Transcripts For CSPAN2 Hearing On U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan Part 1 20230317

watch book tv and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime booktv.org. >> a firsthand account of the troop withdrawal from afghanistan including testimony from a soldier injured in the kabul suicide bombing. officers discussed conditions on the ground leading up to the withdrawal. the hearing is just overfive hours . >> the committee on foreign affairs will come to order. this is to examine the administrations disastrous emergency evacuation from afghanistan. i now recognizemyself . in the spring of 2021, against the advice of his top generals and intelligence community president biden announced he would unconditionally withdraw all american troops from afghanistan. a decision that i opposed. i and many on this committee received multiple reasons from the state department, department of defense, intelligence community and the difference in their assessments was start. both dod and ic outlook were very grim. in their assessments. while the state department mimicking the white house consistently paints a rosy picture ignoring the realities on the ground. the president promised quote, there's going to be no circumstances where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy like in vietnam. yet there were. multiple people in the biden administration said they planned for every contingency .tr they did not. instead they spent the next four months ignoring the realities. as a result when the caliban rapidly captured territory during the summer of 2021 , and entered kabul on august 15, we simply weren't ready. because of the biden administration's ability the world watched heartbreaking scenes unfold in and around the kabul airport for the next two weeks. a sea of humanity desperately trying to make it through airport gate that represented freedom. we all saw the images of desperate afghans clinging to planes as they took off. with some plumbing from the skies to their deaths. mothers ending their children to strangers over the airport walls. willingly giving them up in so saving their lives. and then horror struck on august 26. a suicide bomber at the gate killed 13 american servicemembers entering injuring at least 45 more and killing approximately 170 afghans. that day was the deadliest day for american troops in afghanistan's in 10 years. we enjoyed here today by marine sergeant tyler vargas andrews and former army specialist and and gunderson, both were deployed to afghanistan during the evacuation. they can give a firsthand account of what it was like inside kabul airport during those harrowing few weeks. sergeant vargas andrews eight sniper at abby gate was gravely injured in a terrorist attack that unfurled. he has undergone 44 surgeries . and has lost his leg and his arm as well as his kidney. thank you sir for the courage to be here today. former specialist anderson a medic with the a second airborne was one of the first people on the scene helping anyone that he could. gentlemen, this nation owes you a debt of gratitude. not just for your service to our country also for the work both of you did to help numerous people to safety during the evacuation, saving so many lives. you should be proud of all that you've done. and i would like to thank you for your service. i'd also like to ask the many afghanistan veterans here today to please stand and be recognized. [applause] >> on behalf of a grateful nation we thank you. in the midst of the unfolding chaos in kabul, the united states state department result useless. like myself and many of my colleagues including people on both sides of the island in this room today were forced to become many state departments. we work any avenue we could so that the few americans bring cardholders and our afghan allies would be priced, we would protect. no one left behind. we violated that promise. thankfully though in the void left by an absent state department many americans kept up to fill the vacuum primarily denies by veterans groups like allied airlift 21, america and task force pineapple. just to name a few that see thousands of lives. and that is why i'm honored to have friends home, peter lussier and scott man here with us today as well. all three of these men worked tirelessly to rescue many people as they could as many as they could during this evacuation. it was often referred to like schindler's list, if you're e on the list you made it alive and if you weren't, you didn't. what happened in afghanistan was an assistant breakdown of the federal government at every level. and as stunning failure of leadership by the biden administration. because even though president biden said and i quote, if there's american citizens left going to stage the. ", we now know that he left more than 1000 american citizens in afghanistan. in addition to the almost 200,000 afghan partners and allies that we promised we would save, we promised them we would help them only to abandon them to the caliban. not to mention the women who were left behind. to the mercy of the taliban under sharia law. this was an abdication of the most basic duties of the united states government, to protect americans and leave no one behind. i want every gold and blue star family member and every veteran out there watching this today to know that i will not rest in this committee will not rest until we determine how this happened and hold those responsible for it accountable. and before i close, i would like to honor the 13 servicemembers who died at abby gate that tragic tragic day. staff sergeant darren hoover, sergeant johan rosario. sergeant nicole d. corporal hunter lopez. corporal dagan page. corporal humberto sanchez.to lance corporal david espinoza. went corporal jerry smit. lance corporal riley mccall. lance corporal dylan. lance corporal coin. petty officer third class ashton and staff sergeant ryan knotts. can we please have a moment of silence to honor the memory of these fallen heroes and all of the fallen heroes in the afghan conflict. may god bless them and god blessed their family and god bless the united states of america and with that i turn to already for its opening statements. >> thank you let me begin my remarks by thanking all of the witnesses for appearing before the committee today and to thank those who served in our armed services for your service to our great country. i want to particularly recognize specialist gunderson and sergeant tyler vargas andrews, two of the witnesses who were deployed d to comment karzai international airport to assist with the noncombatant evacuation operations during august 2021. chairman, i can only imagine, only imagine the pressure so many of you faced during the evacuation operation which allowed for us to facilitate the evacuation of over 100,000 people. specialist gunderson, in your written statement you write no amount of mental preparation or military training could have prepared me for that gate . i was struck by that statement and the description in your testimony. what an incredible weight and responsibility. i can only imagine what is that like. it brings to me and emotion i have felt when i hear from veterans of f the war in afghanistan who decry their experience both in afghanistan and upon their return home. many of whom come to my district where i was told of repeated deployments eaand the separation from their families, watching fellow soldiers suffer from injuries or the trauma of seeing them die. the difficulty of returning home and reintegrating back into their home is tough. the heartbreak, the heartbreak of our goldstar families having to face empty seats during the holidays. so i honor all of your service. and it underscores to me that the president of the united states made the right decision to bring all our troops home because i can't in good conscience imagine sending more american men and women to fight in afghanistan . we are here today to examine the emergency evacuation from afghanistan in august 2021. and the administrations broader relocation. it is often said it is easier to start a war than to end it. the war in afghanistan is no different. this war that began as an effort to decimate al qaeda balloons into a nation building exercise that lasted across four administrations. and so more than 800,000 us service members deployed and yes, the tragic death of over 2461 americans including the 13 killed during the evacuation efforts. and while the us government planned for a wide range of contingencies, the worst possible scenario happened . despite repeated assurances, some right here in the capital of the united states at an afghan president ghani fled the country and the forces collapsed and before the withdrawal of the military had been completed, despite the harsh realities on the ground a lingering isis threat and i didn't uncertainty as the taliban took control, our diplomats, military and professionals facilitated an unprecedented and heroic evacuation never seen before. we worked with more than two dozen countries to evacuate american citizens and lawful permanent residents to relocate afghans who had citizens of our allies and partners and activist afghans to the united states or transit locations. and in the end, more than 120,000 people were evacuated to safety. under some of the most ethical conditions imaginable . it was an complex and dangerous s environment, wousands of miles away context matters. the evacuation didn't happen in a vacuum. a lot of policy decisions influenced the events from august of 2021 and continued to shape how we navigate ongoing relocations and diplomatic efforts today. the invite to meet at camp david conferred international legitimacy to the taliban. the deal that came from these negotiations required the withdrawal of our forces without any real commitments or separating from al-qaeda drawdowns weream ordered. they released 5,000 fighters severely altering the power and structure of the country meanwhile. u.s. immigration mechanisms faced long-standing challenges. the siv program for iraq and afghanistan established in 2006 capped par tissant -- participants at 50 per year. this wasn't with the number of afghans that would have qualitied. executive executive branch agencies were time consuming and challenged. on top of that, the previous administration undermind refugee admissions and mechanisms and slowed the process of visas in 2020. creating a backlog, more than 17,000 applications. in fact. the start of the current administration there hadn't been a single interview of an siv applicant going back to march of 2020. inng total, these policy decisis not onlyy altered the balance of power and reduced leverage in afghanistan but created difficult circumstances as we work to bring allies to safety and u.s. war to a close. so, despite the challenges the biden add money stations took steps to honor promises to the afghans that have student with us by restarting the siv process. speeding up the siv processes. also worked with others to restart the program. they workeder to repair the institutionaltu damage done to e admissions program and establishedd priority refer alcalgaries for afghan. we must acknowledge this effort to relocate venerable afghan. it's ongoing. this administration is actively help those safely leave the country. the evacuation and relocation process are not without wallets. manyn of which, we will require decisive action and legislation from u.s. congress. not only our executive branch or the white house. we are here to understand the full contax of evacuations and relocations so we can streamline the process and make improvements and everydayde americans like our witnesses that are here today. we have dedicated significant time and resources to this effort. si fully support the chairman's by partisan oversight for the refugeeur assistance program. our country has paid a great cost during the war in afghanistan. it shouldn't ben't be to restore points but p focus on real solutions that will help real people. that's the best way to honor the sacrifices of so many americans that serve in or support our interest in afghanistan over the last 20 years. especially and including our witnessess here today. i look forward to their testimony and i yield back my time. >> thank you, the ranking member yields back. i'm committed to those who were and still left behind. we need to get them out. we need to get them the hell out of there. other members are remindedr opening statements may be submitted for the record. we have a distinguished group of heroes before us. france is a national security professional with over 20 years of experience. graduateit of west point. they severed at the white house beforehi becoming an executive officer in 2009. currently severing as executive. one of the volunteer organizes set uprm to get people safely ot of afghanistan. toy date. allied air has helped over 500 individuals evacuate the country.ou sergeant tyler vargas severed in the united states marine corp for 5.5 years. he and his sniper team were deployed to the airport to assist withh the evacuation. they were stationed at abbey gate as the primary ground reconcern. while there they helped evacuate over 200 u.s. nationals. sergeant vargas was gravely wounded at the bombing at abbey gate on august 26, 2021. as a result, he lost multiple organs and suffered numerous injuries. he had 44 surgeries to date. he's appearing as personal capacity and his testimony doesn't represent the views or opinions of the department of defense or u.s. marine corp. ms. camille. we have a resent graduate of the st. louis university school oaf law.he serves as the lead for strategic partnerships and allied organizes for team america a member of the afghan organize. assisted thousands of afghans as well as american citizens in contenting resources andis relocation to safe passage out of afghanistan. former specialist aiden severed four years with the decision as a combat metic. before leaving the military in july of 2021 where he assisted with the evacuation. aiden evacuated over 200 trusted civilians through operation pineapple express. this former green beret. he founded operation pineapple. theyy have evacuated over 1,000 afghanste today. thank you for t being here. your full statement will be part of the t record. i recognize mr. hong for hisin opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member meeks. thank you for inviting me to testify as one of thousands of americans that volunteered to help those left behind in afghanistan. in august of 2028 i was council to the president working as a lawyer. one year later i was the captain deployed to afghanistan as executive officer of the u.s. army special forces company. everyday that i severed in afghanistan allies like jabar pictured here stood beside me like tens of thousands of other afghans that chose to support our mission. jabar was branded a trait errand targeted for reprisals. afghans like jabar put their lives in jeopardy for us and our mission. severed afghanistan made a promise to stand by them.em fory over 160,000 afghans our nation has failed. failed to live up to the promise. a number of afghans have come to the unitedbu states. others that stood by at risk to themselves remain left behind. in august of 2021 during the rushed withdrawal from afghanistan. i and thousands of others received frantic pleas for help from our allies that lives were in par rel. working from our homes and using every digital tool at our disposal. t dithousands of us guided them through crowds. the weight of the work was crushing. we left jobs, drained savings, and removed old wounds.en the screens filled with images of violence and desperation outside the gates of the airport. we listened to messages of children pleading for our help. nine times out of ten our efforts failed. every success was a family saved, a promise kept, hundreds ofuc volunteer groups, including allied air g group was responsie forgetting thousands of people when the gates of kabul closed to our allies, groups organized a december pat all day 200-mile journey for six buses full of neafghan allies and americans through taliban controlled territory to the city. this journey included a bus jacking and birth of a baby onboard one of the buses. our group eventually got 400 afghanll allies to the city whee weaf hoped to charter a plane. we hid these 400 people from the taliban and keeping them alive from then, generosity of americn donors. onca december 17th a privately lifted into the skies above afghanistan with 380 souls onboard. 