INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the 2021 U.S
withdrawal from Afghanistan as an ending of the country&s longest war that freed resources for other conflicts, in testimony in the House of
Representatives on Wednesday.&Our adversaries, including Russia, would have been delighted if we had doubled down and remained stuck in
Afghanistan for another 20 years,& Blinken told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, in what is likely his final public testimony to
lawmakers before leaving office next month, Reuters reported.Blinken&s appearance came after a long dispute with the Republican-led
committee over when he would testify about one of the darkest incidents of Democratic President Joe Biden&s presidency.Republican
Representative Michael McCaul, the panel&s chairman, blasted the administration for the deaths of 13 Americans in a suicide attack at
Kabul&s airport in August 2021 and for thousands of Afghans who worked with U.S
forces who could not be evacuated as the the Islamic Emirate took over.&You ignored warnings of collapse from your own personnel,& McCaul
said.Blinken said every American who wanted to leave Afghanistan has been given the opportunity to leave and thousands of Afghans have been
resettled internationally, although Washington remains committed to helping those who remain.House Foreign Affairs and the State Department
had wrangled over Blinken&s appearance for months
Panel Republicans voted in September & weeks before the presidential election & to recommend the top U.S
diplomat be held in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena.The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war
became intensely politicized during the campaign pitting Republican President-elect Donald Trump against Democratic Vice President Kamala
Harris.Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan
20, has vowed to go after those responsible for the withdrawal
During his campaign, he said he would ask for the resignation of every senior official &who touched the Afghanistan calamity.&Democrats have
insisted much of the blame for the war&s messy end & less than seven months into Biden&s presidency & rests with Trump, who began the
withdrawal process by signing a deal with Afghanistan&s Islamic Emirate in 2020.McCaul also announced during the hearing that Biden&s
national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had agreed to brief the committee on Dec
17.McCaul released a report on Sept
8 on a Republican investigation of the Afghanistan withdrawal, blasting Biden&s administration for failures surrounding the evacuation
Panel Democrats also released their own investigation.The post Blinken defends US withdrawal from Afghanistan in House appearance first
