AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
The House Foreign Affairs Committee conducted its first hearing of the 118th Congress on Wednesday, calling witnesses to answer questions on the Biden administration’s disastrous and deadly evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. After 18 months of denials and obfuscation from the president and his top lieutenants, Americans finally began to get some answers about the leadership failures that led to one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) kicked things off with a scathing set of remarks directed at President Biden, accusing him and other administration officials of acting “against the advice of his top generals and the intelligence community” and then “[spending] the next four months ignoring the realities” of their failure.
“What happened in Afghanistan was a systemic breakdown of the federal government at every level — and a stunning, stunning failure of leadership by the Biden administration,” McCaul said. “Because of the Biden administration’s dereliction of duty, the world watched heartbreaking scenes unfold in and around the Kabul airport for two weeks.”
The ranking member of the Committee, Democrat Gregory Meeks of New York, was defiant in his defense of President Biden during his own opening remarks, calling the withdrawal in which 13 Americans died an “unprecedented and heroic evacuation never seen before.”
In a sharp contrast to McCaul’s statement, Meeks, while acknowledging that there were “mistakes along the way,” implied that it is former President Trump, not President Biden, who is actually responsible for the disaster.
“In the years preceding the 2021 withdrawal, the decision to engage in direct negotiations with the Taliban and the invitation to meet at Camp David conferred international legitimacy to the Taliban,” Meeks said. “The deal that derived from these negotiations required the withdrawal of our forces without forcing the Taliban to fulfill any real commitments or separating from Al Qaeda.”
Meeks’s narrative notably ignored the fact that Trump did, in fact, take decisive action when the Taliban violated the terms of their negotiated deal. When the Taliban exploded a car bomb in Kabul in September of 2019 that killed 10 people, including an American service member, Trump ceased negotiations and ordered a devastating aerial bombardment of Taliban outposts.
In total, the U.S. dropped more than 7,200 pieces of ordinance on Afghanistan in 2019 – more than any other year of the war. Following that incident, the United States did not see a single combat death in Afghanistan for 18 months.
However, despite Meeks’s attempt to deflect blame from the Biden administration, the hearing also featured testimony from several witnesses, including American service members who were on the ground during the fall of Kabul, who called for accountability.
One of them was Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, 25, who witnessed the suicide bombing near the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport on August 26 that left thirteen American service members dead.
“I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious lying around me… My body was overwhelmed from the trauma of the blast. My abdomen had been ripped open, every inch of my exposed body except for my face took ball bearings and shrapnel,” he said, stopping several times to compose himself.
“Our military members and veterans deserve our best because that is what we give to America. The withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence… The 11 Marines, one sailor and one soldier that were murdered that day have not been answered for.”
McCaul took particular interest in part of Vargas-Andrews’s testimony where he described how State Department officials shut down evacuation operations every night, potentially dramatically reducing the number of people that the military was able to evacuate. The Texas Republican promised to make that line of inquiry a priority in the committee’s investigation of State Department failures surrounding the evacuation.
Aiden Gunderson, a former Army combat medic who was deployed twice to Afghanistan and helped with the evacuation, also appeared before the committee. “I want Americans to know the truth: that the Afghanistan withdrawal was an organizational failure at multiple levels,” he said, calling it “disastrous.”
At times Democrat attempts to defend Biden drew sharp rebukes from the witnesses. Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada questioned retired Lt. Col. David Scott Mann, who formed a group called “Task Force Pineapple” to help evacuate Americans and Afghans, on why he never publicly raised concerns about Afghanistan under the Trump administration.
“The reality is, we were living our lives,” Mann replied, clearly irritated. “We were drawn back into this not of our own volition, but by a set of circumstances that we could not stand for.”
The White House was silent on the hearing, although the viral clips of witnesses describing the tragic circumstances they endured and calling out glaring leadership failures could not have gone over well at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Despite clear rebukes from the soldiers and civilians whom he led into harm’s way, Biden has said repeatedly that he stands behind his decisions.
Republican House leadership has promised more hearings on Afghanistan, and plans to call members of the Biden administration to answer questions as well.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_.
To appease China & Russia
This soulless prick and his administration don’t give a damn. They’ll just lie and blame someone else.
We left millions of dollars of military hardware behind to aid the cause of world terrorism.
The Commander in Cheat and Gen. Milley “WOKE” should be prosecuted as traitors to USA.
