Afghan mess Don’s fault – sec’y of state

Nearly two weeks after the hastened withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the chaos and criticism that followed, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday blamed former President Donald Trump for dropping the ball.

Appearing via video link, Blinken told a House committee the U.S. had no good choices once it decided to pull all troops out of Afghanistan. “We inherited a deadline,” Blinken said. “We did not inherit the plan.”

Grilled by Republicans on why the withdrawal wasn’t delayed, Blinken said it wouldn’t have helped.

“There’s no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining,” he told lawmakers. “If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment and training did not suffice, why would another year, or five, or 10, make a difference?”

Blinken said Trump effectively tied President Biden’s hands by signing a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban without creating a viable plan for executing the withdrawal.

The nation’s top diplomat will remain on the hot seat over Afghanistan later this week when he appears before a similar Senate panel.

Along with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Blinken has faced bruising attacks over the lightning-fast collapse of the previous Afghan government and the chaotic first hours of the effort to get Americans and allies out of the country.

But Blinken said that the withdrawal and the airlift that plucked more than 100,000 people to safety was eventually a surprising success story.

GOP lawmakers angrily rejected his claims, calling Biden a failed leader for presiding over what they called a major black eye for the U.S. “We witnessed Afghanistan rapidly fall to the Taliban,” said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.). “This did not have to happen.”

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) repeatedly accused Biden of lying about the end of the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-Queens, Nassau), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, hit back at the GOP lawmakers, accusing them of playing partisan politics. “[Republicans] are really just angry that the president made good on his pledge to end America’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan,” he said.