2023-07-01 00:02:10
A long-awaited official US report concluded that those responsible for the mass evacuations from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 were hampered by the lack of centralized crisis management, ambiguity in decision-making, and ambiguous public messages from Washington at the time.
The State Department’s internal report finished more than a year ago, but was published Friday, the eve of the long weekend in the United States marking the Fourth of July National Day.
The report called for reforms that include appointing only one official in any future crisis, and separating planning for emergency measures from political considerations.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ordered this review following scenes of chaos at Kabul International Airport in August 2021 when the US military organized a massive evacuation operation following the return of the Taliban to power.
The report praised the success of this air bridge, which allowed the evacuation of 125,000 people, including 6,000 Americans. However, he indicated that the evacuation process faced “major challenges” related to the fact that senior officials in President Joe Biden’s administration “did not take clear decisions” from the outset regarding the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans.
The report added that “continuous changes in directives, and the message that was sent from Washington (…) increased confusion.”
The report stated that the Biden administration inherited delays in visa application files that had accumulated during Donald Trump’s administration.
US intelligence believed that the pro-Western Afghan government would be able to keep control of Kabul for “weeks or even months”.
The report stated that “what hindered to some extent preparing for the crisis and planning” the response to it was “the fear of sending the wrong signal, especially a message that might suggest that the United States no longer trusts the Afghan government” and thus hastening its downfall.
The report suggested that evacuation programs be put in place on a routine basis, while recent press reports spoke of US preparations in the event of a crisis in Taiwan.
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