The US State Department released its long-awaited after-action report on the botched 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan on Friday.
The assessment blamed the snafu primarily on the insistence of Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden on going ahead with a full military withdrawal. The decision to “end the US military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security,” it stated.
The loss of military “enablers” put Washington’s diplomatic presence in the country at risk, while the departure deadlines set first by the Trump and then the Biden administrations were not accompanied by a sufficiently detailed exit plan, according to the report.