by Mike Brest at Washington Examiner
President Joe Biden denied the firsthand accounts made by multiple U.S. military leaders who were in Afghanistan during the final days of the mission back in August.
The president told NBC’s Lester Holt he’s “rejecting” the accounts given by military leaders who pointed blame at the administration for costly foot-dragging in the botched withdrawal. Thirteen service members were killed and hundreds of Americans were left behind in the chaotic emergency evacuation after the Taliban’s recapture of the war-torn country following the U.S.’s 20-year occupation.
ISIS-K NEARLY DOUBLED IN SIZE FOLLOWING TALIBAN PRISON RELEASES: UNITED NATIONS
“No. No. That’s not what I was told,” Biden told Holt when pressed on whether the claims were accurate, adding, “Yes, I am. I’m rejecting them.”
The Army report, which brought renewed scrutiny to the disastrous pullout, includes sworn testimony from military leaders who said the administration was slow to act, though Biden has repeatedly defended the administration from criticism.
“In my opinion, the [National Security Council] was not seriously planning for an evacuation,” Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Farrell Sullivan told investigators.
He said an NSC member worried that an evacuation would suggest “we have failed,” during an Aug. 6 meeting, which was slightly more than a week before a full-scale noncombatant evacuation operation was launched. The details of the report were uncovered in a Freedom of Information Act request.
Sullivan, who sought weeks earlier to prepare for an evacuation, though others within the administration feared it could speed the collapse of the Afghan government, also said conversations with the embassy were “like pulling teeth” until early August.
A White House official took exception with the military’s characterizations.
“We took office with a set deadline to withdraw but no plan,” the official told the Washington Examiner on Friday. “We immediately went to work planning for every aspect of leaving, including for a NEO that eventually helped more than 120,000 individuals fly out of Kabul in a few short weeks. Those months of extensive preparation, like the deployment of troops in the region, are reflected in the public record and the CENTCOM interviews. We reject any assertion that claims otherwise.”
The U.S. did not start full-scale evacuation efforts…
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