{"id":39873,"date":"2021-09-13T15:41:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T22:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=39873"},"modified":"2021-09-13T15:41:04","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T22:41:04","slug":"opening-remarks-by-secretary-antony-j-blinken-before-the-house-committee-on-foreign-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=39873","title":{"rendered":"Opening Remarks by Secretary Antony J. Blinken Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"
09\/13\/2021 05:09 PM EDT<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

2172 Rayburn House Office Building<\/p>\n

September 13, 2021<\/p>\n

SECRETARY BLINKEN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.\u00a0 And Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member McCaul, thank you for today.\u00a0 I welcome this opportunity to discuss our policy on Afghanistan, including where we are, how (inaudible), and where we\u2019re going in the weeks and months ahead.<\/p>\n

For 20 years, Congress has conducted oversight and provided funding for the mission in Afghanistan.\u00a0 I know from my own time as a staff member for then-Senator Biden how invaluable a partner Congress is.\u00a0 As I said when I was nominated, I believe strongly in Congress\u2019s traditional role as a partner in foreign policy making.\u00a0 I\u2019m committed to working with you on the path forward in Afghanistan and to advance the interests of the American people.<\/p>\n

On this 20th anniversary of 9\/11, as we honor the nearly 3,000 men, women, and children who lost their lives, we are reminded why we went to Afghanistan in the first place: to bring justice to those who attacked us and to ensure that it would not happen again.\u00a0 We achieved those objectives long ago.\u00a0 Osama bin Laden was killed in 2011 \u2013 a decade ago.\u00a0 Al-Qaida\u2019s capabilities were degraded significantly, including its ability to plan and conduct external operations.\u00a0 After 20 years, 2,641 American lives lost, 20,000 injuries, $2 trillion spent, it was time to end America\u2019s longest war.<\/p>\n

When President Biden took office in January, he inherited an agreement that his predecessor had reached with the Taliban to remove all remaining forces from Afghanistan by May 1st of this year. As part of that agreement, the previous administration pressed the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners \u2013 including some top war commanders.\u00a0 Meanwhile, it reduced our own force presence to 2,500 troops.<\/p>\n

In return, the Taliban agreed to stop attacking U.S. and partner forces and to refrain from threatening Afghanistan\u2019s major cities.\u00a0 But the Taliban continued a relentless march on remote outposts, on checkpoints, on villages and districts, as well as the major roads connecting them.<\/p>\n

By January 2021, the Taliban was in the strongest military position it had been in since 9\/11 \u2013 and we had the smallest number of troops on the ground since 2001.<\/p>\n

As a result, upon taking office, President Biden immediately faced the choice between ending the war or escalating it.\u00a0 Had he not followed through on his predecessor\u2019s commitment, attacks on our forces and those of our allies would have resumed and the Taliban\u2019s nationwide assault on Afghanistan\u2019s major cities would have commenced.\u00a0 That would have required sending substantially more U.S. forces into Afghanistan to defend ourselves and prevent a Taliban takeover, taking casualties \u2013 and with at best the prospect of restoring a stalemate and remaining stuck in Afghanistan, under fire, indefinitely.<\/p>\n

There is no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining.\u00a0 If 20 years and hundreds of billions of dollars in support, equipment, and training did not suffice, why would another year, another five, another ten?<\/p>\n

Conversely, there is nothing that our strategic competitors like China and Russia \u2013 or adversaries like Iran and North Korea \u2013 would have liked more than for the United States to re-up a 20-year war and remain bogged down in Afghanistan for another decade.<\/p>\n

In advance of the President\u2019s decision, I was in constant contact with our allies and partners to hear their views and factor them into our thinking.\u00a0 When the President announced the withdrawal, NATO immediately and unanimously embraced it.\u00a0 We all set (inaudible) \u2013 together \u2013 on the drawdown.<\/p>\n

Similarly, we were intensely focused on the safety of Americans in Afghanistan.\u00a0 In March, we began urging them to leave the country. \u00a0In total, between March and August, we sent 19 specific messages with that warning \u2013 and with offers to help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets.<\/p>\n

Despite this effort, at the time the evacuation began, there were still thousands of American citizens in Afghanistan, almost all of whom we evacuated by August 31st.\u00a0 Many were dual citizens living in Afghanistan for years, decades, generations.\u00a0 Deciding whether or not to leave the place they know as home was an incredibly wrenching decision.<\/p>\n