That administration will not pay for what they have done they never do.There are so many things that have done that’s been treasonous from Biden on down and they are still in there positions. It’s hard to believe that everything they have done is always blamed on President Trump It’s ridiculous, we were in the best shape of energy,economics, jobs, peace around the world and much more I slept easy at night but now with this administration I am afraid not for myself but for our children and grandchildren what they are doing is so unethical and we as Americans deserve way better.
It doesn’t matter what Biden says or thinks. What does matter are his actions and inactions regarding Afghanistan. Clearly, he made the decision to get out of there regardless of the consequences to those who were at risk. The reason we were there in the first place, to prevent terrorists from ever again launching an attack against America, was IGNORED. What’s preventing 911 from happening again? The answer is NOTHING. What should be said of the American lives lost there and in Vietnam, another place that saw American lives lost? The answer is, the government of the United States of America spilled American blood for NOTHING. The legacy that the families and friends of those lost have to live with is, the promises made by this country mean NOTHING. Joe Biden has no HONOR.
Biden’s lack of caring for his own troops and those freedom fighters who bravely fought with the US soldiers in Afghanistan is once again on full display for everyone to see. Sadly, many Americans are acting like Biden’s horrible and feckless withdrawal from Afghanistan is just water under the bridge. The truth is that Biden’s sheer ignorance and stubbornness is so expansive that the Afghanistan debacle is just the tip of the iceberg. Biden’s entire administration is saturated with traitors who care much more about appeasing our enemies than executing economic and militarily policies from a position of patriotism and strength. Biden has absolutely no shame, and only cares about satisfying the goals of the woke left, who are perfectly content in destroying our freedoms and our country for the insane purpose of making the US into a second rate socialistic/communistic hell hole. Sane Americans should constantly remind themselves of Biden’s chronic apathy and stupidity.
Lets think about this. Joe and his corrupt family have been bought and paid for by many American enemies. Joe needed to find a way to get them US weaponry and technology without just giving it to them (like Obama did with plane loads of money flown out under cover of darkness). This was the perfect answer! So what if a few peon Americans lost their lives.
The Afghanistan weak withdrawal, open borders, weak economy, energy dependence from our enemies, social and moral insanity and “crazy” policies demonstrates to all our enemies, Russia, China, Iran and North Korea that the Brandon administration has opened the window to attack defeat and bring the United States to it’s knees. Election fraud has consequences.
Biden and Harris needs to move to china or Russia that is where they belong.They act like that is where they come from.
If DJT was in office, the withdrawal would have started in May and 83 BILLION dollars worth of our military equipment would not have been left for the murderers to use. We would have been out of there in an orderly manner. This so called President has done nothing but destroy this country with all the debacles he has created. And the hits keep coming. Please pray for our country and world. We are nearing our Lord’s return.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36 NKJV
The very, very SLOW reaction recording responses to the comments almost suggests someone sits in a basement somewhere, emulating their favorite president, making it very, very difficult to add to the columns on either side. Hard to imagine an algorithm could be devised to monitor so effectively.
The question Rep Titus raised says it all about the thinking of the White House and democrats.
Everything but everything is always Trump’s fault. For 4 years they indoctrinated the people how terrible Trump is. And now 3 years later after Trump they are still at it.
They never will take responsibility for any of their actions or own up to any of the consequences of those actions. And the American people will be suffering. Those dead Americans and Afghans are squarely on Joe’s shoulders but he laughs it off.
The only thing I ever agreed on with Obama is his assessment of Biden’s incompetence. Quote: ”don’t ever underestimate Joe’s ability to f.ck things
up”. This actually is his only ability.
