Retired marines are incensed by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s characterization of the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan calling the presentation a ‘national tragedy.’
Kirby held a controversial and often confrontational press briefing on Thursday in which he defended the Biden administration’s withdrawal as largely successful and noting that the after-action report’s purpose was ‘not accountability.’
‘For all this talk of chaos. I just didn’t see it. Not from my perch,’ Kirby said later in the presser, adding that at one point in the evacuation, planes were departing Hamid Karzai International Airport every 48 minutes with Afghans and Americans alike aboard.
‘[N]ot one single mission was missed. So I’m sorry. I just don’t buy the whole argument of chaos,’ he said.
A retired marine who saved countless civilians in Afghanistan is incensed by National Security Council spokesman John Kirby’s characterization of the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan calling the presentation a ‘national tragedy’
Chad Robichaux, a veteran of the Afghanistan war and co-founder of the Save Our Allies group that has evacuated Americans and others from Afghanistan and Ukraine was enraged by the comments.
Robichaux told Fox News that the American people can see through the administrations ‘lies’ and claimed Kirby’s comments were not entirely accurate citing facts on the ground.
‘It is no shocker when Biden or his clown-show press secretaries lie, but to have a former U.S. Navy admiral do the same is a national tragedy,’ Robichaux said.
‘As a fellow veteran it makes me sad to see former military leaders turn on our citizens for personal and political gain.’
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized attempts to shirk blame and point the finger at former U.S. president Donald Trump’s administration saying Biden made a ‘political decision’ to announce the withdrawal date despite advice to the contrary.
Kirby said the after-action report could now be reviewed by Congress which will ‘lay out things that could have gone better.’
‘Nobody is saying that everything was perfect, but there was a lot that went right. And a lot of Afghans are now living better lives in this country and other countries around the world because of the sacrifices and the work of so many American government officials,’ he said Thursday.
‘The review process isn’t over,’ Kirby added. ‘This is the next muscle-movement in what will be a long process to better understand and comprehend and adjust to what we learned and what we did in Afghanistan.’
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby defended the Biden administration’s actions in Kabul during the disastrous withdrawal in August 2021, after releasing a report detailing the reasons why they think it unfolded
Thirteen American service members died when the suicide bomber detonated explosives packed with ball bearings amid the chaos of the city’s airport
Retired special forces soldier Scott Mann, who also executed civilian evacuations in Afghanistan, told the outlet the lack of sensitivity was ‘egregious.’
‘I’ve been talking to veterans and veterans groups all morning about this. One of the reasons that I think that veterans are so upset about this is like my friend… an Afghanistan combat veteran, says, it’s not about what happened,’ Mann said.
‘The absence of accountability: What worries veterans so much is that we’ve got all of these problems now with violent extremist groups coming up in Afghanistan.
‘We’ve got a massive moral injury on our veteran population and if you’re not willing to take accountability for your actions as a leader at any level, then there’s a real good chance you’re not going to take any actions to fix what happened.’
Retired Lieutenant colonel Danny Davis was perplexed by Kirby’s walk back from calling the withdrawal ‘chaos.’
‘I don’t know what definition of ‘not chaos’ you can have when you have those images that are iconic … where people are chasing the aircraft as it is driving across the tarmac… ad of course, the catastrophic explosion that killed a lot of U.S. Marines,’ Davis said.
The White House earlier this week said that the disastrous Afghanistan evacuation that led to the death of 13 U.S. service members and hundreds of civilians was Donald Trump’s fault – and the scenes of Afghans falling from planes and the Taliban shooting people in the streets wasn’t chaotic.
Kirby defended the Biden administration’s actions in Kabul during the disastrous withdrawal in August 2021, after releasing a report detailing the reasons why they think it unfolded.
Kirby said the administration was ‘proud’ of how U.S. forces carried out the withdrawal, as the Taliban toppled the American-backed Afghan government the U.S. spent trillions over 20 years to keep stable.
He also said that no member of the administration would be fired for what happened, insisting the investigation was not about ‘accountability’.
Their findings, released just minutes before Biden’s escape to Camp David for Easter weekend, follows relentless pressure from veterans and Republicans for answers for the horrific scenes that unfolded more than 18 months ago.
The US Marine Corps posted a photo to Twitter of the flag-draped caskets of their fallen brethren killed in the suicide bomb attack in Kabul, after the coffins arrived back on home soil on August 29, 2021
‘All this talk of chaos, I just don’t see it,’ Kirby said in a White House briefing. ‘I just don’t buy the whole argument of chaos’
‘All this talk of chaos, I just don’t see it,’ Kirby said in a White House briefing, referring to the withdrawal that culminated in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that 13 Americans and some 170 others dead. ‘I just don’t buy the whole argument of chaos.’
Kirby said the president is ‘proud’ of the service personnel involved and no operation ‘ever goes perfectly according to plan.’
‘Nobody’s saying that everything was perfect,’ Kirby said. ‘But there was a lot that went right. And a lot of Afghans are now living better lives in this country and other countries around the world, because of the sacrifices and the work of so many American government officials. So yeah, there’s a lot to be proud of,’ he added.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin echoed the sentiment of being ‘proud’ of U.S. servicemembers in a statement he released Thursday afternoon.
‘Even on the hardest days, including August 26, 2021 when we tragically lost 13 of our finest, our force performed admirably under incredibly challenging conditions,’ Austin noted.
Kirby noted that even though the ‘mission changed’ it ‘doesn’t mean that anybody who served in Afghanistan doesn’t have something to be proud of.’
