Nobody Knew Who Was Leading Chaotic US Afghanistan Withdrawal, Report Finds

A report released Friday criticized the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, noting that the State Department's planning for the evacuation was hindered because "it was unclear who in the Department had the lead."

The State Department review confirmed that failures in "crisis management and awareness" led to a chaotic situation as troops left the country after 20 years, the Washington Post reported.

The State Department has released only 23 of 87 pages of the report, citing security concerns. Those pages cover the department's own handling of the crisis; the Trump administration's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan and the Biden administration's decision to continue with the withdrawal were considered beyond the scope of the investigation.

Nonetheless, the report notes that in both administrations, senior officials gave “insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios" for the withdrawal.

"Up until almost the time Kabul fell, most estimates were that the Afghan government and its forces could hold the city for weeks, if not months," the report states.

A number of factors - including vacancies in key State Department positions, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and an excess of faith in the capabilities of the Afghan government - are cited as reasons for the chaotic response.

The U.S. and its allies successfully evacuated more than 123,000 people from Afghanistan during the withdrawal, but tens of thousands more who had worked for the U.S. government and applied for special visas were left behind. The evacuation effort was marred by an ISIS bombing at the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, which killed more than 180 people including 13 U.S. troops.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has launched a congressional investigation into the withdrawal and threatened legal action against Secretary of State Antony Blinken to obtain copies of documents related to the evacuation.

More than 2,400 U.S. troops, more than 70,000 Afghan military and police, and at least 47,000 Afghan civilians were killed in the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan.