Afghanistan accusations frustrate those seeking solutions

Republicans and Democrats are engaged in a blame game over the withdrawal in Afghanistan, feuding over who carries responsibility for fallout from America’s longest war.

The battle has sparked concern that arguing over the past undercuts ongoing efforts to help Afghans in the present.

The finger-pointing played out this week both in the presidential race and in the halls of Congress, where a committee launched dueling reports reviewing the withdrawal. 

But the discussion over Afghanistan has been largely backward looking, ignoring opportunities to bolster programs to bring allies left behind in the withdrawal or provide stability and a pathway to citizenship for those now in the U.S.

And critics also see it as a disappointing lack of accountability for a war in which many administrations played a role.

“Afghanistan was a bipartisan, multi-administration failure, and talking about how to fix the parts that can still be fixed — that has to be a bipartisan or multi-administration conversation. And that can’t happen if it’s always drawn into the politics of the moment,” said Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation.

“And so I think a lot of that ends up taking away from the potential to have a sober, bipartisan conversation about what happened, and to address the issues that still exist.”

The U.S.’s two decades of involvement in the country came to an end with a chaotic exit that left desperate crowds surrounding the airport, with a suicide bombing killing 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans. After the last plane went wheels up, some 80,000 Afghans made it to the U.S. but far more who assisted U.S. military and U.S.-led democracy efforts were left behind under a Taliban rule that is swiftly reversing all that work.

During Tuesday night’s debate, neither candidate took responsibility for the exit — former President Trump signed a deal with the Taliban to leave the country, leaving President Biden in charge of executing the withdrawal and evacuation.

Vice President Harris said during the debate that she agreed with Biden’s decision to leave the country, saving $300 million a day and getting Americans out of a combat zone.

But she largely attacked Trump over his deal to end the war and then pivoted to his reported plans to negotiate with the Taliban at Camp David.

“Let’s understand how we got to where we are. Donald Trump when he was president negotiated one of the weakest deals you can imagine. He calls himself a dealmaker. Even his national security adviser said it was a weak, terrible deal,” Harris said, accusing him of having “bypassed” the Afghan government to do so.

“And get this — the president at the time invited the Taliban to Camp David. A place of storied significance for us as Americans, a place where we honor the importance of American diplomacy, where we invite and receive respected world leaders.”

Trump brought up Afghanistan at various turns in the debate, even when it was not at question, but gave conflicting answers about the value of the deal he brokered with the Taliban.

“It was a very good agreement. The reason it was good, it was — we were getting out. We would have been out faster than them, but we wouldn’t have lost the soldiers. We wouldn’t have left many Americans behind. And we wouldn’t have left…$85 billion worth of brand new beautiful military equipment behind. And just to finish, they blew it,” he said.

But he also noted the agreement “was terminated by us because [the Taliban] didn’t do what they were supposed to do.”

At another point, Trump said he would have “fired all those generals” involved, though the State Department was heavily involved in the evacuation.

Neither candidate expressed regret about the exit or offered proposals for how to address the country — or help stranded Afghans who risked their lives for the U.S. — moving forward.

“For 20 years, American soldiers, civil society, military family members, invested blood, sweat and tears into that country and we watched it collapse before our eyes, and no one wants to take their fault, [admit] that there was something wrong, that something could have been done different,” said Chris Purdy, founder of the Chamberlain Network, a veteran’s group focused on democracy issues.

“We’re still engaged in this idea that we should care about the people of Afghanistan. It doesn’t feel like either side really cares about that. They just  want to blame the other side for its failure.” 

Lawmakers this week also traded barbs over Afghanistan with the release of a 350-page report from House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans, igniting the release of a competing report from the panel’s Democrats.

While the GOP report offers a big picture view of the withdrawal, it spends little time on Trump’s role in the ordeal, including limitations of the deal Trump signed and his administration’s dismal record of processing visas for Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort.

Azam, in a video posted on X, initially encouraged people not to read either report, saying each was designed to land a political blow, pinning blame on the other side while offering little reflection on what could have been done better within their own party.

“Democrats and Republicans are just wrestling in the mud about what happened,” he said.

“It fell into the same pattern that we’ve been in for over three years, and the Republicans have run away from the fact that Trump negotiated this deal and some Democrats are trying to run away from the fact that Biden executed on it,” Azam added. 

“The other thing that was really problematic was no one ever talks about the impact on 40 million Afghans….How much longer are we going to pretend like really the only impact from the Afghanistan withdrawal was a political one in the U.S?”

Advocates for years have been trying to get Congress to enact what was initially known as the Afghan Adjustment Act, legislation that would provide residency to tens of thousands of Afghans who have yet to be given a permanent basis for remaining in the U.S. It also includes measures to bolster pathways for those left behind in the withdrawal to come to the U.S. as refugees. Similar legislation has since been deemed the Fulfilling Promises to Afghan Allies Act.

But it has failed to gain traction, particularly as a few GOP lawmakers raise concerns over the vetting of Afghans – even though allowing Afghans to seek citizenship would kick off additional security reviews for a group of people already in the U.S

The Democrat report includes no recommendations, and while the GOP report backs a number of legislative efforts by name, it fails to do so for any legislation that would allow Afghan evacuees to permanently remain in the U.S.

Instead it writes that “the U.S. government should uphold our commitment to those brave Afghans who risked their lives fighting for freedom from the Taliban.”

Purdy was among a number of critics who noted the timing of the report two months before the election.

“They’re releasing this as a partisan political tool. I don’t find that helpful. What would be helpful is real legislation that Congress could advance to solve the issue, and we’ve been beating in this drum for three years now, trying to get anything across. We haven’t really had a significant bill that helps the Afghan people pass since September of 2021,” he said. 

When the report dropped earlier this week, Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) blamed the Biden adminsition for timing of its arrival, accusing them of stymying the committee’s work.

“I would have preferred this report be released earlier than today. In fact, I would have preferred it be released in late 2021 or 2022 – directly after the withdrawal and emergency evacuation,” he said in a statement.

McCaul has said he’s focused on accountability for the withdrawal, with the top recommendation from his report being a resolution that would formally condemn Biden, Harris, and 13 other administration officials.

And while he’s called for a solution for Afghan allies, he’s yet to publicly back legislation that would do so.

Beyond legislation, advocates are hopeful that a separate report from the Afghanistan War Commission will provide the big-picture review of the war that provides accountability other avenues have not.

“My sentiment here isn’t just that Republicans are the ones who are wrong. Democrats continue to just put their head in the sand and pretend like nothing bad happened when clearly it did,” Purdy said.

“So I don’t know how you balance those two. I don’t know what grown up in the room is going to be able to look at both sides equally and say, ‘This was your mistake. This was our mistake.’”