The sheer embarrassment that Americans have felt in regard to the Biden administration’s first several months in office came to a crescendo in August, as the Taliban essentially ran the most powerful military in the world out of the country, after erasing 20 years of state-building in just eleven short days.
This was the death knell for the President’s approval numbers, and could very well factor heavily into the way Americans vote in the 2022 midterms as well.
Now, after the serious uproar that took place around the nation, (and the world), thanks to Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal, the State Department has decided that the incident requires investigation.
The State Department’s inspector general is launching a series of investigations into the end of the Biden administration’s diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, according to State Department and congressional officials, as well as documents viewed by POLITICO.
The reviews by the internal watchdog will focus on the State Department’s Special Immigrant Visa program; Afghans processed for refugee admission into the U.S.; resettlement of those refugees and visa recipients; and the emergency evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul “to include evacuation of U.S. citizens and Afghan nationals,” according to an Oct. 15 action memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that was obtained by POLITICO.
And there was no mistaking the intention:
Diana Shaw, theState Department’s acting inspector general, notified Congress ofher office’s actions on Monday. In a separate letter to top lawmakers obtained by POLITICO, Shaw said her office was launching “several oversight projects” related to the end of the U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan.
“Given the elevated interest in this work by Congress and the unique circumstances requiring coordination across the Inspector General community, I wanted to notify our committees of jurisdiction of this important work,” Shaw wrote in her letter, which was sent to leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as the intelligence committees in both chambers, among others.
The Biden administration’s choice to bow down to the Taliban’s withdrawal deadline was embarrassing enough, but to also abandon Americans and their allies in Afghanistan on account of it was a step too far for many.