Everything that is being stated and has been stated here is 1000% true and justifiable. I am surprised there aren’t more critical comments. I thank AMAC for putting up this forum. One of the many things that H. Biden accomplished was to put Afghanistan into the hands of the Chinese. He setup many of the high-level meetings and opps. prior to the exit that placed the country in a weak and unmanageable state, therein AS ALWAYS letting China step up with their modesty and CASH to leverage the leadership ( H. BIDEN ) included with funds to insure they were welcomed and allowed do their worst. The terrible part of this is that we lost GREAT people for no reason, and may still be losing people today, but who would know and who would care. As Hillie put it “their dead and gone what does it matter today”? Anyone happen to recall those words in the chamber that day as the Mistress of the State was being grilled by Senators about Benghazi. And why we let those people/service members die there. Now for the final answer. JOEY and Company own huge shares of corps. that deal with essential rare minerals, one of those is yea you guessed it, ” LITHIUM ” Afghanistan has one of the largest deposits of Lithium in the world. That is now in the hands of the Chinese and will be forevermore, and the stock prices have tripled in the last 2 years. Do the homework. So leaving Afghanistan in turmoil was a red carpet for the CCP to step in on the day we left. ON THE DAY WE LEFT. The next plane to land at Kabul was a delegation of CCP leaders with bags of cash. They were in the air before our people were able to finally get on the last plane out, those that could get to the airport. I pray that those who found it in their hearts to put this worthless jerk in office will one day regret it to the max as we all will when that day arrives. Trump has no chance in 2024 they are not done hanging him and shutting him down. As much as I would like to see him back in the W/H I do not believe it can happen. Too much mud has been shoveled onto him even after the fraudulent election that they stole. We can thank the CCP and George for that incredible effort to defraud the nation and make that happen. Biden did not campaign because they knew he would win all along, the other Democratic candidates were bought off. Only Sanders was left standing to rebuke them all but he has no clout or leverage either. Behind the scenes at this moment the Left is gearing up for 2024, the 2022 scare has infused them with new concerns that they might not be so certain about in the coming months. How to fix the voting machines once again and pull down all those security cams that they forgot about last time. Amazing to me that we caught them and still they got away with it. HOW STUPID ARE WE??? I often wonder if they eventually called a plumber to fix that overflowing bathroom in the counting room there in Atlanta.
Of course, it was all Trumps fault.
When they blatantly lie to us and are so incompetent, they should be held accountable. The problem is we hardly ever hold any of our elected officials accountable and they know this. They do as they please without any repercussions. Sure we may have a hearing or two on the matter at hand, but nothing ever comes from it…just ask Hillary, Pelosi, Schiff, Fauci, Schumer and now big Joe.
There should be consequences for being inept, we should demand more from our leaders, not just give them a free pass every time. Ask the families of the 13 killed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan, I’m sure they’ll all agree.
Obummer and his corrupt ilk were just as bad as Biden. Remember Obummer’s campaign slogans…HOPE AND CHANGE. We got CHANGE, and not for the better. We did not get HOPE as he destroyed our country.
Just as we need to know completely what happened on Jan. 6th, This is more important because this administration SCREWED our partners around the world with their failures and more people died.
This is inexcusable!!
New term, January 6th Truth Deniers. In just about any country but ours the president would be out of office after the Afghan fiasco. I didn’t think anybody with an I.Q. of 100 plus could be so stupid. I’d say cold but he’s too stupid to be that deliberately callous.
We will know more about 1/6 after McCarthy releases more videos. And the cherry-picking Democrats accuse Tucker of cherry-picking. He couldn’t show more than 4.6 years of video on TV.
Another of New York’s finest…traitors, Commie Demoncrap Meeks. Only an expletive piece of garbage would call the horrific disaster of withdrawn troops…then leaving over $85 BILLION in state-of-the-art armaments and pristine airfield to terrorists, along with the thousands left behind to contend with murdering, torturing Taliban, an “unprecedented and heroic evacuation never seen before.”
The rest of the world already knows what happened in Afghanistan with Team Biden in charge and has made their decisions on how to act. Our allies now view us as a joke and unreliable. Several have already begun talks with China or have already enacted deals with the CCP. Half the countries in the Middle East have already struck deals with China since Biden’s disaster. China of course still continues to offer technical and scientific assistance to Iran on their missiles and nuclear weapons program.
Putin’s takeaway from Afghanistan was that the time was right for him to make his next move on Ukraine. He has also recently started some probing efforts in Moldova and has hinted that Poland’s borders need to be changed.
President Xi has become much more aggressive in dealing with the United States and has stepped up efforts in the South China Sea to intimidate other nations and lay the groundwork for his upcoming invasion of Taiwan.
In South America, almost all of the countries on that continent have gone either Socialist or Marxist since Biden was sworn in. The CCP is all over the place down there offering both financial assistance and negotiating for access to ports for their naval ships.
Western European leaders view Biden as an easily manipulated empty suit, who will sign onto almost anything they want. Just look at what he’s agreed to in the past 2 years that essentially undermine the United States economy.
Hopefully you get the idea that the rest of the world didn’t need to wait for any congressional hearings to make swift changes in how they view and interact with the United States under Joe Biden post his Afghanistan debacle.
Although I agree that all of this should be made public – what will the result be? These hearings cost taxpayers big bucks and nothing ever happens.
