The White House released a 12-page summary on Thursday about how the government handled the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. 

The report stressed that U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to end the longest war in American history and withdraw troops was “the right thing for the country” and highlighted how the actions of the Biden Administration were “severely constrained by the conditions created by his predecessor (Donald Trump).” 

It does acknowledge the evacuations should have started earlier, and the communications about risks and warning about potential evacuations could have been more aggressive. It blames the delays on the Afghan government and its military and on the optimistic assessment by the U.S. military and intelligence community.

Former President Donald Trump responded to the report, saying the Biden administration is conducting a “new disinformation game” to distract from “their grossly incompetent SURRENDER in Afghanistan.” He said on his social media that “Biden is responsible, no one else!”

U.S. media and Republican lawmakers questioned the report’s objectivity, because the document was prepared by the White House National Security Council, rather than an independent entity. Detailed after-action reviews completed by the State Department and the Pentagon were shared with Congress and will not be released.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby defended the administration's decision on U.S. troops' withdrawals from Afghanistan at the White House briefing on Thursday.

Kirby said the intent of the report was to understand what happened and not assign blame. He also emphasized that ending the war was never going to be easy.  

The U.S. government’s special inspector general conducted a review in February on what caused the fast collapse of Afghan security forces. “Due to the (Afghan security force’s) dependency on U.S. military forces, the decision to withdraw all U.S. military personnel and dramatically reduce U.S. support to the (Afghan security forces) destroyed the morale of Afghan soldiers and police,” the report stated, blaming the collapse on both the Trump and Biden administrations.

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