White House’s stunning response on ‘accountability’ for Afghan pullout

White House national security advisor John Kirby got asked Monday why no one in the government had been held to account for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan – responding that administration members have ‘held ourselves accountable.’ Kirby made the comment after he came out swinging against a House Republican report on the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

He attended the White House press briefing specifically to push back at the slashing document, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. It came out about a day before Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ high stakes debate against former President Donald Trump.

Among the House Republican report’s damning conclusions is that President Joe Biden ‘has yet to accept even a semblance of responsibility for the events that unfolded in Afghanistan. To the contrary, he has consistently boasted of the success of the operation, as recently as during the June 2024 presidential debate mistakenly claiming that no troops died under his watch. Nor has he held any of his subordinates accountable for the policy decisions that placed U.S. servicemembers, diplomats, and Afghan allies in critical danger.’

Kirby got asked if anyone had faced accountability for what happened – in a withdrawal that featured a terror attack that killed 13 Americans, thousands of Afghans who had assisted the U.S. being left behind, delays in getting out U.S. civilians, and a Taliban that swept to power and gained control of potent U.S. provided equipment, as the U.S. disengaged from a two decade war.

‘We have all held ourselves accountable for the progress of the withdrawal across the administration, and it was a true interagency effort to get those 120,000 people out and to make sure we removed our diplomats and our military personnel safely,’ said Kirby, who was at the Pentagon during the withdrawal.

‘As I said, not everything went according to plan. Nothing ever does. And we mourn the loss of those 13 lives at Abbey Gate every single day here. Their sacrifice … is not forgotten. But again, we hold ourselves all accountable.’ Kirby began his remarks with an attack on the 353-page report, saying it ‘says little or nothing new,’ while speaking to the ‘one-sided, partisan nature of this report.

‘The very day this administration took office, the Taliban was in the strongest position it had been in years. The Afghan government the weakest. The Trump administration cut a deal called the Doha Agreement that mandated a complete us withdrawal from Afghanistan, and yes, that included Bagram air base by the end of May 2021. That deal also released 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison – 5000 fighters. In return, the Taliban agreed not to attack us troops, which is a good thing, because the former president reduced our presence in Afghanistan from about 14,000 down to 2,500.’

Although Kirby did not get asked about it, the report by committee staff for House Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) included some of his own statements leading up to the pullout. On May 3, 2021, Kirby called military actions by the Taliban ‘small, harassing attacks over the course of the weekend’ but said the DOD saw nothing ‘thus far that has affected the drawdown.’

Those attacks ended up being part of a growing wave. Within two months, the Taliban had seized control of 221 of Afghanistan’s 407 districts. On July 4 2021, Kirby said that a ‘safe, orderly drawdown enables us to maintain an ongoing diplomatic presence, support the Afghan people and the government, and prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for terrorists that threatens our homeland.’ Ultimately the U.S. had to withdraw diplomatic personnel suddenly after the sudden collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

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