Outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally expressed remorse that the Biden administration had not done more to protect the 13 US troops who were killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“I think today, especially of the 13 heroes that we lost at Abbey Gate. And I deeply regret we did not do more and could not do more to protect them,” Blinken said as he testified Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “And to those families who are here with us today, you’re in my thoughts and my prayers.”
Blinken, 62, mixed a conciliatory tone with a defensive message during his hotly anticipated appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which came after months of bickering with the panel to answer questions about its probe into the botched bug out from Kabul in August 2021.
The secretary sought to deflect some of the blame over the debacle on the situation he inherited and stressed that he “firmly” believes President Biden’s decision to pull out was the “right one.”
“Any attempt to understand, learn from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has to be put in the proper context of what’s preceded it,” Blinken stressed, calling the Doha agreement negotiated under the Trump administration flawed.
“By January 2021, the Taliban was in the strongest military position it had been since 9/11 [and] we had the smallest number of US forces in Afghanistan since 2001,” he said, arguing that the other option would’ve been for Biden to send in thousands more troops with at “best the prospect of restoring a stalemate.”
“All of us, including myself, wrestled with what we could have done differently during that period and over the preceding two decades.”
America’s top diplomat had feuded with the panel for six months over the course of its roughly two-year inquiry into the turbulent withdrawal, stonewalling two subpoena demands and prompting the committee to vote for a resolution holding him in contempt after he missed a Sept. 3 date to appear.
That same month, the House Foreign Affairs Committee dropped its blistering report on the hasty pull-out from Afghanistan, the release date of which happened to preempt the 2024 presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump.
Blinken, who is one of a handful of outstanding key officials from which the panel sought testimony for its probe of the Afghanistan withdrawal, acknowledged that he hadn’t read the full report.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas), who is term-limited and will be succeeded in the role by Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), locked down Blinken’s testimony last month, following weeks of negotiations.
McCaul greeted Blinken by taking note of their “cordial” rapport before pivoting to a stern lecture about his stonewalling and stewardship over the debacle in Afghanistan. The Texas rep also indicated that he has “admiration” for Biden’s cabinet official despite their staunch differences on the withdrawal.
“I have to say I’m disappointed,” McCaul said bluntly to Blinken, chiding him for “showing up only after violating a congressional subpoena.”
“With the warning bells sounding loudly, … ringing loudly, you denied the imminent and dangerous threats to American interest,” the chairman added. “It was the deadliest day of the United States presence in … Afghanistan since 2012 and the saddest thing, sir, is that it did not have to happen.”
Republican members on the panel took turns swiping at Blinken with stern lectures about the Biden administration’s failures regarding Afghanistan. Democrats largely played defense, harping on the Trump administration’s role in the Taliban’s roar back to power.
Throughout the hearing, Blinken repeatedly rejected suggestions that remaining in Afghanistan was simply a question of leaving troops there. He was adamant that wasn’t actually the choice the Biden administration faced due to the Taliban’s constant gaining of ground.
“The choice was not between the status quo and ending the war. The choice was between ending the war and escalating it, because again, they would have gone back to attacking us,” Blinken stressed, referring to the Taliban.
Simultaneously, he maintained that the rapid demise of the Afghan government had caught the administration off-guard.
“I was on the phone with [former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani] at night on the 14th of August, and he told me [they] were working on trying to get an agreement to move forward,” Blinken recounted. “He told me … if the Taliban refused, he was going to stay and fight. That was on August, 14, he was gone on August, 15.”
When pressed about the biggest mistake that the Biden administration made, Blinken said that the debacle was a lesson in the need to “Continuously question the assumptions.”
“I think the most fundamental mistake was not recognizing the fragility of the Afghan government, the Afghan security forces and not anticipating [that] across the government,” he said. “I take responsibility for this, along with the other departments.”
McCaul repeatedly hammered Blinken, chiding him, “You were the captain of this ship” and later gasping, “I don’t know how you can say that, sir, with a straight face” after the secretary repeatedly indicated there weren’t serious concerns about the Afghan government rapidly imploding.
Ranking member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) defended the Biden administration and accused Republicans on the panel of politicizing the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“We should have conducted proper oversight of the policy decisions made across not one administration, but four administrations, not only for the months in which President Biden was in office for the sole purpose of politics,” Meeks jabbed chided.
Democrats also harped on the Doha agreement, which had been negotiated under the Trump administration between the US government and the Taliban without the inclusion of the Afghan government.
Blinken used that as ammunition against Republicans on the panel, acknowledging that the Taliban were in violation of the agreement during the withdrawal but countering that it was in violation during the draw-downs of forces under Trump and “during the time that we were in office before the evacuation.”
This was McCaul’s last hearing as chairman of the committee. He also teased that the committee is negotiating testimony with outgoing National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, though noted that may be classified.
While acknowledging the grim realities on the ground in Afghanistan, including the elimination of women’s rights, Blinken held out some very cautious optimism that the outlook there may improve over time.
“This is a profoundly difficult period for the Afghan people, especially Afghanistan’s women and girls, but I believe the final chapter has not been written on Afghanistan,” Blinken said. “Because of our two-decade commitment to Afghanistan, there are many more women who have the opportunity to go to school, to connect with the wider world to imagine a different life for themselves.”
“And these women, their experiences, their hopes will … one day pave a path to an Afghanistan where all people can actually choose their own futures,” he added.
Blinken’s Wednesday appearance was up against the clock because afterward, he needed to jet over to the tumultuous Middle East and meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein
On the way out, angry anti-Israel protesters greeted him with jeers that his “legacy is genocide” and “you’re a war criminal.”
