4 things to know about Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal report
2. Biden vehemently defends evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies
The document contained a detailed account of the process undertaken by the Biden administration to ensure the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies who assisted the U.S. in the decades-long effort to remove the Taliban from power and keep the terrorist organization at bay as part of the global war on terror. It cited testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the efforts to get Americans out of Afghanistan. “In March, we began urging them to leave the country,” he recalled.
“In total, between March and August, we sent 19 specific messages with that warning, as well as offers of help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets,” Blinken added. The administration reported “making 55,000 phone calls and sending 33,000 emails” in an effort to “help facilitate evacuations for those who wished to leave.”
In press conferences that took place in the final days of the evacuation operations, administration officials acknowledged that some Americans and Afghan allies were left behind. Specifically, Commander of the United States Central Command, Gen. Frank Mackenzie, told reporters that the U.S. “didn’t get out everybody that we wanted,” while Biden estimated that “90% of Americans” in Afghanistan were successfully evacuated, leaving about 100 to 200 U.S. citizens behind.
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A year-and-a-half after the evacuation operations ended, the Biden administration remains confident that its evacuation efforts were a success and it continues to assist those who would like to leave Afghanistan: “Ultimately, the U.S. government evacuated over 6,000 American citizens from the country. We are continuing to facilitate the departures of American citizens who chose to stay or returned to Afghanistan despite our grave warnings.”
The administration touted the successful evacuation of more than 950 American citizens who have sought to leave since the troop withdrawal. In testimony to the United States House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee on March 23, Blinken told members of Congress that “about 175” Americans remain in Afghanistan, clarifying that “44 of them are ready to leave and we are working to effectuate their departure.”
As for the Afghans “who worked with and for us” in the war on terror, the Biden administration reported that more than 100,000 were brought to the U.S. after undergoing vetting.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