128 americans, 152 children, and onehi newborn baby. all 380 passengers are in america alive and free including jabar, his wife, and eight children. my passion forn helping allies comes from the deeply personal place. nearly 50 years ago i was a russ rescued children. my familyy was evacuated by american 7 forces from saigon. weeks earlier president ford proclaimed america had a a profounds moral obligation. he and congress followed those words with action. rising above political differences to evacuate and resettle 130,000 vietnamese allies. america stoodr by many and many like me. i applied to west point, severed in the army, and organized a flight that saved 152 children that willow grow up knowing america stood by them and their families. we often talk about america as a shining city on a hill. a beckon of freedom and opportunity to the world. i along with 1 million volunteer vietnamese immigrants are living proof we can live up to ideals. your. predecessors had a committee to mee and other allies. it's our turn to summon the courage toll fulfill our commitment to the afghan allies stillfg left behind. before i close, i'd like to thank two groups. those that stepped forward to help our afghan allies. veterans, volunteers crimal con vetion civil servants, staff and families. thank you forta creating hope wn it became forlorn. to ourtl afghan allies. thank you for your courage. we have not forgotten you and we will not rest until the promises that ourl nation made to you are honored. i look forward to your questions, thank you. >> thank you, mr. hong. i recognize sergeant varges for his opening statement. >> thank you for allowing me to speak about myk experience outf kabul, afghanistan. this is my county and not the dojs. i'm a gunman and radiooperator for my team.to in june of 2021 after having just left kuwait we went to arabia. august came and two weeks later weca left for kabul. we had a close relationship of the kernel. he kept us informed of the situation on the ground and we were red too go, so we thought. my assistant team leader and i left on august 15th. they faced the afghan crowd that overran the airport. the rest of us arrived on augus. we linked up inside a gym not far from the airfield. we connected with command and received our first mission. from august 17th to the 18th we surveilled satellite activity near the civil airport terminals. we moveded back to the staging area. in the afternoon of the 19th we set up a position in the tower p asthma reason and riot gear was used to coordinate out hundreds of people. hundreds of people came to fight us. living out of the tower we conducted 24/7 operations at the gate. nothing prepared us for what we encounters. tens o of thousands of people descended on abbey gate. people were suffering from malnutrition, starving, and infants were dying. people were pleading for help. some killed themselves on the razor wire. they thought this was merciful compared tot the torture they would face. many were murdered day and night. the chain of command and the troops on the groundworked to control the crowds day and night. ground forces were a nightmare. they presented an unwillingness to work. the marine stood watch and engaged in e crowds. in fact, state wouldn't want to deal with theac afghans and be processed statute would take us away from our mission to walk them outat and condemn them to death. they had gun trucks and had t occasion nal visits by leadership. ony august 27th an ied probe took place along the prem ter. talibansi performed a test run. we reported this to the chain of command. we received work to be on the lookout at two ieds. around two a.m. on august 26th theyn confirmed the suicide bob near abbey gate. idr asked intel guys why he wast apprehended since we had a full discrimination. the asset couldn't be compromised.ir we passed out the information. he was spotted from noon to 1:00 p.m. by myself and two others. he was clean shaving and fit the description. individualsly consistency looked up at our a position. the older of the two wore black silly hijabs. over the communication network there was a threat in the idea. this is was as serious as it could get. my team was ready on the sniper system. the response leadership didn't have the authority for us and don't engage. iho requested for the commandero come to the tower and see what wewe did. while waiting for him psychological operations came to our w tower and confirmed the the suicide bomber description. we showed him our evidence and pointedly asked him for permission if asked if he could shoot.ot my commander said, quote, i don't know. end quote. we said who does? because this is your responsibility. we received no update. thee individual disappeared. operations started again and we were ignored. no one was held accountable for our safety. about 17:30 staff sergeant hoover friend and mentor. came to get me from the tower to find an afghan interrupter from the crowd. >> we foundnd the interrupt errd his brother with american passports. they told us of five families members in-the-canal. i stoodor their wetting and ten minutes passed. a flash and massive wave of pressure. i'm thrown to the ground but i knew what i had happened. i opened my eyes . [silence] a crowd of hundreds of meal he vanished in front of me and my body was catastrophically wound >> the crowd vanished with 50 ball barings in it. i saw how injured i was with my right armed shredded. i found my abdomen soaked in blood. i crawled backward. mymy body was over. every inchh of my body except my face. i tried to get up but couldn't. i started to lose consciousness. my team leader was screaming my name. his voice calling to me kept me awake. when he got to me he dragged me to safety and triaged me. please ask me about getting shot at the tower at abbey gate. and no one wanted my report. theypo failed to interview me. asked me to elaborate. our military members and veterans deserve our best becausery that's what we give to america. the withdrawal there wasn't any eligible or negligence. the 11 marines and one sailor that was murdered that day has not beenha answered for. thank you for giving me the opportunity to t speak. >> thank you, sergeant for that very powerful and courageous testimony. i now recognize ms. mack for her testimony. >> i'd like to awe thank you for sergeant vargas for your story. from thed world over in the last two years today i bring them with me and hold in my heart the girls and women that are silencedil the executive directr and coalition also visiting senior fellow. i have been an attorney and advocate for 20 years. we i evacuate our allies and coalition. ii became involved in efforts iv january of 2021 had been a small group started pushing for us to be included in troop withdrawal. i befitted on august 5th for the operations i'm humbled and awed by the actions of my fellow candidates. i know what happened was the productt of decades long of inaction andas systemic failures we can no longer ignore. to make sure actions weren't in vain we must implement better practices. we tried to learn vietnam and we ignored it. we cannot a low a future generation too go through this. what are the viewings. congress should pass the afghan adjustment act. afghans that have all, including -- many of those here in the room today work to evacuate to safety are resettled. this is their home and deserve to have the piece of mind to know this is their permanent home. they t would allow legal status andre straighten pathways for those lefttu behind. it would bring new options tori help those to those who need them the postmost. we must increase coordination. one ofec the biggest failures ws to function across agencies ahead of.s the withdrawal. too many agencies and the departmentnc of homeland securiy had overlapping jurisdiction and no clearju mandate. they created the mechanism of their own accord. they should mandatete a body lie that going forward.on the infrastructure has been createduc in an ad hoc manor. they must make sure they coordinate the teams. we must cotfy the care team. one of the most innovative approaches we have m seen in the afghan crisis wuss public and private politics. it helps coordinate ongoing relocations. congress should work on these efforts. i should note a coalition of organizes as well as civil society groups have had in shaping care. the improvement to the program will not only honor the promise but be an important road map we must account for the population and allow for a o adjudication and applications. invest f in lodgistic cal issues and require the department of state to search contracts to take the burden off of applicants that are in danger. we need a permanent lasting and functional program. we need resources dedicated to allies. they rely on partners after engagement ends. we need high ranking official with authority to serve the interest and protection so this never happens again. finally, we need