The House Oversight Committee on Friday sent letters to top Biden administration officials demanding information about the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
“The Biden administration was tragically unprepared for the Afghanistan withdrawal and their decisions in the region directly resulted in a national security and humanitarian catastrophe,” committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement.
“The American people deserve answers and the Biden administration’s ongoing obstruction of this investigation is unacceptable,” he said.
Comer issued the statement as he and the chairs of several subcommittees sent letters demanding records, documents and communications about the withdrawal to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power.
After almost 20 years of fighting, U.S. forces pulled out of Afghanistan in August of 2021. The evacuation got ugly in the war’s final weeks, as the Afghanistan government collapsed and the U.S. scrambled to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghan allies and, a terrorist attack left 13 service members and hundreds of civilians dead.
“U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, Americans were abandoned, taxpayer dollars are unaccounted for, the Taliban gained access to military equipment, progress for Afghan women was derailed, and the entire area is now under hostile Taliban control,” Comer said. “Every relevant department and agency should be prepared to cooperate and provide all requested information.”
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In a press release that included his statement, Comer complained that House Democrats never held a hearing on the withdrawal when they controlled the committee, although the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on the topic in September of 2021 which included testimony from Austin and Milley. Blinken testified about the withdrawal before the House Foreign Services Committee, and multiple Senate committee held hearings as well.
Milley acknowledged in his testimony that the U.S. was caught off-guard by the swift fall of the U.S.-backed Afghan government.
“We absolutely missed the rapid, 11-day collapse of the Afghan military and the Afghan government,” he said.
NBC News has reached out to the State Department and Department of Defense for comment on Comer’s requests.
Nearly 2,500 service members and 3,800 U.S. contractors were killed over the span of the nearly 20-year war.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
