Top Biden aide reportedly offered to resign after withdrawing from Afghanistan

National security adviser Jake Sullivan has reportedly offered to resign from President Biden's post after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, according to David Ignatius of the Washington Post.

Ignatius, a columnist for the Washington Post, spoke with Sullivan and several of his colleagues as the Biden administration drew to a close.

A number of Sullivan's colleagues reportedly told Ignatius that Sullivan intended to resign, and President Biden insisted that the national security adviser not continue, according to the report.

Ignatius reported that the withdrawal from Afghanistan “broke the chaos” of the national security team of the Biden administration, and caused a rift between Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

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The 2021 withdrawal claimed the lives of more than a dozen American service members and led to the Taliban regaining control of the war-torn country.

“You can't end a war like Afghanistan, where you have built up dependency and disease, without the end being complex and challenging,” Sullivan told a Washington Post reporter. “The choice was: Go, and it wouldn't be easy, or stay forever.”

Sullivan added, “the departure from Kabul is freed [United States] to deal with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in ways that would not have happened had we stayed.”

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US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press 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)

Ignatius wrote that the Pentagon opposed Biden's request to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan and opposed “2,500 troops in Kabul.”

Sullivan reportedly initially shared the Pentagon's concerns, Ignatius wrote, citing two close advisers.

However, he is willing to “honestly” support Biden's plan to fully withdraw.

Wall Street Journal national security reporter Alex Ward, 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 agreed to resign.

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The White House and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sullivan assessed his performance at the end of the interview with Ignatius.

“Are our allies strong? Yes. Are our enemies weak? Yes. Did we keep America out of the war? Yes. Did we improve our strategic position in the competition with China while strengthening relations? Yes. Did we strengthen the engines of America's economic and technological power?