In April, we began drawing down our embassy, ordering non-essential personnel to depart.<\/p>\n

We also used this time to significantly speed up the processing of the Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans who had worked for us and by our side these past 20 years.\u00a0 When we took office, we inherited a program with a 14-step process based on a statutory framework enacted by Congress and involving multiple government agencies \u2013 and a backlog of more than 17,000 SIV applicants.\u00a0 There had not been a single interview in the SIV program in Kabul for nine months, going back to March of 2020.\u00a0 The program was basically in a stall.<\/p>\n

Within two weeks of taking office, we restarted the SIV interview process in Kabul.\u00a0 On February 4th, one of the first executive orders issued by President Biden directed us to immediately review the SIV program to identify causes of undue delay and to find ways to process SIV applications more quickly.<\/p>\n

This spring, I directed significant additional resources to the program, expanding the team in Washington of people processing applications from 10 to 50 and doubling the number of SIV adjudicators at our embassy in Kabul.\u00a0 Even as many embassy personnel returned to the United States under ordered departure, we sent more consular officers to Kabul to process SIV applications.<\/p>\n

As a result of these and other steps, including working with Congress, by May we had reduced the average processing time for Special Immigrant Visas by more than a year.\u00a0 Even amid a COVID surge at Embassy Kabul in June, we continued to issue visas.\u00a0 And we went from issuing about 100 Special Immigrant Visas per week in March to more than 1,000 per week in August \u2013 when our evacuation and relocation efforts began.<\/p>\n

That emergency evacuation was sparked by the collapse of the Afghan security forces and government.\u00a0 Throughout the year, we were constantly assessing their staying power and considering multiple scenarios.\u00a0 Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained.\u00a0 As General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, \u201cNothing I or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, we planned and exercised a wide range of contingencies.\u00a0 Because of that planning, we were able to draw down our embassy and move our remaining personnel to the airport within 48 hours.\u00a0 And the military \u2013 placed on standby by President Biden \u2013 was able to secure the airport and start the evacuation within 72 hours.<\/p>\n

The evacuation itself was an extraordinary effort \u2013 under the most difficult conditions imaginable \u2013 by our diplomats, by our military, by our intelligence professionals.\u00a0 They worked around the clock to get American citizens, Afghans who helped us, citizens of our allies and partners, and at-risk Afghans on planes, out of the country, and off to the United States or to transit locations that our diplomats had arranged and negotiated in multiple countries.\u00a0 Our consular team worked 24\/7 to reach out to Americans who could still be in the country, making in those couple of weeks 55,000 phone calls, sending 33,000 emails \u2013 and they\u2019re still at it.\u00a0 In the midst of this heroic effort, an ISIS-K attack killed 13 service members working the gates at HKIA, wounding 20 others, and killing and wounding scores of Afghans.\u00a0 These American service members gave their lives so that other lives could continue.<\/p>\n

In the end, we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety.<\/p>\n

And on August 31st in Kabul, the military mission in Afghanistan officially ended, and a new diplomatic mission began.<\/p>\n

I want to acknowledge the more than two dozen countries that have helped with the relocation effort \u2013 some served as transit hubs, some welcoming Afghan evacuees for longer periods of time.<\/p>\n

And I want to recognize the extraordinary efforts by Congress as well.\u00a0 To name just a few examples:\u00a0 Congressman Fitzpatrick worked with the State Department to reunite an Afghan family in New Jersey.\u00a0 Congressman Keating worked with our folks on the ground to help a Voice of America reporter and his family get to the airport.\u00a0 Congresswoman Jacobs and Congressman Issa worked across party lines to draw attention to cases of legal permanent residents and Afghans at risk.\u00a0 Please know your emails, your calls made a real difference in getting people out, and we continue to use the lists and information you\u2019re providing in the next phase of the mission.<\/p>\n

Let me now just briefly outline what the State Department has done over the next \u2013 over the last couple of weeks, and where we\u2019re going in the days and weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

First, we moved our diplomatic operations from Kabul to Doha, where our new Afghan affairs team is hard at work.\u00a0 Many of our key partners have joined us there.<\/p>\n

Second, we\u2019re continuing our relentless efforts to help any remaining Americans, as well as Afghans and citizens of allied and partner countries, leave Afghanistan if they so choose.<\/p>\n

