"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," House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Republican Michael McCaul said during the hearing.
He accused the Biden administration of breaching its core obligation to protect US citizens, adding that over 1,000 Americans were left behind in that situation.
In August 2021, the US ended its withdrawal from Afghanistan, culminating in an evacuation of foreigners and eligible Afghans from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The Taliban* have since governed much of the country, taking control of remaining US arms.
Top Democrat in the committee Gregory Meeks, from his side, supported Biden’s decision to return US soldiers from Afghanistan.
"I cannot in good conscience imagine sending more American men and women to fight in Afghanistan," he said.
All witnesses, including active and retired US military officers and civil activists, shared their own memories related to Afghanistan and evacuation from it. The hearing was emotional, and some of the speakers were crying while remembering their experience.
Retired Lt. Col. David Scott Mann, who completed three military missions to that country, called on lawmakers to take veterans’ opinion into account.
"Our veterans know something else that this committee might do well to consider: We might be done with Afghanistan, but it's not done with us," he said.
Mann urged politicians to set politics aside and fix mistakes that have been done. Otherwise, this "colossal foreign policy failure" will follow Americans home, he added.
29 December 2022, 15:32 GMT
An interim Afghan government led by the Taliban came to power in the fall of 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops from the country and the collapse of the US-backed government. The Taliban takeover has heightened the fears of the Central Asian nations concerning the spread of radical fundamental Islamic ideas, as happened in 1996 when the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan for five years.
*The Taliban is subjected to UN sanctions over terrorist activities.