President Joe Biden was trying to avoid accountability for his withdrawal from Afghanistan before the withdrawal even began.
A report from the Washington Free Beacon this week found that, in June, Biden waived a mandate that would have forced him to give Congress a report about the effect of a withdrawal on the “U.S. counterterrorism mission against the Islamic State, al Qaeda, and associated forces; the risk to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan; and the risk for the expansion of existing or the formation of new international terrorist safe havens inside Afghanistan.” The law also required the Pentagon to update Congress on “the threat posed by the Taliban and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan” and “the capacity of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to effectively prevent or defend against attacks by the Taliban” before using its budget to reduce troop levels in the region.
But, citing national security concerns, Biden announced in a June 8 letter to Congress that he would waive the mandate, assuring lawmakers that he planned to “withdraw responsibly, deliberately, and safely, in full coordination with our allies and partners.”
Now that Biden’s withdrawal is complete, it is clear he did no such thing. Hundreds of Americans were abandoned behind enemy lines, billions of dollars of military equipment fell into the hands of Taliban terrorists, and 13 U.S. service members were killed in an attack that could have been prevented.
Biden’s retreat was nothing short of a disaster, but it didn’t need to be this way. Had he complied with the congressional mandate, which was passed as part of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, our lawmakers would have had a chance to raise questions about Biden’s plan and make sure that it really was as airtight as he had claimed.
Biden claims this process would have put our national security at risk by broadcasting our exit strategy to the rest of the world. But this concern was overstated. Biden could have provided Congress with a general breakdown of his strategy — Would Americans in the region be evacuated first? What would the evacuation process for Afghan allies look like?, etc. — without endangering American lives.
There’s a reason Biden didn’t want anyone asking these questions: He knew that his plan — get out every U.S. service member as quickly as possible and figure out the rest later — would not have withstood scrutiny. He would have had to admit that the intelligence community predicted a swift Taliban takeover and that at least some of his own military advisers objected to the rushed timing of his withdrawal.
Biden didn’t want to be told “No,” and this is the result: a national humiliation that has cost more than a dozen American lives and endangered hundreds more.
