Top U.S. military officers will face senators’ questions about the Afghan U.S. exodus that has left hundreds of Americans behind.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will speak to the panel of top democrat and republican members announced on Sept. 9 before the Senate Armed Forces Committee later this month.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Chairman, Gen Mark Milley, and the US Central Command’s leader, Frank McKenzie are also scheduled to appear before the panel on 28 September.
A closed-door briefing was also announced on 15 September with former US Forces Commander Gen. Austin Scott Miller, as well as a revision by Senators of US Military Operations in Afghanistan on 30 September, to be held by external experts.
“We have finished our retirement of US military personnel and nearly 100 000 civilians from Afghanistan, but the events accompanying our retirement and the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe still cause a great deal of concern to me. It is the job of Congress – and especially of the Senate Armed Services Committee – to hold hearings to learn from the situation in Afghanistan and ensure the highest standards of accountability.
“To consider the circumstances and decisions that have been demonstrated in four presidential administrations of both parties to create the outcome that we now confront in Afghanistan, the Committee will convene a series of hearings.”
The hearings would be the first of several to “go back and decide what happened, who should be held accountable, and how we go ahead,” said Jim Inhofe, a senior Republican committee member in the (R-Okla.).
“This transparency and responsibility are worthy to the Americans, our past and present servants, of our global allies and partners and the Afghanistan who have heroically aided us,” he added.
A U.S. Air Force plane will be departing on 30 August 2021 at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. (Aamir Qureshi/AFP through Getty Imaging )
Then-President Donald Trump launched the withdrawal of the USA from Afghanistan. However, the Biden administration delayed the deadline for withdrawal and was highly criticized for how this process was handled.
There is criticism of many of the key pieces: How Americans have been left behind when the last American troops left on 30 August; how 13 US service members have been killed through a suicide bombing attack and how evacuations have been made so chaotic, particularly when evacuations have forced Americans to brave Taliban checkpoints to reach Kabul airport. Critics have been criticizing several main pieces.
Some Republican leaders, notably Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) committee member, asked for the resignation of officials of the administration, including Austin and Milley. The couple will be questioned by Blackburn and other panel critics, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
After the retirement, military authorities widely viewed this as successful, emphasizing that it was the largest airlift in the history of the United States.
Austin refused on Sept. 1 to identify what he or the Pentagon believed could have done otherwise.
“I would only tell you that I have never been engaged with one single procedure where we haven’t found out we could do something better or more effective or more, and I’d also add that no operation is ever perfect,” he told Washington reporters.
“I will tell you that we will do what we always do, to look at us and to make post-activity reviews and ensure that we learn from this event every lesson we can learn. But I would like to take the correct time to do it. And so in the days ahead, we are going to do it.”
