President Joe Biden has largely ignored the first anniversary of his deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan, much to the chagrin of his foreign policy critics, veterans of the 20-year war, and family and friends of service members who died in the conflict.
The White House has been adamant that Biden’s actions demonstrate his commitment to the U.S. military and the country’s national security interests. But the president is under pressure to do more to help Afghan allies and ensure lessons are learned from the withdrawal after he marked the anniversary without a single public event.
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Matthew Young, executive director of Heart of an Ace, a nonprofit organization assisting Afghan allies, described being “blown away” by Biden’s “lack of response and follow-through” throughout the Afghanistan evacuation “crisis” and his “lack of acknowledgment,” particularly regarding the terrorist attack near Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate that killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghan civilians last year.
“It’s understandable as a leader to not want to focus on things that didn’t go as well as you would hope,” the Iraq War veteran told the Washington Examiner. “But there needs to be an acknowledgment because we lost a lot of brothers and sisters of the U.S. military, our NATO allies, and our Afghan allies throughout the conflict.”
“Words are only going to go so far because the actions and deeds have also been missing,” he added, alluding to the protracted evacuation process. “It feels like a slap in the face.”
Young urged Biden to surge resources to the ongoing evacuation effort, in addition to U.S. resettlement and Afghanistan-based humanitarian projects, as one method of addressing distrust in him and the United States more broadly.
A former Pentagon official, who did not wish to be named, similarly called on Biden to craft a strategy contending with Afghanistan’s reality. The strategy should respond to the possible threats posed by Afghanistan and the evacuation’s long-term consequences on service members who were forced to play “God” last August, according to the official.
“They know that this is not something that is popular for them to talk about,” the official said of the Biden administration. “But with the amount of people that have been affected both here in the United States and in Afghanistan, in addition to the lack of accountability, there needs to be a public discussion to move forward.”
Biden and his aides have downplayed the Afghanistan withdrawal anniversary because they know it is “a major foreign policy embarrassment,” according to the Vandenberg Coalition’s senior policy director, Amanda Rothschild.
“The president did release a statement on the anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, but I would have hoped he would have honored the memory of the 13 fallen American service members more publicly — not just on the anniversary but at several points over the course of the past year, especially during remarks on Memorial Day,” the onetime White House National Security Council speechwriter said.
Tom Cochran, an Obama State Department alumnus who is a partner at public affairs firm 720 Strategies, also cited Biden’s written statement on Aug. 26. But he acknowledged that, as president, “you should always be doing more — that’s the burden of the office.”
“The withdrawal did not go well for a number of reasons, which we’ll be debating and studying for years to come,” Cochran said. “A little more than two months out until the midterms, the narrative needs to be forward-looking.”
But Republicans are also looking toward November’s election cycle. The GOP has continued to criticize Biden over Afghanistan, with the withdrawal now a pivotal moment in his presidency that coincided with his initial dip in public support.
GOP strategists, such as Republican National Committee spokesman Tommy Pigott, have scrutinized Biden for dismissing the Afghanistan evacuation’s chaos by categorizing it as an “extraordinary success.”
“One year ago, Joe Biden left hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines in Afghanistan,” Pigott told reporters Wednesday. “He promised he would stay until every American was evacuated. He lied.”
Pigott pointed to this month’s House Republican report that found the U.S. had evacuated more than 800 American citizens from Afghanistan since the fall of the U.S.-backed Afghan government and the rise of the Taliban. The House GOP findings have preceded Biden’s own after-action report.
The White House bristled at the suggestion that Biden has disrespected the Afghanistan anniversary, repeating that the withdrawal has permitted the U.S. military to “be on a stronger strategic footing” for other challenges, such as China and Russia.
“You can see the president’s conviction to his promises with respect to Afghanistan borne out in action more so than words, and that’s what he’s focused on,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday. “It’s in making sure that we have a robust over-the-horizon counterterrorism capability, and we do. And we’re constantly trying to improve it.”
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Kirby then pivoted to the precision drone strike that killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri last month while the terrorist leader was on his Kabul residence’s rooftop balcony. The ex-Pentagon spokesman also mentioned Biden’s attempts to “move our Afghan allies out of Afghanistan” and resettle in the U.S. if that is what they want.
