U.S. Representative Mike Rogers (R-AL) and U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), the Ranking Members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, released the following statement on the one-year anniversary of President Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"One year ago, the world saw firsthand the results of the Biden Administration's horrible political decisions play out in Afghanistan. President Biden's botched withdrawal embarrassed our nation, caused allies to second-guess our resolve, and created a vacuum for the Taliban to retake Afghanistan.
"President Biden and his political appointees at the State Department and the National Security Council clearly did not see what everyone else saw: A hasty, unconditional withdrawal was certain to fail. Yet, they overrode military officials and pushed forward – ignoring what was occurring on the ground in Afghanistan. The cost of President Biden's withdrawal was paid for with the lives of brave U.S. servicemembers and innocent Afghans.
"We repeatedly warned that without a plan to prevent the resurgence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the country would once again become a beacon for terrorists. We were proven right. Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, had been living in Kabul for months. It would be reckless to assume that the threat al-Qaeda poses to our homeland has dissipated – yet the Biden administration has still not provided Congress with the counterterrorism strategy we asked for.
"There has also been no accountability whatsoever for the chaotic and deadly withdrawal. Last August, President Biden pretended as though the disaster was inevitable when he said, ‘The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started and when we began.' We could not disagree more: Democrats and Republicans in Congress urged the Biden administration to begin the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan partners sooner. The fact that the President left Americans behind was neither inevitable nor excusable, and it's stunning that the exact same national security team remains in place despite this unprecedented dereliction of duty.
"It's clear that our nation is less safe due to President Biden's decisions. We will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable for this tragedy, and we will get the answers the American people deserve."
