Blinken admits he thought US would have an Embassy in Kabul before troops' withdrawal

Afghanistan, which has witnessed the worst-ever crisis since the ouster of the democratically elected government, was left abandoned by America nearly 15 months ago, after cutting all ties with the Taliban-led government. However, a top official in the Biden administration believes the US would have maintained a diplomatic presence in Kabul through 2021 and into 2022 prior to withdrawal from Afghanistan.

According to a report by Politico, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's critical remarks came while recording a documentary for an American pay television network- HBO. The special program will be on-aired on Wednesday. He acknowledged that the administration could not apprehend that the condition would turn more worst than US officials had underscored. According to Blinken, the administration had worked on certain assumptions.

"I believed strongly that we were going to have a robust embassy presence in Kabul certainly through the year [2021], well into the next year," Blinken said in the documentary. "Everything that we planned and did was based on that assumption." The HBO documentary "Year One: A Political Odyssey" which will be premiered on October 19, emphasises how the Biden administration acted with good intentions but did not turn out as satisfactorily as planned. Documentary director John Maggio reportedly said that the Biden administration has analysed all mistakes that led to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and added it tried to rectify all those in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Condition of Afghanistan after troop withdrawal

Earlier last year, when the US pulled its forces, thus pushing the country into a vulnerable state, nearly all Afghans expressed deep concerns about their life. According to a recent survey by Gallup’s Negative Experience Index, it categorised the country is the unhappiest nation in the world. The report found that people are still facing physical pain, mental stress, mental disorders triggered by poverty and unemployment, anxiety and anger, in the past 1.4 years of the extremist government. The survey claims that 80% of Afghans are worried and disturbed while 74% of the mental stresses induced by poverty are caused by unemployment. A survey conducted last year found nearly 53% of the countrymen wished to leave Afghanistan, citing uncertainties in the Taliban regime.

Image: @SecBlinken/Twitter