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14 September 2024

US Military Warnings of Dire Situation in Afghanistan During Withdrawal Ignored, House GOP Report Finds

Rebecca Kheel

Warnings from U.S. military officers about the Taliban's swift advances as American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 went unheeded in Washington, D.C., a disconnect that contributed to a lack of planning for evacuating civilians, House Republicans found in an investigation on the Afghanistan withdrawal being released Monday.

The report, the culmination of a two-year probe into the withdrawal that cites testimony from public hearings, closed-door interviews with witnesses, newly obtained State Department documents, previously released military documents and previous news reports, largely faults the White House National Security Council and State Department for having a rosy outlook on the situation and resisting calls from military officials to plan for an evacuation amid dire warnings from military leaders on the ground about rapidly deteriorating conditions.

That failure to plan, the report argues, led to the chaos during the eventual evacuation that allowed for a terrorist to set off a suicide bomb outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 U.S. service members.

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