better pathways. we need to invest in the refugee system and we need to pass immigration reform. every week we are asked on behalf of a family and every week my answer is the same. i have no options to offer you. we have pathways to the united states we are prevented to meaningfully elf help those left behind. we must make legal pathways lbroader and easier to navigat. you said we need to get them out. help us do that so we can get them out. >> thank you, i appreciate your assistance getting so many afghans out of there. i agree, we need to get them the hell out. >> i recognize the next speaker for opening statement. >> chairman and ranking member meeks. thank you forbe inviting me to speak on this important topic close topi my heart. i'd like to thank my fellow witnesses. those on active duty during those weeks in august and other volunteers and advocates that have done so much powerful work in the space. i'd like to thank some organizes i worked with and who made an incredible difference. the institute of st. louis that has welcomed nearly 1,000 afghans. they continue to welcome more afghans today. the afghan evaccollation. privater volunteer efforts and larger organizes that advocate onon behalf of immigrants, migrants, and refugees. our sister coalition who does incredible work on advocacy. face dyer risks and made their way to the united states and facee an uncertain legale future as their status remains fin a difficult place. my name is pete lucier. i'mm listed enlisted after graduating from st. louis university high school.l. i was a rifleman and deployed in 2011. during that timen the failures f that war and lack of oversight became more blear. the weeks leading upto that and the period after. many mistakes were made over the past 22 years. we must include a focus on findingus solutions on so many afghans i worked with and so many others i work with. as we examine those mistakes. we need to remember it's not too late. urgent action will save so many lyes. so many people that they work with today. it's not too late to take swift action to assist with those. prior to the fall the biden administration take a look at how we can get more allies out faster. that process never materialized. my involvement began on august . began fundraisers for resettlement charities in the united 1 1 states. i'd hope that would be the sum total. one resettlement agency reached out as a veteran to help get one person through theed gates. ththat started the last 17 years in my work in the space. trying to t assist one person. the one person on my list grew tosa 4,000. by the end 4 of 2021 team america had thousands on the list to assist. there wereri many challenges we faced. coordination with government was difficult. in additionen too that, the prie groups formed a chaotic environment. there wasn't clear prioritization. thisis lead to inequitable outcomes. many were i trapped in other countries. we continue to assist those today. after that time they continued to engage with the administration and congress. there were so many left behind. we can't ignore the crisis. systemic issues contributed to a neither party was willing to address. this is not the story of a biden or trump failure but the american failure and the effects it has on the afghan that severedal among us and others. it was shared by foreign commissionss and congress. most importantly, as i said, it's to late. fererra years we are have failed our allies. even now, swept action will make a dramatic impacts in the lives of many. we will keep it with the highest ideals with share with the nation. thank you for sharing my testimony today. thank you for yourr questions. >> thankan you, mr. lucier. iec recognize mr. gunnerson. >> good morning ranking members ofir the committee. thank you for inviting me to speak andnd conducting this hearing. i was on the ground at the international airport in ka kabul. thisme was an organizal failure. my name is aiden gunnerson. i enlisted because of my mother. i was stationed at fort brag. i was in iraq and kabul. 40,000 soldiers prepared for rapid destination unknown. we boarded the plane with no farther confirmation. during the travel day i went through many emotions thinking about many scenarios. we learned the president of afghanistan fled the country and we would land in kabul soon. i remember the wheels touching down and wondering if we would land in fire fight. not a single person on the plane was prepared for kabul. the only food and water we had was whatnd we packed in our sacs before leaving america. supplies was scarce is an understatement. in the army medics stayed with first sergeant. i remember checking in on the soldiers.ng looking over kabul i saw many cars full of trucks. they had guns pointed in the air and the entire airport was surrounded. i remember the chaos of hundreds of afghans gathering on the runway. we foundup an unmanned truck, started it up. and took off. theseat covered the dead bodies that fell from the landing gear of thed plane. at this moment i understand the afghan were risking everything, even death to get away from the taliban. the leadership sent partners to help us. thee actions saved our lives and allowed the evacuation to start. in remained near abbey gate and treated injuries. we heard round the clock gunshots and screams from abbey gate. the taliban was shooting someone or trying to control the crowd. there were no interrupters. we went to abbey gate because of the situation with the crowd. as man came with his daughter yelling 82. he begged us to call the number on the phone. we didn't understand but we understood his wife needed medical attention. we didn't know where the hospital was within the airport. no one had given us a map. we searched if the hospital in an abandon ford ranger with the family in s the bag. the afghan handed his phone over and the congressman was on the line. thanked us for helping and my first sergeant and commanders phoneir numbers were spread to people. this was digit dunkirk. as text came in we said come on doc, we have more people to save. anyone with a pineapple was matched to our phone records. we searched them for weapons and explosives. i carry the horrific scenes from abbey gate. mothers carrying dead babies and the taliban beating people. the crowd grew deaspirate and erratic and they knew they would be left behind. i exited my vehicle near the abbey gate. i felt a heavy punch to my chest. i saw a large plume of smoke in the sky. the smell of pheeses and urine that filled the corridor was placed with iron. screams from children, women, and grown men echoed. we tried to provide life saving aid to our american brothers and sisters. i tried to save the lives of countless marines. a marine with blood soaked pants looked me in the eye and said i don't want to die. we took the first truckload into the hospital. i reassured him he would be fine. i didn't know if he would survive. i was s born one year before 9/#u. departing on august 31st i was relieved to be headed home. i wondered how the horror would change me and change us all. i can assure you it has. the war is not over for more people in the u.s. i see the faces of the people we couldn't save and left behind. i wonder if allies fled to safety. i think about my brothers and sisters that died in afghanistan.e mostly, i t think about the 13 ghamericans killed at abbey gat. their deaths shouldn't haveey happened. they should be alive today and we shouldn't be forced to carry this burden. consider this when you consider this investigation. continue to serve and never put them in that position again. remember the allies left behind. thank you for hearing this. