US evacuation
When Heydari arrived in the U.S. on the evacuation flight, immigration officials reportedly persuaded him to cancel his request to enter. He would, however, refuse to go back to the Taliban-controlled South Asian country. This is a representational image. Cristina Quicler/Getty Images

After-action review of the messy U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was unveiled by the White House Thursday.

It didn't take any responsibility for its role in the evacuation mission that led to the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members in an ISIS suicide bombing, reported New York Post.

In the 12-page review, former President Donald Trump was blamed for American troop drawdowns from Afghanistan and also for negotiating the Doha Agreement with the Taliban. Under the 2020 deal, the U.S. agreed to withdraw all U.S. troops by May 2021.

As National Security Council spokesman John Kirby took questions from reporters about the review, President Joe Biden walked out the front door of the White House and took a helicopter. He was flying out to spend the Easter holiday weekend at Camp David.

The document said that during the transition from Trump's Administration to Biden's, the outgoing administration gave no plans on how to "conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies."

It said that there were no such plans in place when Biden became the President, even with the "agreed-upon full withdrawal just over three months away."

The name "Trump" was mentioned nearly 15 times while "accountable" appeared just once in the document. Still, it wasn't in reference to the U.S. taking responsibility for any of the mess that happened during the evacuation.

Kirby told reporters that Biden had the intention of ending the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan even before taking office. He also blamed Trump for promising the Taliban that the U.S. withdrawal would happen.

There are videos of desperate Afghans running after a U.S. military plane, which was flying out from the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Some climbed onto the landing gear and some fell down and died. These have become the defining images of the withdrawal and led to massive criticism of the Biden administration all over the world, reported VOA.

Kirby had an issue with reporters who characterized the withdrawal as chaotic. He said that the first few days were very tough, and that they were very hectic because "we didn't have a force presence at Karzai International Airport."

© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.