Blinken faces GOP critics in Congress who say Afghanistan withdrawal ‘lit the world on fire’

By FARNOUSH AMIRI and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified Wednesday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, facing questions for the last time about some of the darkest moments of Joe Biden’s presidency: the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The hearing comes at the twilight of Blinken’s diplomatic career, with only weeks left before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, and at the end of the chairmanship of Rep. Michael McCaul, who will no longer lead the committee in the next Congress. It’s the capstone to nearly four years of animosity between the two men over the end of America’s longest war.

“This catastrophic event was the beginning of a failed foreign policy that lit the world on fire,” McCaul, a Texas Republican, said in his opening statement. “I welcome your testimony today and hope you use this opportunity to take accountability for the disastrous withdrawal.”

Blinken opened his appearance before the committee by turning to families of U.S. forces killed in the withdrawal and apologizing to them. Cries of “genocide” and other protests from demonstrators in the audience repeatedly interrupted his testimony.

Blinken again defended the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal, saying that the pullout deal that Trump negotiated with the Taliban before leaving office left him no viable alternative.

“To the extent President Biden faced a choice, it was between ending the war or escalating it,” Blinken said. “Had he not followed through on his predecessor’s commitment, attacks on our forces and allies would have resumed and the Taliban’s assault on the country’s major cities would have commenced.”

His long-awaited testimony comes months after House Republicans issued a scathing report on their investigation into the withdrawal, blaming the disastrous end on Biden’s administration. They downplayed Trump’s role in the failures even though he had signed the withdrawal deal with the Taliban.

The Republican-led review laid out the final months of military and civilian failures, following Trump’s February 2020 withdrawal deal, that allowed America’s fundamentalist Taliban enemy to sweep through and conquer all of the country even before the last U.S. officials flew out on Aug. 30, 2021. The chaotic exit left behind many American citizens, Afghan battlefield allies, women activists and others at risk from the Taliban.

Previous investigations and analyses have pointed to a systemic failure spanning the last four presidential administrations and concluded that Biden and Trump share the heaviest blame.

Originally Published: December 11, 2024 at 10:00 AM PST

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