United States: US President Mr. Joe Biden’s administration has defended its withdrawal of American troops out of Afghanistan and stated that the 2021 withdrawal indicated that Washington must better prepare for “high-risk scenarios” in the future.

In a summary report, United States government agencies involved in the pullout blamed the former administration of President Mr. Donald Trump for issues that led to the chaotic US exit from the country.

“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” the report remarked.

The Trump administration had previously negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, which Mr. Biden pledged to honour. But the new report criticises the former Republican president for a lack of planning to carry out the deal.

“During the transition from the Trump administration to the Biden administration, the outgoing administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. In fact, there were no such plans in place when President Biden came into office, even with the agreed-upon full withdrawal just over three months away,” the report added.

White House national security spokesperson Mr. John Kirby commented that the US government could not have predicted that Afghan forces would “fail to fight for the country” after 20 years of American support.

“Another lesson learned was the need to plan early and extensively for the low-probability, high-risk scenarios,” Mr. Kirby observed during a news conference.

Mr. Kirby further blamed the Trump administration for negotiating a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government.

Mr. Trump rejected the findings of the report by stating that “I watched this disaster unfold just like everyone else. Biden is responsible, no one else.”

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