White House says Donald Trump ‘severely constrained’ options on Afghanistan pullout

The White House sought to blame a lack of preparation by the Trump administration for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, in a summary of reports on the removal of American forces from the country.

“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” according to the 12-page White House account of classified reports shared with Congress on Thursday.

The Biden administration has been heavily criticised for misreading the situation on the ground in Afghanistan before it withdrew troops in August 2021, and for ploughing ahead with the pullout even as the Taliban captured the country’s main cities and took control of Kabul, the capital.

As thousands of people attempting to flee the country surrounded Hamid Karzai International Airport in the final days of the US’s military presence, a terrorist attack at the gates of the airport killed a number of people, including Afghan civilians and 13 members of the US military.

The summary report accused Donald Trump of making a rushed deal with the Taliban for the removal of American forces without outlining a plan to meet that goal. A spokesperson for the former president did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Biden administration also acknowledged intelligence mistakes that failed to predict the rapid deterioration of the security situation and the Taliban’s ability to swiftly overtake the country.

In a tacit acknowledgment that the US should have begun the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan sooner, the Biden administration said it had since altered its policies, and as a result prioritised “earlier evacuations” when faced with “degrading” security situations in Ukraine and Ethiopia.

“When the capitals of both countries were threatened, the president directed adjustments in the posture of the embassies by drawing down or evacuating embassy personnel,” the report said.

US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that President Joe Biden stood by his decisions and had not received any intelligence predicting the Taliban would take over Kabul so swiftly or that Afghanistan’s then-president Ashraf Ghani would flee the country.

“First and most critically, the president’s decision to end the war in Afghanistan was the right one,” Kirby said.

In the lead-up to the evacuation of American troops, the Biden administration privately warned about the potential risk of collapse but did not “broadcast loudly and publicly” a potential worst-case scenario to avoid signalling a lack of confidence in Afghanistan’s security forces or government, the report said.

The US said it now eschews this approach and “[errs] on the side of aggressive communication about risks”, such as when it released intelligence in the lead-up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.