‘Doesn’t have …, ‘ he said, briefly finding his words and then adding, ‘Sorry, doesn’t have, doesn’t have service to this country that they can take with them the rest of their lives and feel honorable about it.’
Both Kirby and the White House document characterized the decision-making process around the withdrawal as being ‘deliberate, intensive, rigorous, and inclusive.’
‘President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,’ the White House report read.
The administration said most of the after-action reviews were classified but would be transmitted privately to members of Congress.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021
Some hundreds of people run alongside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane as it moves down a runway of the international airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 16. 2021
Vargas-Andrews recalled the ‘surreal’ scenes at the airport which included Afghans trying to kill themselves on the razor wire because they didn’t want to face Taliban ‘torture’
It then went on to give other reasons for pulling out, including ‘America’s goal was never to nation-build’ and saying the U.S. presence there had ‘unclear objectives and no end in sight.’
The document notes that when Donald Trump took office in 2017 there were 10,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Trump had drawn down troops from 8,600 in June 2020 to 4,500 in September 2020 to the remaining 2,500 when he left office.
‘President Trump ordered direct talks with the Taliban without consulting with our allies and partners or allowing the Afghan government at the negotiating table. In September 2019, President Trump emboldened the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11,’ it said.
Kirby also noted that ‘transitions matter,’ alluding to the fact that Trump and his allies were contesting the election up until the inauguration, which made for a rocky transition period between the Republican and Democratic administrations.
The document said the Biden White House was carrying out a Trump White House order to withdraw troops by summer 2021 but claimed the Trump team left them with ‘no plans’ for how to conduct the withdrawal of the last 2,500 troops who remained.
Trump had made an agreement to withdraw troops by May 2021 but Biden promised to have them out by September. The document said Biden had to carry out the withdrawal Trump had agreed to or the Taliban would begin attacks on U.S. forces.
The document also blamed Trump for the backlog in special immigrant visa (SIV) processing, saying the previous administration’s ‘disregard and even hostility toward our commitment to Afghan allies’ led to some 18,000 waiting for their visas to be processed.
Poor planning by the U.S. military before the withdrawal from Afghanistan and a lack of oversight contributed to the rapid collapse of the government as the Taliban overran the country in August 2021, a damning new watchdog report has said
It said Trump had ‘all but stopped’ SIV interviews despite making plans for withdrawal.
Responding to reports the U.S. left billions in equipment in Afghanistan upon leaving, Kirby said ‘It’s their stuff … it belongs to the Afghans.’
‘This idea…is just ludicrous. That we left millions of dollars of stuff in Afghanistan — we didn’t!’
He likened it to the security aid the U.S. has heavily supplied Ukraine with – the U.S. does not expect to get that equipment back.
The White House in the document reiterated that no one expected Kabul to fall to Taliban control as quickly as it did, but said it learned from the incident to communicate early and aggressively about the security risks to Americans and allies who might wish to leave.
‘As the security situation in Afghanistan worsened over the summer, the Administration grappled with the tension between highlighting growing warning signs of potential collapse and undermining confidence in the Government of Afghanistan and Afghan forces’ will to fight,’ the document said.
‘In a destabilizing security environment, we now err on the side of aggressive communication about risks. We did this in advance of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.’
During Thursday’s briefing, Kirby wouldn’t say if any heads would roll.
‘Who’s going to get fired over this?’ asked Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy.
Kirby answered that the ‘purpose of it is is not accountability.’
CBS’ Ed O’Keefe hammered Kirby and the White House at the top of the briefing for how the Afghanistan document was released.
Reporters were given it under embargo – meaning they couldn’t immediately publish the content – about 20 minutes before Kirby and White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared in the briefing.
The withdrawal was ‘abrupt and uncoordinated’ and gave war-ravaged locals the impression that the U.S. was ‘simply handing Afghanistan over to a Taliban government-in-waiting’, the report continues. Members of the Taliban are pictured celebrating a victory in March 2020
Former President Donald Trump sent out a furious reaction on Truth Social Thursday afternoon
As they appeared, and the embargo lifted, the Bidens departed the White House, two hours early, for their Easter holiday at Camp David.
O’Keefe called the White House’s move the ‘modern major holiday news dump.’
‘You’re releasing this at the beginning of the high holidays and after months of requests from Republicans and the broader public,’ O’Keefe steamed.
He also asked, ‘Is this all we get?’
Reaction from Republicans was swift and furious.
‘These Morons in the White House, who are systematically destroying our Country, headed up by the biggest Moron of them all, Hopeless Joe Biden, have a new disinformation game they are playing – Blame ‘TRUMP’ for their grossly incompetent SURRENDER in Afghanistan,’ former President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Thursday afternoon.
‘I watched this disaster unfold just like everyone else. I saw them take out the Military FIRST, GIVE $85 Billion of military equipment, allow killing of our soldiers, and leave Americans behind. Biden is responsible, no one else!’ the ex-president and 2024 contender added.
The $85 billion is the total amount of money the U.S. gave to the Afghan military and police.
A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said in a report that the amount is closer to $7 billion.
SIGAR said the Pentagon told the group that ‘$7.2 billion worth of aircraft, guns, vehicles, ammunition, and specialized equipment like night vision goggles and biometric devices remain.’
The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, called Kirby’s comments ‘disgraceful and insulting,’ according to Fox News.
‘President Biden made the decision to withdraw and even picked the exact date; he is responsible for the massive failures in planning and execution,’ McCaul said.
2024 GOP hopeful Nikki Haley tweeted, ‘This was ‘chaos,’ John Kirby. America is less safe today because of Joe Biden.’
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