Blinken to testify to Congress on Afghanistan

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is testifying on Capitol Hill this week. The nation's top diplomat is meeting virtually today with Congress followed by meetings tomorrow with the Senate. Lawmakers are seeking answers about the chaotic end of the war in Afghanistan. Blinken is also expected to be pressed on how many American citizens and Afghan allies remain in the country. Meanwhile, concerns are growing over whether the Taliban will keep the promises they've made such as respecting women's rights. CBS News foreign correspondent Charlie D'Agata has more.

The UN has called an emergency meeting to raise more than $600 million in humanitarian-aid assistance for Afghanistan. That's after the Taliban takeover resulted in an abrupt end of international support in terms of billions of dollars. Now, here's how they marked 9/11 in Afghanistan. The Taliban raised their Taliban flag over the presidential palace for the first time, and it comes as this all-male government laid out new rules for education. First of all, women are allowed to go to university, but they'll be going to segregated class with no male students beside them. They'll also have to adhere to strict Islamic code and wear Islamic dress. Hundreds of women did just that. In fact, they went above and beyond, wearing the full black burqas in Kabul University, heads bowed in what appeared to be a silent protest. CIA Director Williams Burns visited here in Islamabad looking for more support from the Pakistani government. However, just a few days later, it was a meeting of America's adversaries. Russia, China, Iran, and others all here vying for more influence in this region. Tanya.

Charlie D'Agata, thank you. Joining me now to talk more about this is Bradley Bowman. He is the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He's also an Afghanistan veteran and served as national security advisor to US senators. Welcome. So great to have you with us. So lawmakers are grilling Secretary Blinken this week about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the evacuation efforts. What are Democrats specifically looking to hear, and what do Republicans want to hear from the secretary of state?

No, thanks for the opportunity to join you, and thanks for the question. You know, the first draft of history regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan is being written as we speak, and Secretary Blinken's testimony today before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and tomorrow before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is really going to be a significant component of the first chapter of that draft. What is indisputable is that we've seen a major national-security and humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan. And you're going to have some members who are really going to try to understand what happened and learn the lessons so we don't repeat those mistakes, and as someone who worked in the US Senate for nine years, you're going to also see some members engaging in partisan politics with an eye on the next election, trying to cast blame on the other party. And so they each are going to have questions that are fairly predictable in pursuit of those objectives. And this is going to-- I think it's safe to say this is going to be a not-fun two days for Secretary Blinken.

All right, so, Bradley, do we have any idea of who is still in Afghanistan and needs to get out, and how do we expect this to play out politically?

No. Well, thank you. You know, we know that when the US military withdrew on the timeline-based withdrawal that ignored conditions, there were roughly 100 to 200 Americans that were left behind. Some of those have been able to get out. I think there are still some there. And then we have thousands of vulnerable Afghans-- and by vulnerable Afghans I would include Afghans who had these special immigrant visas who had worked with the US government and we had made a commitment to help get out-- and then also kind of, quote, unquote, at-risk Afghans, people that are being targeted from the Taliban for a variety of other reasons, and there are thousands of them still there. And this is really something I think you can expect Republicans to focus on. They're going to be eager to say that the reasons for this catastrophe was how the withdrawal was conducted. They're going to probably highlight how many people have been left behind or, quote, unquote, stranded. And there might also be concerns from Republicans regarding how effective was the vetting for many of the Afghans who were brought to the United States? And you can also expect to hear Republicans highlighting the very real links, frankly, between the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Democrats, on the other hand, I think are going to want to emphasize that President Biden inherited a horrible situation from President Trump. He inherited the February 2020 agreement with the Taliban, suggesting that that agreement somehow forced the president to proceed with this withdrawal. And they probably will highlight, I think rightly, the extraordinary service of our US service members bravely serving at Kabul airport, helping to get more than 120,000 people airlifted out in one of the most significant airlifts in modern history.

Absolutely. And as you pointed out, this administration is coming under fire for the way this withdrawal transpired, how quickly the Taliban took over Afghanistan after US troops pulled out, and for the chaotic evacuation efforts, even as you say it was heroic on the one hand and very successful on the other. So what can Secretary Blinken say or do to divert some of this heat off of the Biden administration?

You know, it's a good question. I suspect that Secretary Blinken is going to really focus on the fact that they did get, you know, roughly 124,000 people evacuated under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. I think they're going to try to appropriately give credit to the US service members, including those who bravely gave their lives. I mean, let's be clear what was happening. These were Afghan men, women, and children trying to escape the Taliban regime, and we had American service members in some cases wading out into the crowd to help them get to freedom and safety, and they were murdered by ISIS-K, ISIS Khorasan. So true-- so I suspect he will rightly highlight the bravery of those service members and how the administration did get a lot of people out and how they were dealt a tough hand by the Trump administration. But, you know, I think he's going to have a hard time avoiding some of the tough questions like how the new Taliban cabinet includes no women. It includes Siraj Haqqani, the head of the Haqqani network that is one of the most formidable terrorist organizations in the world. It's linked to al-Qaeda. And that you have an interim prime minister who is the guy who after 9/11 refused to give up Osama bin Laden. So this really is a cabinet that only al-Qaeda can love, and the Biden administration is now considering whether they want to recognize that government. And there's some incentive to do that because they need things from the Taliban, but the fact is the Taliban remains attached at the hip with al-Qaeda.

Right. No doubt Secretary Blinken will be in the hot seat this afternoon. Bradley Bowman, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate your insight.