What Biden did, perhaps under the “tutelage” of a previous “president”…was beyond evil. Watching Afghani civilians running with the plane, desperately trying to cling to it’s side or grabbing onto whatever they could was heartbreaking. And what of the Afghani’s who worked side by side with the Americans…and do we have all of them out? Are they even still alive? Are there still some of our people being held in bondage? I had read a fairly extensive article that there was a carefully drafted plan in place to get our people out before Trump was even elected. Maybe I’m wrong but what Biden and company did should be prosecuted as High Treason. Even Nixon had the grace to step down from the presidency over a wire tap! Thankfully Americans did get out…but how many didn’t.
Excellent article.
DICTATOR Beijing biden is the first to surrender to TERRORIST.
Let alone, give TERRORIST $86 Billion in U.S. Military Helicopters, Planes, Jets, Assault Rifles, Weapons, Ammunition, Bombs, Explosives, and Equipment to be used against Americans and the Taliban selling it to Communist China, Iran, Russia and other countries.
While at the same time getting Americans killed and abandoning Americans.
All of this so he could play politics
SELLING OUT THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA.
A complete act of HIGH TREASON.
I don’t care if Kamala Harris becomes president. They’re all puppets anyhow. WE MUST GET RID OF JOE BIDEN.
Jackass Joe Biden will go down in American History as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER!
Just one more thing that he screwed up. But this one had major consequences. He could care less.
Afghanistan was a shameful time in our history. The democrats doing the questioning were trying to justify the unjustifiable. But what can be done about it, other than make people aware of what happened?
We have a President who is so vicious and vile that he can kill our own and our collaborators who, to this day, are being run down and killed by our enemy. His clenched smile gives him away as a man who lacks humanity. He sleeps at night oblivious to the killing his own people. To add to his lack of humanity, he is also very, very stupid and still there are people who will vote for “ole Joe”.
In 45 years as a professional politician, has Loopy Joe ever said anything that wasn’t a lie or done anything that wasn’t shameful? Joe totally lacks morals, integrity, character, or honesty. He is a pawn of Satan.
Biden is the Commander in Chief. He is totally responsible. This is cause for impeachment. IMPEACH THE SOB!!!
Alphabet news is too busy “reporting” on everything Trump or Desantis is doing to notice. And good luck watching House hearings on Twitter, government weaponization, or COVID origins as well… unless of course they can somehow “blame Trump” for it.
A President that Never Served in the Armed Forces has NO BUSINESS being Commander in Chief. He has no first hand knowledge of what the men and women in the military have to endure. Lets just say, he/she would have NO SKIN IN THE GAME. Pres. Biden, made extremely bad decisions when it came to this withdrawl yes HE MADE THEM. Yet he is blaming everything he has done wrong since day one on anyone else he can lay the blame on. He has not once taken responsibility for any of his bad decisions. I am a retired Career Navy Man. I can say I have served under some great Presidents, as well as some not so great. At the time I retired that President at the time was so unpopular among many of my shipmates they were trying to decide if they would retire under that President just because they didn’t want his signature on their retirement papers. Some of them decided not to retire and keep serving hoping for a better option down the road, others just separated short of their retirement dates. Right now there is a major issue within the services, it is called RETENTION. And it if further complicated by low RECRUITMENT. The Politicians in the White house and Capital Building, as well as the Brass in the PENTAGON, do not understand that What happens in DC and the Pentagon can have a real effect on both of the issues. In addition what many prospective recruits are hearing on the Nightly News, In the papers, on the radio, and in Social media is in many ways making them decide that the Military is not a place for them. I remember back when I was on active duty, we were constantly hearing about how there were not enough recruitment asked men enlisting to keep the forces manned at optimum levels thus one of the big selling points for allowing women to enlist. With the issues in the miltiary today, if there isn’t enough recruitment aged men and now women, where does the military recruiters turn to find the recruits needed to fill the ranks? Do they start enlisting illegals? Release criminals from Prison to serve? Or maybe turn to recruiting from foreign countries other than allies.
The puppet Biden is a willing pawn in the ugly “game” of destroying the sovereignty of this nation, and doing whatever it takes per his “handler”…himself bought and paid for. Don’t forget who he was vice president to for 8 interminable, ugly years…the “obama” who’s been seen visiting the “Biden” white house on several occasions; the “president” who during a speech opined “I’m going to fundamentally change America”. This was by no means a positive statement. This same obama who also stated “there comes a time in a man’s life when he’s made enough money”…this same obama who now “owns” 3 multi-million dollar mansions; the most recent in Martha’s Vineyard. Biden recently had a half million dollar security fence built around a large ranch in Arizona…the same Biden who’s erased our borders…the same Biden who’s intent on disarming this nation; the same Biden who said in July of 1985: “I have never believed that additional gun control or federal registration of guns would reduce crime. I am convinced that a criminal who wants a firearm can get one through illegal, non-traceable, unregistered sources, with or without gun control.”
