Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he is expected to face an intense gridlock over the chaotic withdrawal of Afghanistan from the Biden administration after the Taliban they would take control of the country and over failures in politics and intelligence until the tumultuous conclusion of America’s longest war.
Blinken’s virtual appearance before the House court is his first hearing in Congress this week on the issue. He will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
In his initial statement to lawmakers, Blinken defends the timing of the withdrawal and blames the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country by the Afghan government and the collapse of the country’s national security forces.
“There is no evidence that more time would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government more resilient or self-sustaining. If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment and training were not enough, why not another year, or five, or ten, would make a difference? ”Blinken will tell lawmakers, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by The Hill.
Monday’s hearing is expected to provide a lot of fireworks, as some Republicans – who have already called on President Biden, Blinken and other members of the administration to resign – put pressure on the country’s top diplomat on the rapid collapse. of Afghan security forces and lunatics fighting to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul.
Blinken is the first administration official to testify before Congress about casual retirement.
He will also blame former President Donald Trump for delaying the process of approving special immigrant visas for Afghan allies and blame Americans in Afghanistan for failing to comply with the administration’s warnings to leave the country.
“In March we started urging them to leave the country. In total, between March and August, we sent 19 specific messages with this warning and with offers of help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets, ”Blinken will tell lawmakers.
“Despite this effort, at the time of the evacuation, there were still thousands of Americans in Afghanistan, almost all evacuated on August 31. Many were dual citizens living in Afghanistan for years, decades, generations. Deciding whether or not to leave the place they know as home is a disconcerting decision. “
He will also accuse the Trump administration of slowly walking the SIV process.
“There had been no interview of an SIV applicant in Kabul in nine months, which dates back to March 2020. The program was basically in a dead end,” Blinken will say. “Two weeks after the inauguration, we resumed the SIV interview process in Kabul.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the top Republican in the House panel, has been a vocal critic of the administration’s withdrawal management and on Sunday set out his questions to Blinken.
“I want to know, why did it go so badly? How were you so wrong? Why didn’t he hear the warnings from the intelligence community since April and May of this last year that they were telling us, that they were telling me that the Taliban would take over, that the Afghan army would fall and that the embassy would have problems ?, ”McCaul told Fox News“ Sunday Morning Futures ”.
“I want to know why he left American citizens behind. Why did the military evacuate in front of American citizens? Yes, I want to know why our performers who put their lives on the line and fought with our special forces, why they were left behind and … are executed while I speak in front of their families, ”he continued.
Blinken will also be on the embers for the deaths of 13 members of the US service at Hamid Karzai International Airport near Kabul after an ISIS-K terrorist detonated a suicide bomb while crowds of Afghans they crowded the streets of the airport in a desperate attempt to take a flight out of the country.
And Republicans will surely look for a calculation on the Taliban by putting in videos with U.S. military equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and heavy equipment left at Kabul airport.
Democrats, on the other hand, will try to divert blame from the previous administration by asking questions about the peace plan and withdrawal schedule that Trump drew up with the Taliban in February 2020.
“My No. 1 question for Secretary Blinken: Can you now describe to us the detailed and well-considered plan drawn up by the Trump administration on how we would get out of Afghanistan in an orderly manner?” Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) told Axios in an interview.
“Let’s be honest, this mission was full of danger, because there is no way to escape without causing a stampede and there is no way to have an orderly and meritorious stampede,” he said.
Representative Gregory Meeks (D-NY), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, criticized the withdrawal last month and told NY1, “It could have been done better.”
But he seemed to relax in his judgment on the administration’s efforts last week.
“Was it a perfect evacuation? Absolutely not. But if you talk about it in its entirety and what the results were, you have to say it was a successful operation, “Meeks said in an interview last Friday, the Washington Post reported.
He said Blinken will face “difficult questions,” including the U.S. military’s decision to abandon Bagram air base in July and the number of Americans and Afghans still in the country.
But Meeks pointed to the narrow range of his panel.
“That’s a supervision,” he said. “This is our responsibility to supervise. We are not investigating, we are supervising. “