Secretary of State Blinken calls Taliban ‘the de facto government of

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a contentious congressional hearing Monday that the Taliban is Afghanistan’s de facto government, a statement that marks the apparent end of a Western attempt to create a stable democracy in the war-weary country.

“It [the Taliban] is the de facto government of Afghanistan. Those are just the facts,” Blinken told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs when asked if the administration recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government.

“This is the product, alas, of one side getting the upper hand in a civil war,” the nation’s top diplomat added.

During the three-hour hearing, Blinken defended the Biden administration’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. He was told by at least three Republican lawmakers during the hearing that he should resign.

“We made the right decision in ending America’s longest war,” Blinken said in an emotional response.

“We made the right decision in not sending a third generation of Americans to fight and die in Afghanistan. We did the right thing by our citizens and working feverishly to get every one of them out. We did the right thing by 125,000 Afghans, but to bring them to safety, and now we’re working to do the right thing to hold the Taliban to the expectations of the international community to ensure people can continue to travel freely, to ensure that the rights of Afghans are upheld,” he said.

Earlier this month, reporters pressed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on whether the U.S. would recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

“It’s hard to predict where this will go in the future with respect to the Taliban,” Austin said during a press briefing Sept. 1.

“We don’t know what the future of the Taliban is,” Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said alongside Austin.

“I can tell you from personal experience that this is a ruthless group from the past and whether or not they change remains to be seen,” Milley said, adding that he and Austin both fought against the group during their military careers.

The U.S. began its war in Afghanistan in October 2001, weeks after the attacks of Sept. 11. The Taliban at the time provided sanctuary to al-Qaeda, the group that planned and carried out the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Since then, about 2,500 U.S. service…