Antony Blinken,
the US Secretary of State, is testifying before the Congress on the US’s
decision to withdraw from Afghanistan as the war-torn country returned to the
Taliban’s grip after the United States concluded its longest war in history.
The Biden administration has faced severe criticism from Republicans as well as
others for what many call a botched withdrawal. Consequently, Blinken’s
testimony in front of the Congress is drawing strong responses from across the
country.

Also Read | Out of 80 women, only 12 made it back to their job after Taliban takeover

Douglas county
commissioner Danny Tarkanian said, “It would be hard to imagine a Secretary of State making a bigger mess of
the world in such a short time than what Antony Blinken has done in the past
nine months. The fact that he still holds his position is incomprehensible.”

Republican
politician from Florida Lavern Spicer said on Twitter, “All that Antony Blinken
is proving is that Joe Biden’s pull-out game is weaker than Nick Cannon’s”.

“I can’t believe
the only reason we have this president is because half the country let their
television tell them who to hate and what to fear,” Spicer added.

Defending the
Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Blinken told the Congress, “There’s
no evidence that staying longer would have made Afghan security forces or the Afghan
government any more resilient or self-sustaining,”  

Top Democrats too
defended the decision to withdraw. Representative Gregory Meeks, the chair of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “Disentangling ourselves from the war in
Afghanistan was never going to be easy.”

In his testimony,
Antony Blinken said that the Biden administration inherited a deadline from
the Trump administration but did not “inherit a plan”. Blinken’s statement
follows from President Joe Biden’s comment last month in which he said that
while he takes responsibility for the decision to withdraw at the end of
August, it was Trump who had agreed to a withdrawal on May 1.

During the hearing,
Antony Blinken reiterated that there are American citizens currently in Afghanistan
and said that the Biden administration is in touch with the Americans who wish
to leave Afghanistan.