Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign recently attempted to place the blame for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan on former President Donald Trump, despite the fact that the withdrawal occurred seven months after Trump had left office. The Harris-Walz campaign issued a statement claiming that Trump had left the Biden-Harris Administration with no plans for an orderly withdrawal, describing the situation as a dangerous and costly mess. In an event in New Hampshire, Vice President Harris highlighted that Trump had initiated negotiations with the Taliban and formulated a deal that was incomplete by the time he left office in January 2020.
Despite advice from his military advisers, President Biden decided to proceed with the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan in September 2021. This decision resulted in the Taliban seizing Kabul towards the end of August 2021, leading to the abrupt collapse of the U.S.-backed government and causing widespread panic. The chaos witnessed during the final days of the withdrawal saw hundreds of thousands of Americans, international civilians, and desperate Afghans scrambling for safety. The remaining U.S. troops, along with additional forces brought in to facilitate the withdrawal, undertook an extremely stressful and hazardous evacuation mission from the heavily fortified Kabul International Airport, which was surrounded by Taliban forces.
Tragically, a suicide bomber managed to breach security and detonated an explosive, killing 13 American service members. In the scramble, a U.S. drone strike also mistakenly killed a humanitarian aid worker and several members of his family. Despite these events played out on global television, no one within the Biden administration has been held accountable, and both President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have expressed no regrets over the withdrawal strategy.
In a recent development, President Trump attended a ceremony honoring the 13 service members who had lost their lives during the chaotic withdrawal, a move criticized by the Harris-Walz campaign as an attempt to politicize the disaster. This criticism provoked a backlash from the families of the fallen service members, who had invited Trump to the event. The campaign statement by Morgan Finkelstein, a National Security Spokesperson for Harris-Walz 2024, accused Trump of undermining U.S. strategy and endangering troops and allies with his actions.
Despite these assertions, there remains divided opinion among Republicans, some of whom also consider Trump's deal with the Taliban flawed. Axios reports indicate that the Biden-Harris administration had deliberated on various options before deciding on Biden's plan. National security expert Rebeccah Heinrichs criticized Harris’s campaign for attempting to deflect blame, asserting that the Biden-Harris administration has defended its decision and process concerning the Afghanistan withdrawal.
