Leading Democrat Calls Afghan Withdrawal ‘Fatally Flawed’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP)
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Leading Democrat Calls Afghan Withdrawal ‘Fatally Flawed’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (AP)

Senators from President Joe Biden’s own Democratic Party took the administration to task Tuesday over the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which a top lawmaker called “fatally flawed.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken heard criticism across party lines as he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a day after a stronger partisan divide when he appeared before the House of Representatives.

Bob Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and normally a Biden ally, recounted the beating of a reporter by the victorious Taliban and said, “The repression of the Afghan people is happening in real time.”

“Mr. Secretary, the execution of the US withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed,” Menendez said.

“This committee expects to receive a full explanation of this administration’s decisions on Afghanistan since coming into office last January. There has to be accountability.”

Menendez, a fierce critic of Blinken’s predecessor Mike Pompeo, was also scathing over the previous administration’s signing of an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw US troops and end America’s longest war.

“The chaos of (this) August is due in large part to the February 2020 surrender deal negotiated by Donald Trump, a deal that was clearly built on a set of lies,” Menendez said.

Senator Ben Cardin, another Democrat, also blamed Trump for pushing for the release of Taliban prisoners and reducing troops under the accord.

But he said that Trump’s actions did not “negate” that the Biden administration had information on the strength of the Afghan government and military which crumbled as US troops were still leaving.

“I think many of us are interested in knowing how intelligence got that so wrong,” Cardin said.

Blinken staunchly defended Biden’s decision to pull troops after 20 years, saying he did not believe in sending another generation of US troops into harm’s way.

Under questioning, he said that the intelligence community said in February that the Taliban could capture Kabul “within a year or two” in a worst-case scenario.

But July, an updated assessment said “it was more likely than not that the Taliban would take over by the end of the year.”

“Nothing,” Blinken said, “suggested that this government and security forces would collapse in a matter of 11 days.”



Anti-war Demonstrators Protest the Arrival of an Israeli Cruise Ship on the Greek Island of Crete

 Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
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Anti-war Demonstrators Protest the Arrival of an Israeli Cruise Ship on the Greek Island of Crete

 Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)
Pro-Palestinians protesters gather during the departure of a ship carrying Israeli tourists, background, in Agios Nikolaos port, on the island of Crete, Greece, Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Antonis Zouridakis/Eurokinissi via AP)

Demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza protested the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship on another Greek island Tuesday – the third such protest on Greek islands in the last week.

Protesters on the southern Greek island of Crete unfurled a huge Palestinian flag at the port of Agios Nikolaos and shouted “Free, free Palestine” as the tourists on board the Crown Iris disembarked and left on buses for their tours of the island, according to images shown on local media outlets.

Riot police kept the crowd away from the pier where the cruise ship was docked, while scuffles broke out between demonstrators and police. Local media reported that officers used pepper spray at one point to keep the crowd back.

Four people were detained, local media said. Video showed police leading one man away, his arms cuffed behind his back, as he shouted “Free, free Palestine.”

Similar scenes unfolded the previous day when the Crown Iris docked in a port on the eastern Greek island of Rhodes, where clashes broke out between riot police and demonstrators calling for an end to the war in Gaza. There also, the cruise ship’s passengers disembarked for tours of the island, and no violence was reported.

Anti-war protesters on Greece’s Cycladic island of Syros were the first to hold a demonstration against the docking of the Crown Iris, on July 22. The crowd of about 150 people chanted slogans and carried banners that read “Stop the Genocide” and “No a/c in hell” — a reference to the conditions Palestinians face in the Gaza Strip.

On that occasion, the ship’s roughly 1,700 passengers didn't disembark and the ship left the island earlier than planned, with the company operating the trip, Israel’s Mano Cruise, saying it had “decided in light of the situation in the city of Syros to now sail to another tourist destination.”

Last week's incident had triggered a phone call by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis.

Greece is a popular tourist destination for Israelis on package tours and traveling independently, particularly in the summer months, and there are several flights per day between Tel Aviv and Athens, as well as from Israeli airports directly to Greek islands.