An internal review has revealed that the US State Department did not adequately prepare for the swift collapse of the Afghan government in 2021. The After Action Review (AAR) praised the actions of State Department staff, who worked “heroically” under extreme “stress, demands and risks”, but said the department should have better prepared for the fall of the Afghan capital, Kabul. The report said the decision by US Presidents Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan had “serious consequences” for the viability of the US-backed Afghan government.

It criticised the State Department for failing to set up a crisis-management task force that could have overseen the situation in Afghanistan at the time, as well as clearly cooperate with the Pentagon in the case of an evacuation. The Pentagon was preparing for an evacuation operation, but the “planning process was hindered by the fact that it was unclear who in the [State Department] had the lead”, the report said. A massive two-week operation to get US citizens and desperate Afghans out followed the fall of Kabul, and a suicide bombing by the Afghanistan branch of ISIL (ISIS) killed at least 175 people, including 13 US service members.

The review also faulted the Trump administration for failing to address a backlog and other issues plaguing the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programme, which offers a pathway for Afghans who worked with the US government to come to the country. It echoed the White House report’s findings that the Trump administration did not properly plan for the departure of American troops.

Biden has defended the decision to end the “forever war”, which at 20 years had become Washington’s longest armed conflict. The US and a coalition of its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington, DC, but they never managed to ensure a lasting defeat of the group or wrest full control over the mountainous country.