White House denies ‘chaos’ during Afghanistan withdrawal: ‘Didn’t see it from my perch’
Naomi Lim
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The White House pushed back on the idea President Joe Biden‘s withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic, defending its summary of administration-wide after-action reports that transfers much of the responsibility to former President Donald Trump.
“For all this talk of chaos, I didn’t see it from my perch,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday. “I just don’t buy the whole argument of chaos.”
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“Nobody’s saying that everything was perfect,” he said. “But there was a lot that went right, and a lot of Afghans are now living better lives.”
The White House’s summary frames Biden’s decisions regarding Afghanistan as being “severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” from troop numbers to the Doha Agreement with the Taliban.
When needled on whether Biden considers he made any mistakes concerning Afghanistan, Kirby declined “to speak for the president on that score.” When pressed on whether the president has “any regrets,” Kirby contended he was “proud.”
Kirby downplayed speculation that Biden has lost confidence in the intelligence community after assessments inaccurately predicted how long it would take for the Afghan government to collapse or that anyone would be fired over the withdrawal.
“[He] knows how hard people work … to give him the best information,” he said. “The purpose of it is not accountability.”
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The White House shared a 12-page summary of the reports minutes before Thursday’s press briefing ahead of the holiday weekend. Biden is scheduled to fly to Camp David on Thursday afternoon, with Kirby unable to provide details as to when the president will address the findings in public.
Thirteen service members were killed in an ISIS-K terrorist attack near Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate during the withdrawal. Almost 200 Afghan civilians also died in the incident. The United Nations found this month 20 years of progress for women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan have been undone since the Taliban takeover.
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