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Biden Afghanistan report mostly blames Trump for chaotic US withdrawal

President Joe Biden’s administration on Thursday released a summary of classified reports that mostly blamed the chaotic August 2021 US pullout from Afghanistan on his predecessor, Donald Trump, for failing to plan for the withdrawal he had agreed on with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).
The Democratic administration’s summary, drawn from top-secret State Department and Pentagon reviews sent to Congress, ignited angry reactions from Republican lawmakers who have demanded the documents for their own investigation of the pullout, Reuters reported.
Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, strongly criticized the administration. Biden ordered the pullout and was “responsible for the massive failures in planning and execution,” McCaul said in a statement.
McCaul, who is overseeing the Republican probe, charged that his multiple threats to subpoena the State Department and Pentagon reviews, which were completed last year, finally compelled the administration to send them to Congress.
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” said the summary of the reviews. “The outgoing administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans or Afghan allies.”
The document acknowledged that the administration learned lessons from the withdrawal, and now errs on the side of “aggressive communication” about risks in a destabilized security environment, read the report.
The withdrawal that ended America’s longest war saw tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee a return of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) rule besiege Kabul’s international airport, some handing babies to US troops or breaking in and hanging onto departing aircraft, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration also “gutted” refugee support services and virtually halted the processing of Special Immigration Visas for thousands of Afghans seeking evacuation because they worked for the US government, leaving a massive backlog, the summary said.
“Transitions matter. That’s the first lesson learned here. And the incoming administration wasn’t afforded much of one,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told a White House briefing.
The 12-page summary placed some responsibility for the chaos of the pullout and evacuation operation on flawed US intelligence and military assessments that failed to foresee the speed of the IEA takeover and predicted that Afghan security forces would hold Kabul, read the report.
“As late as May 2021, the assessment was still that Kabul would probably not come under serious pressure until late 2021 after US troops departed,” the summary said.
Pressed on whether Biden bore any responsibility for the Kabul airport disorder, Kirby replied, “Just by dint as the commander in chief, he assumed responsibility for the orders he gives.”
The 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest conflict involving US troops, was started under President George W. Bush and furthered under President Barack Obama. Over 100,000 people were killed and about 3 million displaced, according to data from the nonpartisan Costs of War project at Brown University.
Biden pledged during his 2020 campaign to end “forever wars” and withdraw from Afghanistan, although he postponed the pullout to which Trump had agreed by three months until the end of August 2021. The US-backed Kabul government collapsed on Aug. 15 as the IEA were entering the city.
The disorganization and chaos as the US left raised questions about Biden’s leadership, the quality of US intelligence and America’s commitment to human rights and thousands of Afghan citizens it had relied on, read the report.
A Daesh suicide bomber on Aug. 26, 2021, killed 13 US service members and 170 Afghans as they clustered outside a gate of the airport.
Thousands of American citizens, greencard holders, and Afghans who had applied for Special Immigration Visas were unable to leave on the largest US airlift on record.
Altogether, some 100,000 Americans, greencard holders and Afghans – many of whom were not vetted – were flown out before the US withdrawal ended just shy of the 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, Reuters reported.
The Trump administration agreed in a February 2020 accord with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), on the pullout of all US-led international forces by May 2021. The IEA agreed to stop attacking American troops and hold peace talks with the Western-backed Kabul government.
In laying out the withdrawal chronology, the summary said that successive troop reductions ordered by Trump had left 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan when Biden took office in January 2021. The result was that the IEA controlled or contested half the country, the summary said.
Faced with the choice of delaying the pullout or increasing the number of US forces and facing renewed IEA attacks, Biden chose the former and ordered planning for the withdrawal and evacuation operation, the summary said.
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China keen to invest in Afghanistan’s agriculture sector: Ministry

Acting Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Attaullah Omari, on Tuesday met with a delegation and representatives from the Chinese private sector in Kabul and they discussed expanding cooperation, investment in agriculture, livestock, and irrigation, as well as sharing China’s experiences with Afghanistan.
In a statement, the agriculture ministry said that the Chinese delegation emphasized the Beijing private sector’s interest in investing in Afghanistan’s agriculture and livestock sectors.
The Chinese delegation also expressed readiness to begin practical projects once certain facilities such as land leasing are arranged, the statement read.
The Chinese delegation also met with Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Minister of Industry and Commerce.
During this meeting, Azizi stated that they would provide all necessary facilities for foreign investors.
Over the past three years, most Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in Afghanistan’s mining sector. However, this marks the first time that Chinese investors are seeking to invest in the country’s agriculture sector.
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Afghanistan to showcase goods at expo as part of KazanForum

Afghanistan will showcase goods, made in the country, at the KhazanForum in Russia next month, the Russian Economic Development Ministry’s department director Pavel Kalmychek said.
“The government of Tatarstan agreed to provide a platform for an exposition of goods from Afghanistan, there will be an exposition. I am confident that it will generate a certain interest, especially in the light of the recent decisions on lifting the ban on the Taliban (Islamic Emirate),” TASS quoted him as saying.
This comes after Russia’s Supreme Court last week scratched the Islamic Emirate from its list of banned organizations.
Zamir Kabulov, Russia’s special envoy for Afghanistan, confirmed recently that a Russian-Afghan business forum will be held on the sidelines of the KazanForum.
He said Russia’s delegation would be led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, while Afghanistan would be represented at a high government and business level, TASS reported.
The 16th International Economic Forum ‘Russia – Islamic World: KazanForum’ will take place on May 13-18 in Kazan.
The main theme for this year has been defined as ‘Digitalization: New Reality and Additional Opportunities for Expanding Cooperation’.
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Afghan-American appointed to lead US policy on Afghanistan
Bischoping, is her married name, which comes from her German-American husband. She was born and raised in California.

An Afghan-American attorney, Mary Kabir-Seraj Bischoping, has been named deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan and will oversee Washington’s foreign policy on Afghanistan under the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the US State Department.
Previously, US engagement on Afghanistan was led by Thomas West, former Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Rina Amiri, who served as Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights.
Bischoping, 33, is a descendant of the Barakzai royal dynasty, which ruled Afghanistan from 1823 to 1978 and is the great-granddaughter of King Amanullah Khan and Queen Soraya Tarzi. Her grandmother was Latifa Kabir Seraj, one of Afghanistan’s first female journalists.
Bischoping, is her married name, which comes from her German-American husband. She was born and raised in California.
According to a biography released by the University of Virginia, Bischoping’s family fled Afghanistan after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Her parents completed their education in Europe before settling in Southern California.
Bischoping earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2016 and later received her Juris Doctor (JD) from the University of Virginia School of Law. She is fluent in English, Persian and German.
Following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Bischoping joined the Office of the Legal Adviser at the State Department. In 2023, she was appointed Senior Counsel to the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, where she led Republican-led oversight investigations into the Afghanistan withdrawal and advised on regional strategy.
Prior to her Congressional role, Bischoping served as a legal adviser at the State Department, clerked for Judge Kent A. Jordan on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and worked at major law firms including Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York.
Her appointment to this high-level diplomatic post reflects a combination of legal expertise, policy experience, and a personal understanding of Afghanistan’s complex history—positioning her to play a key role in shaping future U.S. engagement with the region.
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