Blinken faces Republican critics of Afghanistan withdrawal

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan as an ending of the country’s longest war that freed resources for other conflicts, in testimony in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

“Our adversaries, including Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained stuck in Afghanistan for another 20 years,” Blinken told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, in what is likely his final public testimony to lawmakers before leaving office next month.

Blinken’s appearance came after a long dispute with the Republican-led committee over when he would testify about one of the darkest incidents of Democratic President Joe Biden’s presidency.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, the panel’s chairman, blasted the administration for the deaths of 13 Americans in a suicide attack at Kabul’s airport in August 2021 and for thousands of Afghans who worked with US forces who could not be evacuated as the Taliban took over.

“You ignored warnings of collapse from your own personnel,” McCaul said.

Blinken said every American who wanted to leave Afghanistan has been given the opportunity to leave and thousands of Afghans have been resettled internationally, although Washington remains committed to helping those who remain.