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, mr. gunderson. i recognize lieutenant mann. >> thank you for. the opportuniy to testify before you today. i'm here to relive august 2021 to relive all of you. this is as an american combat veteran that will do my best to represent over 800,000 afghanistan war veterans and their families but with my own point of view. a green beret. i'd likeou to start with a question. what is an american promise mean today? there is a promise in the military that's expolice it and impolice it. in august of 2021 the leaders that held us to the standard went silent while allies were left behind. the u.s. government might have had the backs of our alleys but our veterans did. our veterans have been a moral compass for doing the right thing during hard times especially. we will need that t more than ever. you won't find many veterans sitting out here today that relish being involved in the afghan evacuation. we paid our dues and moved on with our lives. p jumping back into afghanistan wasn't part of my military retirement plan. ylike thousands watching kabul collapse on august 15, 2021 i received p a call that crushed me. ei'm not afraid to die but i don't want to die alone. that's what drew me back in the afghanistan conflict. he was sergeant first class nazam. his father was killed by the soviets when he was 4 years old. he had no money or family. he became an afghan commando. an elite warrior that did 95% of the fighting in the country. we loved him like a brother. he volunteered for every mission everyday. he was family. despite numerous inquiries to congress and army special operations head quarters about his status. kabul was falling and no one was there to help him. he was shot in the face protecting green berets. he was being hunted and texted by the taliban but would call to ask how my kids were doing. ti assembled a small team of volunteers that we call task force pineapple to guide many to safety. didn't have resources or battle field access or time. we had something that a lot of people didn't. we hadss relationships and trus. wet. used cell phones, knowledge of the terrain, and incremented chatroom to guide at risk commandos and their families at night through the crowd through an open sewage canal and position to link up with known servicee members like aiden that were standing watch near a 4-foot hole in the fence. cepineapple wasn't the only group. from breakfast tables to basements across the world. jean, a goldstar wife that lost her husband. will a double amputee and dozens and hundreds more. we helped hundreds of allies bur thousands were left behind that was a great cost to the venerable population that had given soti much. my buddy, steve, was wracked with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury from an iud. his children were in the next room. he was pleading over the phone steve, they are beating my wife. my children are watching this. what should i do? can i fight them. a former seal received a text from his afghan partner my daughter has been trampled. we will miss our chance to escape. she's unconscious and barely breathing. it's okay my friend. thank b you for trying. this whole thing has been a guttingth experience. i never imagined i would witness the kind of gross abandonment followed by career preserving silence by senior leaders. as a result of the way we left afghanistan. we are on the result of a crisis as groups are operating on former nato security bases. i think we are on the front end of a mental health tsunami. 70% of afghan war veterans feel betrayed. calls have spiked 81% in the first year since the afghan withdrawal and they keep coming. my friend a brad was found deada few months ago in a mississippi onhotel room. they confirmed to me the abandonment react serrated the demons he put behind me from our time in afghan to get. he couldn't find his way-out of the darkness. america is building a nasty reputation for leaving our allies. from the wreckage of the mountain yards in vietnam. veterans know something else this committee might do well to consider. we might be done with afghanistan but it's not done with us. if we don't set politics aside and pursue accountability on our military community and right the wrongsgs inflected on our at rik afghan allies. this foreignn policy failure wil follow us home and draw us weight back in the graveyard wherell it started. thank you, and i look forward to your questions. [ applause ] >> thank you, lieutenant. you described the yay i don't say and moral injury, i think that's how you did it. they are entered into the record. owen the president and ceo of the field. christopher with human rightless first. the coo of no one left behind. the former deputy assistance for counter narco terrorism. jeff direct to have of advocacy at no one left behind. the 208 foundation. sergeantnt eric hate retired and lieutenant coronal earnest without objections this is l2ing you and your colleagues with a nightmare. >> the nationals and civilians andat talking with everyone down there and from us, we were past our chain of command to holt processing and stopro searching them we had to keep control of the crowd sundown to sunup they wouldn't take afghans we processed or searched. we just stopped throughout the evening. the you wanted them to leave them in charge. i'd reich to focus on what you saw on august 26th. a bulletin went out for a potential threat. >> yes, that's correct. we sent two or three guys back to o collect our assets over in the joint operations command. jothat morning, around 2:00 a.m. we were past the suicide bomber was in the vicinity and in the surrounding neighborhoods potentially moving towards the gate. we were told he was wearing a brown head dress and black vest. he would be clean shaving and look younger. we saw that on the 26th around 12:30 in the afternoon. >> you passed along the communications network. there was a potential threat and inas your words this is as seris as it gets. >> that's correct. we had eyes on the two individuals that fit the description of our assets. we had pictures and we were able to see through our scope with easese of fire on both individus as well as through our spotting scope. we have, high powered optics with quality lenses to take clear-cut pictures of everything we see. that's a huge part of our job. >> do you still have those photos. >> they were taken when we turned them over to intelligence. >> you said you requested from your commander lieutenant brad to come to the tower to see what you saw and the psychological operations came to the tower and confirmed that the suspect met the suicide bomber description, is that correct? >> that'see correct. >> you had him. >> we did. >> you showed this evidence and you asked your commander if you couldd shoot? >> we did, chairman. both myself and my team leader asked for engagement authority and he responded with he didn't have that authority. we asked who did? he told us he didn't know and would find out. indi that time, in the time talking with him and keeping eyes on the individual. they both disappeared into the crowd of thousands as shown on the slides asn i was talking. i mean, i think everyone can understand by looking at the pictures that i had up there how huge the crowd was. it was unbelievable. very easy to move through and conceal yourself and that's what happened. >> you askedrs for engagement permission and your commanding officer said, i don't know. >> that's correct. >> he doesn't know if he had permission to takeout the threat? >> yes. >> there are no rules of engagement on the ground? >> we were told to pass our command if we saw any strange activity or hostile intent. viwe were not returned with an answer. >> you asked who does know? he said he doesn't know but would find out and he never got an answer to you. he never did. >> the individual disappeared. >> that heut did. >> you believeve that was the suicide bomber? >> weve do. >> you said we made everyone on the ground aware that operations holted and plain and simple we werehe ignored. our expertise was disregarded. lastly, no one was accountable for our safety that day. >> that's correct. >> no one was held accountable? >> no one was or is to this day. >> did your commander run that request up the chain of command. >> he should have. that was his responsibility to. >> was that normal protocol? >> we don't know. as a result, we have 13 dead servicemen and women. we have 170 afghans killed. >> that's correct. >> that threat couldn't be taken out because your commanding officer couldn't give you the order.en >> that's correct. >> amazing. >> i recognize the ranking member. >> again, let me thank each witness for their testimony. >> thank you for your service to our country. for your being courageous. i havein listened intently. in listening, i started to think about if who have severed in the military and had conversations with several gold star family members that lost individuals. they lost family members in afghanistan . i began to thank what is the mayor, the one really question thatat i have and i'd like to address it. i'll address it to you peter and then you. coronal mann. one decision i know the president of the united states made. . . >> b& excuse relax please. >>. >> to exit the war in afghanistan. >> thanks for the question ranking member. especially