President Biden has been accused of trying to promote a State Department official who failed to protect America’s allies in Afghanistan to a key ambassadorship in the Middle East.
Mr. Biden, 81, announced on January 25 that he would nominate Tracy Ann Jacobson, 59, to be the next US ambassador to Iraq, and the Senate is expected to consider her nomination later this month.
As the Taliban closes in on Kabul and U.S. forces prepare to leave in August 2021, Jacobson, a former special envoy to Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kosovo, is seeking what Biden called “the government’s Responsible for the overall initiative. It called for the relocation of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants and other Afghan allies who had supported Western forces during the two-decade conflict with Islamic fundamentalists.
But it’s been more than two years since the last American soldier left Afghanistan. Thousands of the same allies They remain stranded in Taliban-controlled countries and are under constant threat of rounding up and execution.
Chad Robichaud, a former Marine who spearheaded the largest civilian evacuation effort from Afghanistan and founded the Mighty Oaks Foundation, which supports veterans, said Jacobson was “still with blood on his hands” after the failed evacuation. He said he was one of the people who said:
“Jacobson failed to ensure that 150,000 wartime allies received the SIV (Special Immigrant Visas) they were contractually promised.” [and] left [them] “After 20 years of service to America, I was persecuted, hunted down and killed by the Taliban,” he said.
“The White House’s nomination of Tracy Jacobson as the new ambassador to Iraq is another in a growing list of embarrassments for the United States, a slap in the face to our veterans and allies, and a threat to our national security. It puts them even more at risk,” Robichaud added. He helped rescue approximately 17,000 people prior to the Taliban’s reconquest.
Stuart Sherrer, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel who blamed the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan and was relieved of duty in August 2021, wants Jacobson to acknowledge the State Department’s failures.
“If she cannot acknowledge under oath that the State Department’s response to the Afghan evacuation was a failure, then she is not qualified to represent the American people,” Scherer said.
Since overthrowing the US-backed civilian government in Afghanistan, the Taliban are feared to have hunted down, tortured and killed many US allies. According to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas)
“Tracy Jacobson and the Biden administration disappointed American veterans and Afghan allies when they abandoned hundreds of thousands of Afghan allies,” McCaul said in a statement Thursday. “If she is cleared to become the next U.S. ambassador to Iraq, the Democratic U.S. Senate will be telling the American people and the world that there will be no accountability or justice in the Biden administration. ”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also slammed Jacobson’s nomination.
“Tracey Jacobson played a central role in one of the most inexcusable failures, abandoning a highly vetted Afghan who risked his life for the security of our country, but this is without a doubt It would tarnish and jeopardize her nomination,” he said. told the free press.
The chaotic evacuation worsened after a suicide bomb attack at Kabul International Airport killed 13 American soldiers as thousands of Afghans tried in vain to secure seats on flights out of the country.
“I’m the President of the United States, and the expenses are mine.” Mr. Biden said: at that time. “While I am deeply saddened by what we are currently facing, I do not regret my decision.”
In February, a report released by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) slammed the withdrawal as “sudden and chaotic,” creating the impression that the United States was “simply handing over Afghanistan to a Taliban regime in waiting.” left.
More than 1,000 Americans were also stranded in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal, according to a 2022 report from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
