Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The top U.S. diplomat braced on Monday for his first public session with lawmakers who are expected to aggressively question him about the chaotic end of the combat mission in Afghanistan, America’s longest war.
“The evacuation was an extraordinary effort — under the most difficult conditions imaginable — by our diplomats, military, and intelligence professionals,” Blinken will say, according to his remarks. “They worked around the clock to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our Allies and partners, and at-risk Afghans on planes, out of the country, and off to the United States or transit locations.
Some members of Congress are furious at the small number of U.S. citizens who were not airlifted out of Afghanistan before it fell to the Taliban. The State Department has continued to help U.S. citizens get out of the country, its officials have said, noting that diplomats in the months before the Taliban takeover urged Americans to leave Afghanistan.
“There’s no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining,” Blinken said in his remarks. “If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, and training did not suffice, why would another year, or five, or ten, make a difference?”
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