back in the day when we used get telemarketers on a land line. it's a good question, it's a difficult one and it's onei struggled with prior to all of this . i spoke to members of congress about how the war had been conductedand where we've got to go . should we have stayed in afghanistan? my personal opinion is thewar was a frustrating one . in 2011 i was in counterinsurgency operations cell and it was v without direction. so it was difficult in seeing the violence and life lost and the friends i lost during that conflict and then and after . ultimately that's not my decision to make. i'm not sure that i have the right answer. afghanistan was incredibly complex and surrounded by regional partners, it's hard . making those decisions is hard and that's what we ask our elected leaders to do . congressional oversight has been lacking for 20 years or more . budgets are passed with little examination of how the war was going so there was little pressure for the way we were conducting to change. it's a good question but the work i do as an advocate and the organization that i do this focused on helping it slip behind. we can't change that decision but there's a lot of people on my list trying to get here and there are things we can do tohelp them that aren't being done . >> i want to focus on the things we can do but i think that's a fundamental issue. we lost 2461 americans meincluding the 13 that were killed and each one of them breaks my heart but i know he had difficulty in talking to some even before the evacuation as to what why what are we doing their and also the president had to make a decision, either the prior administration had to make a decision. president trump, president obama had to make a decision do we escalate or do we not and that's something the commander in chief has to decide but each of ushas our own personal opinion . >> i appreciate the opportunity to answer that question and i would say i'm not a policy guide but what i will say is as a career special forces officer who spent time in afghanistan hoping to build capacity for afghan security forces to be an anti-body to modern extremist groups so that we didn't have to do it, for the special forces community that was something near and dear to our heart but something that happened on 9/11 when it's the absence ofground intelligence capability . we fought and we bled for 20 c years to build an afghan special l operations forces capacity and because the metanarrative is the security forces didn't fight, the reality is afghan special ops did 90 percent of the fighting and thought to the very end. so my point on that is i believe that could have been a responsible anti-body to violent extremist groups with a small footprint to advise and assist and i believe we could have maintained it but instead we allowed the contract air to go away and all the maintenance, they were left without any medevac l were not able to view what rt special operators are doing so i believe they could have stayed in an advisory capacity and now what we're left with is 27 violent extremist groups on the rise, unfettered safe haven and all they the national resistance front as the anti-body to it. >> the chair recognizes mister smith. >> thank you for calling this extraordinarily quick hearing on lessons learned without accountability, we have to have accountability and this is perhaps the most taimportant hearing we've had and i want to thank you . let me ask a couple of questions in a limited time , in early september 2021 the national security council spokesperson characterized the taliban as acting businesslike and professional and in your testimony we just heard it you talk about how countless afghans, 155 yards in front of our position day and night and that the caliban routinely had people under observationof their checkpoints . we communicated these atrocities but nothing came of it. colonel, you pointed out again all of your testimonies are extraordinary and so helpful and heartbreaking. but you pointed out that your buddy steve the former interpreter, with the caliban was pleading by phone, my children were watching this and right then why is this happening , we talked about being government experience and you go on to say i never imagined the kind of approach followed by courier preserving senior leaders both military and civilian. for all of you that kind of sentiment today where are our top leaders, has any of us are president biden and vice president harris at the state of the union or at any other venue conveyed to those left behind both the americans and allies that they're not forgotten? and to say we will not let in terms of our pursuit, you have to do it kind of like a private-sector initiative with great risk to yourselves, you might want to those arrests and let me say also the past is often prolonged. we know often times every day and they have one editorial after another telling people right now look at what biden did in this egregious flawed emphasis to the people of taiwan, americans do not have your back. it's important we always have the back of our allies, these are the people who lead with you, lost their lives so if you can any of those issues i would appreciate it but was one person who got two accounts, an officer went out on social media criticizing the exodus. they threw the bookat him . thomas if you could sergeant. >> can you clarify what you're asking? >> i'm asking about this lack , two sets of information without , one that was professional that was acting with decorum, certainly businesslike you were seeing a completely opposite one in front of you people getting killed at their checkpoints . >> the only thing national about the caliban is actually being given to torture people . there was no sense of stability or being what you would consider a regular human being. in that situation and they were out there doing what they've done best as long as we been at warwith them . as long as they been an organization. there, they continue to brutalize people in front of us because they knew that they could and we weren't going to doanything about it that's what happens . >> i'll speak to the personal and organizational responsibility piece. i was brought up sby really outstanding forces ngos who taught me that one of the things you can ever do as a leader is when you screw up you take responsibility, personal accountability for your actions whenever they are. most of the parents sitting out here today withagreement . regardless of their politics and one of the things that i know i have made several mistakes in this work that i have to live with the rest of my life athere's some folks that are not here because of some of the mistakes but i think where we are now is this it is a moral injury that has been heaped upon not just ourveterans by our goldstar family members, our military family members . they're trying to figure out what this was about and did this sacrifice matter? and when we have a violation of what we know to be right, those that we trust, it doesn't matter where that comes from . the fact of the matter is the only way to move moral injury to moral recovery is for leaders to step first and foremost and take responsibility for what happens . there's no way we can ascertain lessons learned or where we go if leaders don't respond and own it. and i think it starts with the commander-in-chief but it needs to go all the way down to our entire e admirals, generals and sergeants major, all we're going tohave to lean into this . to address this thing and it's going to take all leaders at all levels to acknowledge that this thing was a serious mistake and it can't ever happenagain . >> iq so much. the chair recognizes mister connelly . >> thank you to all our witnesses . it is sobering and very moving to hear you and mister vargas who's your pain and your sacrifice i want you to know will stay with us for a long time. and i hope it guides us as we make life and death decisions about warand peace . human beings are at stake. it isn't just broad big huge geopolitical dynamics, it's people like you. who have to bear the brunt of decisions we make and we need to bear thatresponsibility . so thank you and i am encouragedto be here . know that you're making a difference being here today on all of us. this hearing, lieutenant colonel, i don't know your politics but i think you said it needs to be taken to heart but let me pick the one about the reputation of the united states with respect to being a faithful ally. i couldn't