US didn't anticipate Afghanistan exit chaos

Key failures by both the Trump and Biden administrations contributed to a chaotic and deadly end to the two-decade US presence in Afghanistan, according to a State Department review that was published Friday. 

Among these included that senior officials did not prepare for worst case scenarios and appreciate how quickly the situation could devolve, key leadership roles were not empowered with authority and firmly held policy positions failed to take into account dissenting opinions.

The review focused on the State Department’s responsibilities during the period where the US was ending its military presence in Afghanistan, offering recommendations on how the agency could better prepare for and respond to extraordinary crises in unstable security environments.

The report, called the After Action Review, was commissioned by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the aftermath of the US pullout of Afghanistan, which formally ended on August 31, 2021.

It was released with little notice and fanfare in the afternoon of a holiday weekend, when Congress is out of session and the administration is unlikely to face public questioning from journalists at press briefings. 

It also comes nearly two years after US officials first committed to critically reviewing the pullout from Afghanistan, which marked one of the lowest moments for President Biden’s term and has contributed to criticism, and raised concern over how the US government prepares for evacuating Americans in times of crisis.

While the US managed to evacuate more than 120,000 people from Afghanistan over the course of two weeks, including more than 85,000 Afghans, the disorganized effort led to a swell of people rushing to the gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport over several days, and a subsequent suicide bomb blast killing 13 US service members and more than 150 Afghans.

The administration drew intense criticism for the chaos and the State Department in particular is the target of Republican criticisms that the agency failed to prepare for a worst-case scenario and that resulted in more than 100,000 Afghan allies left behind.

The report notes that diplomats serving in Kabul that were forced to shutter their operations at the embassy and establish an ad-hoc evacuation plan at the airport confronted a task of unprecedented scale and complexity.