This past Thursday, Qatar Airways charter flight with U.S. citizens and others onboard departed Kabul and landed in Doha.\u00a0 On Friday, a second flight carrying U.S. citizens and others departed Afghanistan.\u00a0 These flights were the result of a coordinated effort by the United States, Qatar, and Turkey to reopen the airport, and intense diplomacy to start the flights.<\/p>\n

In addition to those flights, a half-dozen American citizens, about a dozen permanent residents of the United States have also left Afghanistan via an overland route, with our help.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re in constant contact with American citizens still in Afghanistan who have told us that they wish to leave.\u00a0 Each has been assigned a case management team to offer specific guidance and instruction.\u00a0 Some declined to be on the first flights on Thursday and Friday for reasons including needing more time to make arrangements, wanting to remain with extended family for now, or medical issues that precluded traveling last week.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll continue to help them and we\u2019ll continue to help any American who still wants to leave, and Afghans to whom we have a special commitment \u2013 just as we\u2019ve done in other countries where we\u2019ve evacuated our embassy and hundreds or even thousands of Americans remaining behind \u2013 for example, in Libya, in Syria, in Venezuela, in Yemen, in Somalia.\u00a0 There is no deadline to this mission.<\/p>\n

Third, we\u2019re focused on counterterrorism.<\/p>\n

The Taliban has committed to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including al-Qaida and ISIS-K.\u00a0 We\u2019ll hold them accountable for that.\u00a0 That does not mean we will rely on them.\u00a0 We will remain vigilant in monitoring threats, we\u2019ll maintain robust counterterrorism capabilities in the region to neutralize those threats if necessary \u2013 and we do that in places around the world where we do not have military forces on the ground.<\/p>\n

Fourth, we continue our intensive diplomacy with allies and partners.<\/p>\n

We initiated a statement joined by more than half the world\u2019s countries \u2013 over a hundred countries \u2013 as well as a United Nations Security Council resolution setting out the international community\u2019s expectations of a Taliban-led government.\u00a0 We expect the Taliban to ensure freedom of travel; to make good on its commitments on counterterrorism; to uphold the basic rights of the Afghan people, including women, girls, and minorities; to name a broadly representative permanent government; to forswear reprisals.\u00a0 The legitimacy and support the Taliban seeks from the international community will depend on its conduct.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve organized contact groups of key countries to ensure the international community continues to speak with one voice on Afghanistan and to leverage our combined influence.<\/p>\n

Last week, I led a ministerial meeting of 22 countries, NATO, the EU, the United Nations, to continue to align our efforts.<\/p>\n

And fifth, we\u2019ll continue to support humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.\u00a0 Consistent with sanctions, this aid will not flow through the government, but rather through independent organizations like NGOs and UN agencies.<\/p>\n

Just today, we announced that the United States is providing nearly $64 million in new humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan to meet critical health and nutrition needs; address the protection concerns of women, children, and minorities; to help more children \u2013 including girls \u2013 go back to school.\u00a0 This additional funding means the United States has provided nearly $330 million in assistance to the Afghan people this fiscal year.<\/p>\n

In Doha and Ramstein, I toured the facilities where Afghans that we evacuated are being processed before moving on to their next destinations.\u00a0 Here at home, I spent some time at the Dulles Expo Center, where more than 45,000 Afghans have been processed after arriving in the United States.\u00a0 It\u2019s remarkable \u2013 remarkable to see what our diplomats, our military, and employees from other civilian agencies across the U.S. Government have been able to achieve in a very short time.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve met an enormous human need.\u00a0 They\u2019ve coordinated food, water, sanitation for thousands, tens of thousands of people.\u00a0 They\u2019re arranging medical care, including the delivery of babies.\u00a0 They\u2019re reuniting families who were separated and caring for unaccompanied minors.\u00a0 It\u2019s an extraordinary interagency effort \u2013 and a powerful testament to the skill, the compassion, and the dedication of our people.<\/p>\n

We should all be proud of what they\u2019re doing.\u00a0 And as we\u2019ve done throughout our history, Americans are now welcoming families from Afghanistan into our communities and helping them resettle as they start their new lives.\u00a0 That\u2019s something to be proud of as well.<\/p>\n

Thanks very much for listening.\u00a0 And with that, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member McCaul, I look forward to your questions.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

09\/13\/2021 05:09 PM EDT   Antony...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39874,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions\/39874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}