WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 31: National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby speaks during a daily press briefing at the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on July 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. Kirby discussed the killing of Hamas top leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran by an Israeli airstrike. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
The veterans quoted in the email lambasted Kirby for "deflecting" from the Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, following House Republicans releasing a scathing report this week following the anniversary of the botched withdrawal.
"The bottom line is that the Biden-Harris administration chose politics over strategy, and Kirby, who I wouldn’t trust to guard my grocery list, is now trying to cover for them," Florida Republican Rep. Mills, an Army veteran, said in comment to Fox News Digital.
The Republican chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, released a report this week disputing President Biden's claims that his hands were tied to an agreement made under former President Trump’s administration that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan under an established deadline in 2021. The report added that State Department officials had no plan for helping Americans and allies out while there were still troops in the region to protect them.
McCaul's report argued the failure to adequately respond to terror threats ahead of the terrorist bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians, and that the Taliban likely had access after the withdrawal to $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons, and up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government.
Kirby joined the White House’s press conference on Monday where he defended the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal, while arguing the new report "says little or nothing new."
Kirby went on to list the "actual facts" surrounding the withdrawal, including arguing that the Trump administration cut a deal with the Taliban that "mandated a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan."
"President Biden, for his part, faced a stark choice when he came to office: Abide by the flawed agreement and end America’s longest war, or blow up the deal, extend the war, and see a much smaller contingent of American troops back in combat with the Taliban," Kirby said. "He chose the former and was able to buy additional time to prepare for that withdrawal all the way into summer, and we, as a nation, are safer for it."
Mills said that Kirby was "deflecting" from the White House’s "failed foreign policies," while pointing to the House Foreign Affairs Committee threatening to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year regarding a July 2021 dissent cable by 23 diplomats that offered avenues to mitigate disaster as the Taliban’s power grew ahead of the U.S. pulling out of Afghanistan.
"Once again, John Kirby is deflecting from the Biden-Harris administration's failed foreign policies. If they were truly transparent, why did HFAC have fun threatening contempt of Congress for Secretary Blinken for intentionally withholding DoS dissent cables from 23 U.S. Embassy diplomats warning that the administration's strategy would allow the Taliban to advance and lead to the collapse of the Afghan government and American lives to be lost? They knew this and tried to cover it up. This wasn’t ignorance, it was intentional and putting political optics above strategy/ safety with a complete lack of transparency. This administration knew exactly what they were doing, tried to cover it up, and got caught. Worse, their actions cost the lives of 13 American servicemembers and severely damaged our credibility with allies. It welcomed aggression from adversaries and showed weakness geopolitically," Mills said.
3 YEARS LATER, AFGHANISTAN WAR VETERANS HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN – HAVE YOU?
TOPSHOT - This image made available to AFP on August 20, 2021 by Human Rights Activist Omar Haidari, shows a US Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. - A Pentagon official confirmed Friday that US evacuation operations from Kabul's airport have been stalling because the receiving base in Qatar is overflowing and could not receive evacuees. "There has been a considerable amount of time today where there haven't been departures," Brigadier General Dan DeVoe of the US Air Mobility Command told reporters. (Photo by - / Courtesy of Omar Haidiri / AFP) (Photo by -/Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by -/Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)
Following the deaths of the 13 U.S. service members, Biden-Harris administration critics such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is ongoing, as is a war in Israel against Hamas.
Another veteran, author of "Crisis of Command" Stuart Scheller, told Fox Digital that the botched withdrawal "will be studied for generations as the epitome of failure at the National Security Council level."
Scheller argued that Biden launched a "PR stunt" when he announced the U.S. would be totally withdrawn from Afghanistan by Sept. 11 of that year, the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
GOLD STAR DAD RECALLS KNOCK AT HIS DOOR THAT 'CHANGED EVERYTHING'
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - SEPTEMBER 02: Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is embraced by U.S. President Joe Biden during a campaign event at IBEW Local Union #5 on September 02, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden joined Vice President Harris for her second Labor Day event, for the first time on the campaign trail since he departed the Democratic ticket and Harris was confirmed as the Democratic Party's nominee for the 2024 presidential election against Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump. The event was attended by members of the IBEW,United Steelworkers, AFSCME, and other unions. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) (Getty Images)
"The fact is that Biden and Harris chose to go against the advice of their Joint Chiefs, military, and intelligence advisors, abandoning Afghanistan and giving up the most strategic military stronghold on the global landscape—Bagram Air Base, which sits between Iraq, Iran, Russia, and China. Worse, they did so before evacuating Americans or our allies. We left behind 20 million women and girls to be sexually enslaved. We left billions of dollars in sensitive equipment and technology. We left our biometric systems that identify our allies. And since then, we’ve been paying the Taliban up to $87 million a week, mostly in cash, to jihadists sanctioned by the U.S. government, four of whom are on the FBI's top ten most wanted list," he said.
BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION IN ‘DENIAL’ ABOUT BOTCHED AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL, HR MCMASTER SAYS
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
"For him to lie to the American people he wore the uniform to serve, in order to cover up the atrocities of politicians, is disgraceful," he added.
Following Kirby's accidental reply all email, his office offered on the record comment regarding his Monday press conference, saying he stands by his "comments in the briefing room."
"While I acknowledge not every veteran agrees with them, I stand by my comments in the briefing room. What was cherry-picked and selective was the report itself. And what’s most important is that America’s longest war is over and those still serving in uniform are better positioned to meet the threats we face today," Kirby said.
House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs Committee released their own memo shortly after the Republican report this week, accusing Republicans of criticizing the Biden administration for the withdrawal for political purposes.
"When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan," Meeks wrote. "Days before leaving office, the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500. President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible without sending significantly more American troops to Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban."
For veterans critical of the withdrawal, they lamented Afghanistan falling back into the hands of terrorists.
"Afghanistan has gone from 4 Al Qaeda training camps to 52, and the Biden-Harris White House is funding it with U.S. taxpayer dollars," Robichaux said in his comments to Fox Digital.
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"So tell me, John Kirby," who he said he will never call admiral, "how is this in the best interest of American national security, or the world for that matter?"
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehrner and Landon Mion contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kirby-no-use-responding-handful-vets-bidens-botched-afghan-withdrawal