The results of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigation of President Joe Biden’s hasty, ill-planned withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 are in. They are worse than anyone could have imagined. 

The shaky peace in the region was the result of a 2020 agreement between the U.S. and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. The Doha Agreement said that the U.S. would withdraw troops from the region within 14 months if the Taliban cut ties with al-Qaeda, stopped attacking U.S. forces in the area, and worked with the Afghan government for peace. 

Press releases designed to drum up support for the Biden withdrawal left out one simple fact – the Taliban was not following the Doha agreement. Terrorism was still rampant in Afghanistan in 2021. Afghanistan was unprepared to defend itself when America withdrew its forces, and NATO disagreed with Biden’s decision.  

The Taliban did not fulfill its end of the bargain, and the Biden administration was aware of it. Then-state department spokesperson Ned Price testified before the committee that the Doha agreement was “immaterial” to Biden’s decision. 

Many in the international community had concerns about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Key Afghan leaders, like General Haibatullah Alizai, asked American commanders for more time, saying they could defeat the Taliban if the U.S. stayed for two more years. 

The 350-page report, titled Willful Blindness, says the Biden administration focused more on “optics” than preparing for a safe evacuation. Biden didn’t officially order a non-combat evacuation plan until August 16, 2021, a day after Kabul fell. This lack of preparation put both Americans and Afghan allies in danger, as U.S. personnel had to evacuate civilians in a hostile environment. 

Even though President Biden said otherwise, the committee found that many top officials, including the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs Chairman, the U.S. Central Command commander, the Secretary of State, and other military leaders, advised against pulling all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. They gave this advice during and after a government review of the situation. 

It’s not surprising that Biden ignored the advice from top military advisors. The report said that throughout Biden’s political career, he has refused to trust America’s military experts and advisors. He has focused more on politics and his “legacy” than the country’s national security interests. 

Notably missing from the report is “the last person in the room” when Biden made his disastrous decision – VP Kamala Harris. Despite her alleged role as Biden’s Afghanistan wingman, her name only appeared 28 times in the report. The lack of investigation into Harris’s role in the botched withdrawal led, among other reasons, to the resignation of Jerry Dunleavy, one of the committee’s senior investigators. 

Dunleavy announced Monday that he quit in protest because he wanted a tougher investigation. He had many complaints, including that the committee didn’t use his suggested titles for hearings, ignored his interview ideas, and that Chairman Michael McCaul was indecisive. He also felt that Vice President Kamala Harris’s role, now as the Democratic nominee for president, must be examined more closely. 

Dunleavy posted on X that he didn’t make his decision to quit lightly, but he didn’t want to be part of what he called a “sham” anymore. He accused McCaul of not using his power effectively. He said the committee didn’t thoroughly investigate the ISIS-K bombing, breaking promises to the families who lost loved ones in the attack. 

The report was released just before the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Some Democrats, like Rep. Gregory Meeks, criticized the report, saying Republicans left out essential facts about Trump, who first initiated the withdrawal plan in 2020. Meeks also defended Biden’s decision, saying the alternative would have required sending more American troops back to fight the Taliban. 

Ashley Jackson, Co-Director of the Centre on Armed Groups, notes the idea of making a deal with the Taliban and pulling U.S. forces out of Afghanistan had been considered since the Obama administration. Many believed by then that the war “could not be won.” 

The situation in Afghanistan has become a big topic in this year’s election. A recent New York Times and Siena College poll found that only nine percent of people think the 2021 withdrawal isn’t a big issue. Meanwhile, 24 percent believe that Kamala Harris should share the blame for the problems during the withdrawal. 

Jackson, who thinks the blame over Afghanistan is just political maneuvering, believes that Republican attempts to make it a big issue before the debate won’t work. She pointed out that the war is over, and many young people voting for the first time “weren’t even born when 9/11 happened.” 

By Jackson’s logic, the fact that young voters don’t understand why the Afghanistan withdrawal was so devasting, or even why 9/11 mattered, is a hall pass for Biden.  

Move forward by forgetting every terrible Biden administration decision? That’s the only policy position Harris can claim.