U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to defend President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan on Sunday, insisting on ABC News’s “This Week” United States’ mission in Afghanistan “has been successful,” and attempted to characterize the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country as a failure of the Afghan government to defend its own interests.
“When we came to office, the Taliban was at its strongest position at any time since 2001, since it was last in power and Afghanistan, before 9/11, and it’s been able to build up its capacity over the last the last couple of years,” Blinken told host Jonathan Karl. Ultimately, he said that Afghan forces “proved incapable of defending the country — and that did happen more rapidly than we anticipated.”
Later Sunday, Blinken confirmed the U.S. is relocating personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to the airport for safety purposes, stressing that the U.S. intends to maintain a “core diplomatic presence” in the new location.
“It’s why the president sent in a number of forces, to make sure that as we continue to draw down our diplomatic presence that we do it in a safe and orderly fashion. And at the same time maintain a core diplomatic presence in Kabul,” Blinken told host Jonathan Karl.
Blinken also confirmed that U.S. Embassy workers were destroying documents and other items ahead of fleeing the embassy, but insisted “this is being done in a very deliberate way, it’s being done in an orderly way, and it’s being done with American forces there to make sure we can do it in a safe way.”
President Biden and Vice President Harris were briefed Sunday morning by senior national security officials on the draw down of U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, as well as the evacuation of SIV applicants and Afghan allies, the White House confirmed in a tweet.
Though the Taliban had promised a peaceful transition, the U.S. Embassy warned Americans late in the day to shelter in place and not try to get to the airport, where it said there were reports of gunfire. The embassy also suspended its own operations.
Still, Blinken rejected comparisons to the U.S. pullout from Vietnam as many watched in disbelief at the sight of helicopters landing at the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul. “This is manifestly not Saigon,” Blinken said.
The American ambassador was among those evacuated, said officials who spoke condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss ongoing military operations. He was asking to return to the embassy, but it was not clear if he would be allowed to.
Asked by NBC News’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday whether the U.S. has sought assurances for peaceful transfer of power out of Kabul, Blinken said the U.S. has been “very clear with the Taliban that any effort to interrupt our operations, to attack our forces, to attack our personnel, would be met with a very strong [and] decisive response.”
For years, the U.S. has been looking for an exit for the war, which began after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks masterminded by al-Qaida’s Osama bin Laden, then harbored by the Taliban government.
In February 2020, then-President Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban that limited direct military action against the insurgents. That decision allowed Taliban fighters to gather strength and move quickly to seize key areas after President Biden announced his plans to withdraw all American forces by Aug. 31.
“The status quo” for the U.S. staying in Afghanistan “was not sustainable,” Blinken said Sunday.
“If the president had decided to stay, all gloves would’ve been off, we would’ve been back at war with the Taliban, attacking our forces, the offensive you’ve seen throughout the country almost certainly would’ve proceeded,” Blinken said on NBC.
And ultimately, he said, “I would be on your show right now explaining why we were sending tens of thousands of forces back into Afghanistan to restart a war that we need to end.”
Still, the rapid advance of Taliban insurgents across Afghanistan this week has blindsided U.S. officials in Washington. In a stunning rout, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week, despite the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces.
In June, Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee he believed that the security situation in Afghanistan would not deteriorate between “a Friday to a Monday. “I wouldn’t necessarily equate the departure of our forces in July, August, or by early September, with some kind of immediate deterioration in the in the situation,” he said. Last month, President Biden said it was “highly unlikely” the Taliban would overrun the entire country.
In June, U.S. officials projected the Afghan government’s collapse could take anywhere from 6 to 12 months. And just days ago, a U.S. military assessment estimated it would be a month before Kabul would face pressure from Taliban forces.
But Biden’s decision to proceed with an Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Afghanistan despite the stunning turn of events in Afghanistan is likely to provoke sharp criticism from some, including Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., who on Sunday called the Taliban’s advance in Afghanistan “inexcusable” and “devastating.”
“It’s not just that people predicted that this would happen, everyone was warned that this would happen,” she said on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Cheney said she believed both former president Trump and Biden bear responsibility for the Taliban’s rapid offensive. “What we’re watching right now in Afghanistan is what happens when America withdraws from the world,” she said.
Even so, administration officials have made clear they do not plan to change their plans for withdrawing combat troops from Afghanistan –reaffirming their belief that after nearly two decades, it is time for Afghan forces to hold their own. “We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago, with one mission in mind, and that was to deal with the people who attacked us on 9/11,” Blinken said on Sunday. “That mission has been successful.
“We brought [Osama] Bin Laden to justice a decade ago,” he continued. “Al-Qaida, the group that attacked us, has been vastly diminished. Its capacity to attack us again from Afghanistan … right now, does not exist.” In the meantime, he said, “We’re going to make sure that we keep in place in the region, the capacity [and] the forces necessary to see any reemergence of a terrorist threat, and to be able to deal with it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
