WASHINGTON (Business Insider) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration reacted slowly and was unprepared to evacuate Afghans who helped the U.S. after the Taliban took Kabul in August, according to notes from a White House Situation Room meeting obtained by Axios.
The outlet said a National Security Council “summary of conclusions” document from an August 14 meeting held between 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET, when Taliban were closing in on Kabul, showed the Biden administration made several crucial decisions just hours before the Taliban took over on August 15.
Senior officials were still talking over basic mass-civilian-evacuation actions. Axios reported that though the document it obtained featured the word “immediately” several times, officials on August 14 were still determining which countries would be transit stops for evacuees.
The document also said officials in that meeting decided the embassy in Kabul should “immediately” inform locally employed workers “to register their interest in relocation to the United States and begin to prepare immediately for departure.”
Gen. John Hyten, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was among senior officials said to have attended the meeting.
Axios added that earlier in 2021, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who ended up fleeing the country, had asked Biden not to start a mass evacuation because he was worried it would show a lack of faith in his government; at the same time, Biden officials overestimated the Afghan military ability to withstand the Taliban.
Biden was determined to end the country’s involvement in its longest war, and last April he announced his plans to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021.
President Donald Trump had previously cut a deal for a U.S. withdrawal by May 2021.
Biden’s approval ratings still haven’t recovered from the chaotic scenes of those final moments, with Afghans falling to their death from military transports and a suicide blast that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans outside the gates of Hamid Karzai airport.
The Atlantic reported this week that thousands of vulnerable Afghans remain stuck in bureaucratic hell, terrified the Taliban they fought for years will hunt them down.
Later this month, Congress will name members to a bipartisan, 12-person commission that will study the war and issue a report similar to the 9/11 Commission.
Axios obtained the NSC’s “summary of conclusions” for a meeting of the so-called Deputies Small Group.
It assembles top aides to various Cabinet members, and usually lays the groundwork for Deputies’ or Principals’ sessions, or works out practical details for executing decisions already made by their bosses.