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national security advisor Jake Sullivan He reportedly offered to resign from President Biden’s administration after the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, according to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.
Ignacio, Washington Post columnist, spoke to sullivan and several of his colleagues as the Biden administration nears its end.
Several of Sullivan’s colleagues reportedly told Ignatius that Sullivan offered to resign and President Biden insisted that the national security adviser remain in the position, according to the report.
Ignatius reported that the withdrawal from Afghanistan “broke the initial civility” of the Biden administration’s national security team and created a dispute between Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The 2021 withdrawal claimed the lives of more than a dozen american service members and led the Taliban to regain control of the war-torn nation.
“You cannot end a war like the one in Afghanistan, where dependencies and pathologies have been created, without the end being complex and challenging,” Sullivan told the Washington Post columnist. “The choice was: leave, which would not be easy, or stay forever.”
Sullivan added that “leaving Kabul freed (the United States) to confront the Russian invasion of Ukraine in ways that might have been impossible if we had stayed.”
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U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaks during a news conference amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel, December 15, 2023. REUTERS/ Violeta Santos Moura (Reuters//Violeta Santos Moura)
Ignacio wrote that the Pentagon resisted Biden’s call to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan and argued for “a residual force of 2,500 people in Kabul.”
Sullivan is said to have initially shared the Pentagon’s concerns, Ignatius wrote, citing two close advisers.
However, he aimed to “loyally” defend Biden’s plan to withdraw completely.
Alex Ward, a Wall Street Journal national security reporter who wrote “The Internationalists,” a book about the president’s foreign policy team, noted that advisers he spoke to for the book said no one offered to resign.
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The White House and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Sulllivan evaluated his performance towards the end of the interview with Ignatius.
“Are our alliances stronger? Yes. Are our enemies weaker? Yes. Did we keep the United States out of the war? Yes. Did we improve our strategic position in competition with China while stabilizing the relationship? Yes. Did we strengthen the drivers of American war? economic and technological power? Yes,” he said.