agree with you more. i think that'simportant and it goes back to 1975 in the fall of gone which by the way it was very messy . talk about faithlessness, all kinds of people were left behind in a very public way and four years thereafter it remainedchaotic . people coming from vietnam primarily to get away from the country and you're right to point out the question of will we be good public stewards and what is our obligation to those afghans left behind. i also want to say i hope this hearing doesn't descend on let's pick on the other party's president because that is the view of history that serves no purpose and does not bring honor tothe table . as you said lieutenant colonel mistakes were made over a series of going back to s george w. bush who decided there were weapons in of mass destruction and we encountered in afghanistan. it wasn't president biden who decided to meet with the taliban and exclude the government we were supporting from those negotiations in doha. imagine what that did to the afghan more row. to know that united states, chief supplier and ally had decided to only meet with what you've just described as a murderous, torturing, amoral force at best. it wasn't president biden who said an absolute withdrawal, it was president trump. and everything unraveled from that. president biden inherited that. yes, what happened in august 2021 was messy and violent and something to be avoided at all costs if we could but it didn't happen so we generous in august 2021. it had a history. there was a context and there were previous decisions made that led to that tragedy. to try to now make this a partisan advantage cheapens the experience of so many who mean so much including our afghan allies. i hope we keep that in mind and i hope we can use this hearing to good purpose instead of narrow partisan political purpose which to my mind there is no purpose at all. thank you mister chairmanand i yield back . >> the chair recognizes mister wilson. >> thank you ranking member and we certainly appreciate the service of each of you and the other veterans here today and i agree with president donald trump that the afghan abandonment was the most colossal military and foreign policy mistake in the history of the united states . we had 13 of our service members murdered . we had an unknown number of our allies left behind in afghanistan to the murderous caliban. it's disgraceful. i have the opportunity to visit in my service and i saw the great work you did. first of all the veterans of afghanistan, have kept us safe after 9/11 and we should have learned from 9/11 that osama bin laden operated out of the cave in afghanistan. where setting our country up as you identified with 27 different terrorist groups in a safe even to attack america again the thought that we would not have had as commissioner smith and others talked about president trump made it clear he would maintain an air base and with that in mind there was rubble, the soviets destroyed the country eup to this one lane of traffic. i saw the roads paved and saw the sidewalks, it was so inspiring to see young boys going to school in groups with baseball caps and then to see young girls going to school in white scars. we saw a society being developed and then sadly it was abandoned. it's my national guard unit the 2/18 brigade of the national guard served for a year in afghanistan with general bob livingston and it was so inspiring our troops were all over the country at the outpost and they developed a great affection for their afghan brothers . and then i'm grateful to my youngest son and first lieutenant hunter wilson reserved for a year in afghanistan as it's very personal to me and that's why i just consider it so disgraceful the betrayal of the people of afghanistan and the betrayal of the service by nato allies, american troops and disgracefully on august 26 sthe president delivered a press conference and i want to quote what he said. the military have all contacted me usually by letter. stating that they subscribe to the mission design, end of quote. by that day sent a letter to the president. i know the letters don'texist . so every two months i'm going to answer to the letters i've never got a response and its within the american media might be interested to, where are these letters that this disgrace which has paved the way for putin to threaten and to invade ukraine, to threaten by the chinese communist party to threaten taiwan, to provide tehran to plan for the acquisition of the people of the united states. with that i'd like to ask a question to sergeant vargas andrews and sergeant gunderson, or the group given direction as to who should be granted entry intothe airport ? >> can you say that one more time congressman. >> the question i have is for you given were the troops given clear and consistent direction who should be granted entrance into the airport to fulfill their responsibility to properly screen afghan allies? >> i cannot the state department. i know marines looked for suvs and passport. i don't think i was ever given poguidance as to who could go in and out. >> well, you did your best sergeant. myself for a sergeant at the gate a lot of guys had no idea. it took higher ups asking look at this and look for passports, we know what passports look like but as far as special forces it was four days into the gate before i startedseeing them . >> mister lucier best wishes on your continued success. the chair recognizes mister keating. >> i want to thank all our witnesses in the audience and anyone listening. i want to associate very strongly the remarks given that i've had, it's not personal by any means, it's not helpful by any means but it's in my mind indelibly that the family of the goldstar family in particular it was in almost province, that i visited with the troops there and listened to leaders in terms of strategy and as often is the case when so many of us will say if there's anything i can ever do for you tell the marines who are protecting us. this one instance they said sir, there is. if you would. that evening i went to the village with them and we went to meet with that gentleman, a man who was there and i found out anthey wanted simply a member of congress to thank the afghans because he was risking his life every day telling them where the ied's were planted and what the strategies and movements of the taliban would be . i asked him why are you risking your life and behind him he reached back and put forward an eight-year-old boy. i just want him to have the same freedom and education that you have in your country here in afghanistan. i'll never forget thatmoment . and those are the people you've been talking about. people that risked their lives to protect us and our soldiers and you just don't know these people. we would be benefited by their citizenship as americans. by their shared values, with their demonstrated courage. and with their personal commitment to democratic values, they would be outstanding americancitizens . i don't want that point lost either. and i don't want another point lost particularly with our witnesses here who served us so well. i want to say thank you for what happened in those final days. thank you for your bravery. we were briefed on the dangers that would occur in our classified briefings and most dangerous part ofthe war they said . and youwere there . and some of your lives will never be the same, people that are injured physically, people with hidden injuries that will never quite be the same. but you saved up to 120,000 people during that very difficult situation. it could have been better but you did it and there's 120,000 people, 76,000 people that were saved. thank you. and that shouldn't be lost as we look at everything else. and i know it was not directly but our office was 24 seven and i was on the phone with an afghan family this call with a us official at the abbey gate and i was on the phone and explosions went off within their site. that's how dangerous the whole situation was. thank you for sharing how much more but that commitment that we have and i wasn't the only officer working trying to extricate people and get them beyond danger and moving forward. but we worked together in doing that. and my staff just didn't sleep. one of them by the way left us this week and is going to go work for care. she was so moved as an army veteran and work in our office she's now changed her career to help us and that's important as well. i hope we don't gather too much but i'll