Antony Blinken: US Secretary of State defends withdrawal from Afghanistan

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Antony Blinken: "hands tied"

Photo: Drew Angerer / AP

In his second hearing before Congress, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the proceedings in Afghanistan once again: The government had done its best under extremely difficult and chaotic conditions. Instead, Blinken blamed the Trump administration and its peace agreement with the Taliban in February 2020. As a result, his hands were tied, so Blinken. The rapid and unexpected collapse of the Afghan government led to the Taliban seizing power on August 15: "Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government troops in Kabul would collapse while the US troops remained," said Blinken.

Blinken's statements met with sharp criticism in the House of Representatives: The two leading members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Democrat Bob Menendez and Republican James Risch, described the withdrawal as a “debacle” in their opening speech: The implementation of the US withdrawal was “clearly flawed 'Said Menendez. The committee expected a "comprehensive statement". Risch spoke of a "pathetic failure." He accused the government of "incompetence." This resulted in a fatal attack on US soldiers and Afghan civilians at Kabul Airport. Internationally, the USA has lost credibility.

Senator Marco Rubio wanted to know how it came about that the intelligence information was so wrong.

He also blamed politics: "That was a failure of politics and planning," said Rubio.

"China, Russia and Iran see this as an incompetence that they could take advantage of."

In recent weeks, criticism of the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has been raised against the US State Department.

According to allegations, it did not act quickly enough to evacuate people at risk from the country after the Taliban came to power.

Blinken defended the withdrawal and the end of the US's longest war in 20 years as "the right thing".

He also pointed out that the US and its allies had managed to evacuate around 124,000 people despite significant difficulties.

ime / AP