Blinken Orders Afghan Evacuation Reviews by the State Department
- U.S. pulled out with hundreds of Americans still in country
- Top U.S. diplomat says withdrawal was ‘incredibly difficult’
Afghan passengers board a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, on Aug. 22.
Photographer: MSgt. Donald R. Allen/U.S. Air ForceSecretary of State Antony Blinken has ordered internal reviews of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan, after the Biden administration came under sharp criticism for leaving hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies behind in the chaotic rush to get out as the Taliban took power.
“We will not let this opportunity to learn and do better pass us by,” Blinken said Wednesday in a speech focused on modernizing the State Department. “Now we owe it to ourselves, to our Afghan friends and partners and to future State Department employees who might find themselves facing a similar challenge one day to capture all that we learned, study it, apply it and preserve it.”