(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) The Senate Foreign Relations Committee revealed on Feb. 3 that the Biden administration abandoned up to 9,000 American citizens in Afghanistan after the deadly withdrawal last August, the Daily Caller reported.
The White House lied about the true figure, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that fewer than 200 Americans in total remained in the Taliban-controlled state.
For months, the State and Defense Departments maintained that Americans re \maining in Afghanistan numbered fewer than 150, even as separate reports stated that 900 more citizens and residents had safely returned to the United States, according to the Daily Caller.
The obvious contrast did not phase the administration.
Foreign Relations Ranking Member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, published the report titled, Left Behind: A Brief Assessment of the Biden Administration’s Strategic Failures during the Afghanistan Evacuation.
After examining officials correspondence and documents, Risch’s team found that the State Department believed that 10,000 to 15,000 Americans remained in Afghanistan two weeks prior to the withdrawal, yet the Biden administration spread the smaller number.
From the time the State Department made that assessment until the final evacuation, 6,000 more Americans came home, leaving between 4,000 and 9,000 Americans unaccounted for.
Blinken disguised this higher number by stating that only about 150 Americans “want to leave.”
Risch also recounts how ill-prepared the Biden administration was for the exit.
“Having wasted 115 days, the National Security Council didn’t conduct its first senior meeting to discuss the #Afganistan withdrawal until August 14 at 3:30pm, just hours before #Kabul fell, when evacuations became life or death for Americans, Afghans, & U.S. military personnel.”
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) February 3, 2022
The Biden administration announced its plan to exit Afghanistan four months before the evacuation actually occurred, but records show officials scrambling to concoct a plan with hours to spare.
“The Biden Administration’s senior leaders have argued the disaster in #Afghanistan was inevitable and there was nothing anyone could do about it. These arguments are indeed true, but only because after squandering 115 days, events would control them, not the other way around.”
— Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member (@SenateForeign) February 3, 2022
