oversee the evacuation.
'This was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions,' said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). 'I never thought in my lifetime that I would see an unconditional surrender to the Taliban.'
'Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained,' said Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the start of blockbuster hearings on the US pullout from Afghanistan
'The American people don’t like to lose. Especially not to the terrorists. But that is exactly what has happened,' said McCaul.
'The freedoms our troops helped secure for Afghan women and girls have been stripped away in a matter of weeks,' he continued. This, in my judgment, is not only disgraceful, it also dishonors the men and women who served our nation so bravely.'
Blinken, who testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee via a webcam, also plans to testify in the Senate on Tuesday in the first of a round of blockbuster hearings on the calamitous conclusion to the 20-year war.
He said as of last week, there were 'about 100 American citizens in Afghanistan who had told us that they wish to leave the country.'
He said 60 were offered seats on planes that left the country from Mazar-i-sharif last week, and that 30 accepted.
Of those US citizens who remain, some wanted 'more time to make arrangements,' some wanted to be with extended family, and some had 'medical issues.'
Later in the hearing, under questioning he revealed that 'the best estimates are that there are several thousand green card holders in Afghanistan,' many of whom also may want to come to the US.
'We will have, by the end of the month, we would have brought a total of approximately 60,000,' said Blinken. He said that amount included special immigrant visas applicants as well as other Afghans.
'Some of those would have been through the SIV process. All of them, regardless of SIV status, will have gone through rigorous security checks.'
'It'd be nice if it was done before we brought these people to the United States of America,' said Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.),
In one tense exchange, Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina read a long op-ed culminating in a call for Blinken to resign, after blaming him for the attack that killed 13 US troops at the Kabul airport.
"Let me simply thank the member for his support for the men and women of the State Department. I appreciated that part of his statement,' the top diplomat Blinken responded.
Rep. Gerry Connoly (D-Va.) then observed that 'If i were the Member of Congress who committed one of the most grievous acts in a State of the Union Address when the president of the United States, Mr. Obama, was our guest to shout out "You Lie!" I might take care about enumerating other alleged lies in a hearing with the secretary of state,' he said.
Pressed by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ind.) on why Biden kept Trump's deal with the Taliban to withdraw US troops, even as he tossed other Trump agreements, Blinken said the Taliban would have resumed attacks on US troops in that case.
'Had the president not followed through on the commitments that his predecessor made, those attacks would have resumed, we would have re-upped the war in Afghanistan after 20 years for another five, ten, or 20 years. We would have had to have sent more forces back in,' he said.
Blinken insisted that the Biden administration had prepared for worst-case scenarios in Afghanistan as he faced irate lawmakers.
And he again pointed the finger at the Trump administration for negotiating a US troop withdrawal with the Taliban, and brought the US force down to 2,500.
'We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan,' he said.
The hearing began with a statement by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), indicating that the majority would try to defend the administration and put the chaotic final weeks into the context of the longer war.
'Twenty – that’s the number of years we have been fighting in Afghanistan. A war that’s been going on for 20 years is a disaster,' said Meeks. He said he would welcome information on 'what exactly a smooth withdrawal from a messy, chaotic war looks like,' said Meeks, who like Biden voted to authorize the 2001 attacks.
'The American people don’t like to lose. Especially not to the terrorists. But that is exactly what has happened,' said ranking Republican Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas)
He called it a war 'that should have ended 19 years ago with a different outcome.'
Panel chair Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) asked 'what exactly a smooth withdrawal from a messy, chaotic war looks like'
Long-distance information: Blinken testified remotely Monday to the House Foreign Affairs Committee
Blinken was grilled on the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan
Members of Joint Forces Headquarters get prepared to deploy to Afghanistan to assist in the draw down from the area in this handout photo taken on Friday Aug. 13, 2021 and issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). With security rapidly deteriorating in Afghanistan, the United States planned to send in 3,000 troops to help evacuate some personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul
The famously mild-mannered top US diplomat was expected to face two days of contentious grilling before Congress, the first opportunity for political rivals to directly challenge the administration over the Taliban's swift win as President Joe Biden ended the 20-year US military mission.
Blinken was to tell the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Biden administration was 'intensely focused' on the safety of Americans and had been 'constantly assessing' the staying power of the Western-backed government, 'considering multiple scenarios.'
'Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while US forces remained,' Blinken was to say, according to prepared remarks.
'Nonetheless, we planned and exercised a wide range of contingencies,' he said.
'The evacuation was an extraordinary effort -- under the most difficult conditions imaginable -- by our diplomats, military, and intelligence professionals.'
'In the end, we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety,' he said.
Blinken said that prior planning made it possible to draw down the embassy within 48 hours, and secure the airport and start evacuations within 72 hours.
The United States and its allies ultimately evacuated 124,000 people out of Afghanistan, one of the largest airlifts in history.
Lawmakers of the rival Republican party, seeing a vulnerability for Biden, have portrayed the operation as chaotic and accused the president of abandoning Americans to the fate of the Taliban.
Representative Mike Waltz and Senator Lindsey Graham, in a joint statement last week, said it was 'inexcusable that the Biden administration allowed a terrorist regime to dictate the terms of allowing Americans to leave on their own with their families.'
The administration says only around 100 US citizens remain and that all had been contacted repeatedly by US diplomats, with some leaving after the withdrawal in line with promises by the Taliban.
Blinken, in the prepared remarks, stressed that former Republican president Donald Trump agreed to the withdrawal deal with the Taliban last year.
He repeated Biden's contention that the president had a choice between carrying out the pullout or sending more US troops into Afghanistan, putting them in harm's way and perpetuating America's longest war.
'There's no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining,' Blinken was to say.
'If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, and training did not suffice, why would another year, or five, or 10, make a difference?'
No comments