Biden breaks promise to 'stay' in Afghanistan until every American evacuated

The last U.S. troops departed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021, ending America's 20-year military presence in Afghanistan with an unknown number of Americans who wanted to leave still in the country. Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of U.S. Central Command, announced the final C-17 lifted off at 3:29 p.m. Eastern time and acknowledged, in his own words, "We did not get everybody out that we wanted to get out."

The withdrawal's end directly contradicted a commitment President Biden made twelve days earlier. In an August 18, 2021 interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, three days after the Taliban seized Kabul, Biden said, "If there's American citizens left, we're gonna stay to get them all out." Asked directly whether he was committed to keeping troops in the country until every American who wanted to leave could do so, Biden answered, "Yes." He extended a version of that commitment to Afghan allies as well, saying "the commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out."

Accounts of exactly how many Americans were left behind diverge depending on who is cited and when. A State Department official described a "small number" of Americans remaining in Afghanistan as the last flight departed, putting the figure at "below 250," and noted some Americans had left the country in the hours just before the deadline. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a separate statement, put the number of American citizens who wanted to leave and remained in the country at approximately 100. Neither figure was reconciled publicly, and it is not clear from the available reporting whether the two statements were describing the same population at the same moment or counts taken at different points in a fast-moving final week.

How the final days unfolded

The evacuation ran from August 14 through August 30. Defense One reported the Pentagon credited the 15-day span with airlifting more than 116,700 people on 720-plus military and chartered flights, with total people rescued -- including roughly 5,000 evacuated before Kabul fell -- exceeding 122,300. Al Jazeera reported a different topline figure: 79,000 people evacuated, including 6,000 American citizens, since August 14, a discrepancy the available reporting does not resolve. One flight, call sign Reach 871, carried 823 passengers aboard a C-17 with a listed capacity of roughly 300, as Afghans crowded aboard during the operation's peak.

The final week of the operation was marked by violence as well as urgency. On August 26, a suicide bombing at the airport killed at least 175 people by one count, including 13 U.S. service members; Al Jazeera's figure was "at least 175," while Fox News reported the attack, claimed by ISIS-K, killed 183 people including the 13 Americans. A U.S. retaliatory drone strike afterward killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, according to the Fox News account. No Americans were aboard the last five flights out of Kabul before McKenzie's announcement.

The administration's framing

McKenzie told reporters, "I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan," and stated "Every single American service member is now out of Afghanistan." Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that for "Americans and other individuals that want to be able to leave Afghanistan after our withdrawal is complete, the State Department is going to continue to work across many different levers to facilitate that," while adding, "We do not anticipate a military role" going forward. Blinken said the United States would not maintain a diplomatic presence on the ground in Afghanistan going forward. President Biden, addressing the Taliban's role in the final evacuation, said "The Taliban has made commitments on safe passage and the world will hold them to their commitments." White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden did not regret the decision to withdraw.

What remained unresolved

The gap between Biden's stay-until-everyone's-out pledge and the actual withdrawal became a recurring point of scrutiny in the weeks that followed. A later disclosure -- reported by Fox News citing Politico -- put the State Department's own tally at more than 800 American citizens and at least 600 legal permanent residents evacuated in the period after the military withdrawal was complete, using diplomatic rather than military channels. That later, larger figure sits alongside the initial "below 250" and "approximately 100" estimates from the final day itself, and the available reporting does not explain how the department's methodology or population counted changed between those statements. Tens of thousands of Afghan allies who had sought evacuation also remained in the country when the last flight departed, per Fox News reporting, facing possible Taliban retaliation for their work with U.S. forces; volunteer rescue groups on the ground were advising Afghans at the time "do not count on Americans to save you."

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Fox News, Defense One and Al Jazeera. It restores a story originally published on this site in August 2021; figures are as reported at the time.