This present puppet regime is about one thing and one thing only; destroying our sovereignty and ushering in the One World Order spoken of so ‘lovingly’ by George Bush Sr. during his presidential acceptance speech…I watched that speech. There is nothing happening in and to our nation by accident.
I’ll tell you what made my stomach turn. When the bodies of our dead service members were brought home, the Biden’s were on the tarmac. As each coffin was unloaded, Biden would salute, then look at his watch. I watched in horror as he did this every time a coffin was brought out. As if to say, let’s hurry this along, I don’t want to miss the ice cream truck when it gets here. Someone should have slapped his face!!
We need to impeach the incompetent A**hole. He should be locked back in his basement. Harris is also incompetent…my 3 yr old great granddaughter has more common sense than she does.
Our fearless leader should be impeached he makes this country look bad to other countries he is this worst president behind Obama who was equally bad they made a good pair in the White House.
If there were nothing else against Biden except the way this withdrawal went down, that would be enough to investigate him. People who were supposed to leave being left behind, people who were not entitled to come getting on planes, the whole mob scene of it instead of orderly departure, and 13 service personnel getting killed, as well as Afghans trying to hide in the plane’s wheel wells then falling to their deaths – nothing praiseworthy here. When Biden or another Democrat mentions this fiasco as a great accomplishment, I want to scream. I hope this hearing makes it clear that this was no laudable event. I sincerely believe that if Trump had still been president, this mess of a withdrawal and the deaths of the military people would never have happened.
So Joe Biden and his Administration moved so quickly without US Federal Congressional prayers and discussions to abandoned Afghanistan and our alliance based on “Ending ” The US Military Men and Women in this region Joe Bidens words.
Then only to jump very quickly into the Ukrainians and Russians long time dispute and militarily support the Ukrainians whose government choose not to be a “Nato” member by actual vote.
Then untill later on after Russian incursions by Military means proved to me that Joe Biden and Hunter Biden had already been corrupted years prior to the these results-oriented, which has been since proven and the backed door politics by Joe Biden as well other’s who involved The US into a proxy war or worse now do to Joe Bidens shenanigans as Vice President along with Barrack Sorros Obama Blessings!
Enough Said…
I wonder who changes Bidens diapers every day! I can imagine it’s hard to tell the waste in the diaper from Biden himself!!
AMAC the voting up or down option is not working properly. Please fix it.
I served in Afghanistan in 2011/12. There were 2 Afghan interpreters on my task force that helped me interview Afghan nationals. I have no idea if they got out of Afghanistan during that disastrous pullout. If they didn’t they are dead, and their blood is on Biden’s hands.
It appears that all the democrats can do is blame a president who did a great job, for their mistakes. Getting a lot tired of hearing this broken record still.
Doctor D Democrat you are a perfect example of the Democrat symbol. It is a JACK ASS
Just another walk in the park for Obiden and his comrades in deceit. I, for one, well remember seeing the news coverage of those poor children being thrust over to soldiers to be taken to safety by crying parents who knew they would never see them again. I remember watching in disbelief as those dozens of sad refugees hung desperately on to the undercarriages of planes taking off from Kabul, falling to their inevitable deaths. I remember the demonrats denying any accountability as they were called to give their reasons for leaving millions of dollars of American taxpaid military equipment in the hands of gleeful Taliban murderers.
And, just like the traitorous goings-on at the southern border, the NOT mostly peaceful protests in our cities for over the past 2+ years, the STOLEN elections, the murders of policemen and innocent citizens, the holding with no just trial those who went to the capital PEACEFULLY on 6 Jan ’21, the destruction of private AND public property, the tearing down of our monuments, the brainwashing of our innocent children with CRT and trans displays by the so-called “alphabet people,” the MURDER of babies in the wombs of their mothers, ….and all this NOT to mention the diabolical effects of a made-up scamdemic and the side-effects of a jab that does NOT prevent any disease but DOES kill and maim thousands (including my own sister) …. *whew!*
I’m done. I can’t take much more of this. This once-great nation of ours, with Flag of Glory flying high…she IS NO MORE.
And I, for one, am sick to the heart over it. ????????????