Partisan divisions over the tumultuous 2021 withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan have become evident before Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. Republicans have attempted to link Kamala Harris to the incident in a congressional report.
In a scathing 250-page report, the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee criticised the Biden administration for its failure to predict the swift takeover by the Taliban and its lack of preparation for the organised evacuation of non-combatant personnel.
Despite the 20 years of efforts by America and its Nato allies to defeat them, the decision led to a disorganised evacuation effort and left many American civilians and US-allied Afghans stranded.
The report, authored by the committee’s Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, focusses on the alleged involvement of the US vice president, referencing her name 251 times. However, there is currently no evidence suggesting her direct involvement in the decisions that led to one of the most consequential foreign policy episodes of Joe Biden’s presidency.
In contrast, the committee’s interim report, which spans 115 pages, only mentioned Harris twice.
Democrats jumped on the contrast, accusing McCaul of exaggerating Harris’s involvement in the incident solely because she had taken over as the party’s presidential nominee.
According to the latest report titled “Wilful Blindness: An assessment of the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaos that followed,” Vice President Kamala Harris was present when President Biden made the decision to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan. She later mentioned this fact after President Biden issued the go-to-zero order.
The report’s front page features a prominent picture of Harris, positioned below Biden’s image and above that of Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, who played a more significant role in the withdrawal.
McCaul’s report states that Vice President Harris’ aide revealed her strong support for President Biden’s decision, despite warnings from senior leaders against withdrawing. According to Ron Klain, President Biden’s former Chief of Staff, Vice President Harris, played a significant role in shaping the administration’s Afghanistan policy.
Democrats criticised the Republicans for allegedly using the withdrawal for political gain, while noting that the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, made the initial decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan during his presidency.
According to Gregory Meeks, the Democrats’ ranking member on the committee, Republicans are now asserting that Harris was responsible for the US withdrawal. However, it is worth noting that she is only mentioned three times in the 3,288 pages of the committee’s interview transcripts. Meeks highlighted this in a 59-page rebuttal to McCaul’s report.
It is highly probable that Harris’s alleged involvement in the withdrawal will come up during her upcoming televised debate with Trump in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Sharon Yan, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, criticised the report, stating that it relied on selective facts, misleading descriptions, and preconceived biases.
She stated that ending our longest war was the correct decision and that our nation is now stronger as a result.
Harris’s campaign has been highlighting her involvement in Biden’s foreign policy decisions ever since she took over as the Democratic nominee. However, she has provided minimal information regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan. According to the House report, she was on a trip to Singapore and Vietnam during that time and publicly promised that the administration would ensure the safety of Afghan women and children.
The conclusion states that her promise has clearly not been fulfilled.
The Democrats’ claim that the Afghan pullout was used for campaign purposes is reminiscent of the criticisms surrounding Trump’s controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery last month, where he marked the third anniversary of the event.
The campaign of the former US president faced criticism from the US army when its staff members were involved in a confrontation with a cemetery worker. The worker was trying to enforce rules against filming and photographing in a section dedicated to service members who lost their lives in the Afghan and Iraqi conflicts.
Images and videos later surfaced of Trump standing beside the graves of the personnel who tragically lost their lives in a suicide bombing near Kabul airport. This devastating attack claimed the lives of 13 US personnel and approximately 170 Afghans. Trump emphasized that the families of the fallen servicemen had invited him, insisting that his visit was not a campaign event.