The hasty retreat of the forces by the US administration from Afghanistan was referred to as a “catastrophe” in a forceful and moving testimony before Congress on Wednesday by both former and current US Army soldiers. The hearings are being held at the request of the Republicans to look into how the Biden administration handled the “pull-out” from Afghanistan.
One of the first witnesses, former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews could be seen crying as he said that US troops were unprepared for the withdrawal, particularly after the Taliban seized control of the nation’s capital, Kabul. Vargas-Andrews was in charge of guarding the Kabul airport when two suicide bombers detonated, killing approximately 170 Afghans and 13 members of the US military.
“Plain and simple, we were ignored. My body was overwhelmed by the trauma of the blast. My abdomen had been ripped open. Every inch of my exposed body took ball bearings and shrapnel,” said the former US Marine.
“There was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence. I see the faces of all of those we could not save, those we left behind,” he added.
Some troops shared their experiences with the mental and physical toll that withdrawal had on them and their peers. After Vargas-Andrews, retired Lt Col David Scott Mann entered the stand and told the panel that one of his friends who served in Afghanistan couldn’t cope with the trauma and committed himself.
“He just couldn’t find his way out of the darkness of that moral injury.”
The veteran blasted America for developing a reputation for abandoning allies
The veteran chastised America for establishing a reputation for abandoning allies in the face of devastation and destruction.
“America is building a nasty reputation for multi-generational systemic abandonment of our allies where we leave a smoldering human refuse from the Montagnards of Vietnam to the Kurds in Syria,”
The first of what is likely to be a series of GOP hearings to expose the Biden administration took place on Wednesday. The American intelligence failed to predict the timing of the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul, resulting in a chaotic scene.