just say this, the testimony has been read a couple of times. it was very moving. most important words stuck out to me the on just looking at lessons learned for a bipartisan back and forth, it's 21 years there'sa lot of phone to go around .but it was the words that mister lucier said. it's not too late for us to evacuate our remaining afghan he allies and settle them in the united states. it's not too late so i pledge not just as a cosponsor of the afghan adjustment act and i wanted to do that again in this congress and work with groups as we have afghan evacuation going forward, hearing that your purpose was to serve other people so let's take this hearing and put aside the who did it and for once in a bipartisan way let's take the words that i just quoted from mister lucier. it's not too late to go forward and let's do this and i yield back . >> chair recognizes mister perry. >> i want to submit the following items for the record, the senate committee on foreign relations title locked up in the special director for reconstruction report titled why the afghan security force rleft. i want to thank the individuals that spent the time, the energy to here today. it's important today that we hear your message and feel your message. it's important esthat you get to tell your story. but i am frustrated. today you should be here telling your story. there should be other folks here to hear your story. the secretary of defense, state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. where are they? there had better be a full hearing withthem here . this is the biggest foreign policy failure since we left vietnam. very similar. the only difference in some ways is the cost and the fact that she we was leaving the embassy in hanoi and instead, a chinook was departing with billions of dollars the president of afghanistan. that's the difference of this failure while my friends on the other side don't ascribe any blame to it and go on to describe blame what happened behind everybody that the resident of the united states, commander in chief knew this was coming. had over six months to deal with this and ignore everything he was being told what was the cost of that? 13 us service members murder. our american servicemembers deserve better, our country deservesbetter . only the stranded? the foreign affairs mcommittee locked up and said the state department continuously misled or outright contradicted themselves. isn't that coincidental? how many times is this government going to lie to us and cost us our lives? the coordinator for the relocation effort said at times there were 100 waiting and then we found out the thousands, we don't know how many because they don't know how many because they were incompetent. they were unprepared. these folks did the work our government would not do, forced into a position because of incompetence and lack of preparation honestly lack of care. billions of dollars worth of access left in afghanistan. we don't know where theywere . some of the russia ukraine cartel, we have no way of knowing because othe servers storing the records crash, how convenient. we did notice, we left biometrics behind, visual images, prints, the addresses of people for the taliban to go round up and publicly murder, torture and kill. on acceptable betrayal. unacceptable. yet we're still not talking to those, my friends on the other side of the aisle say don't ascribe any blame. we want some accountability for two years we've been coming to this committee hearing, you could orhave come. they weren't interested in hearing it. the only reason they're interested now is the chairman should have come encourage the chairman for a full committee during with you here to face the people that put you in the position. sir, it's not your battalion commanders called he didn't get the rules of engagement to allow you to engage. some of them stopped your commander from issuing the order because i guarantee you vendors in the field want to service the enemy and keep their troops safe, that's what we want to do. we need to know who did it. there needs to be accountability and so far no one's been held accountability except some poor marine that said something has gone terribly wrong here , we need to do something about it. those folks at the top, the folks that made the decision to betray you and betray our allies, betray our country they need to come before this committee and explain how this happened and who's going to be held accountable that it doesn't happen again. we cannot continue to do this . mister chairman i request a full committee hearing with the secretary of state and chairman of the joint jesus staff so we can get this drive accountability, i yield's. >> certainly at our game plan starting with the eyewitnesses. i want to thank all of you for being here and the veterans got these people at. we lost a lot of them. but if you all had stepped up to the plate nobody would have gotten out so the chair recognizes mister cicciline. i want to recognize the extraordinary service and sacrifice you all need to our country recognize our goldstar families, the military have joined us. i'll say at the outset that let me be very clear there was never going to be a good time to leave afghanistan but this forever war needed to come to an end honesty the unavoidable turmoil of anything more that has spanned today carried out evacuation 20,000 people. after two decades of us involvement today's hearing should be focused on examining the. of this conflict. it's failures and successes including the us foreign policy led to this moment, we continue our efforts to relocate. i fear however today's hearing was not convened in that spirit but rather as an attempt to distract us from the full picture and even in the some cases to score political points which i believe dishonors the lives lost and the bravery of those who said before this committee. when the trumpet administration pressured them to free talent and fighters he expected these events on the ground and one that from administration directed negotiations with the taliban undermining the afghan government it affected advance on the ground and when the trumpet administration dismantled our nations refugee program impacted events on the ground . a lot of the discussion is about our obligation to those who assisted us in this war and i think we all recognize the important responsibility we have what i want to ask very specifically about the conditions that were in place that made that more difficult . these questions are specifically for you. president trump instituted a set of immigration policies that centered on reducing the number of non- white refugees and immigrants. he slashed staff in cross interagency for those responsible for processing applications including the immigrant visa program and he instituted the infamous muslim man. the number of afghans process plummeted while applications continue to rise causing the wait times to balloon for more than two years by january 21. in june secretary blinken allocated 60 personnel but by that timethe wait time was 700 days . the backlog by the time by dental office was 7000 cases so in your experience what kind of damage to the immigration refugee admission process and two other us institutions have done, how did it make it more difficult to bring out the very people we were attempting to bring out and did you in light of what existed at the time did you notice any willingness from members of the trumpet administration to streamline the process for applicants refugees for humanitarian parolees particularly in the wake of the trumpet administrations negotiated withdrawal agreement with the taliban. >> i can take the first stab at answering, i've been an immigration attorney for 20 years and the immigration system has been broken for far longer than is a failure administration after administration has led us to where we are today. we need to look at solutions to that, not just what one administration did. when the current demonstration took office it had been decimated in many areas . backlogs are a factor of life in all immigration proceedings, it is a clear way of helping some afghan allies but there are many who could potentially help this processing but that also is stuck in endless backlogs. they had to rebuild to get even back to where it was prior in the early days of this administration so i think we need to take a much bigger view. the immigration system is not functioning and it has not been functional for decades and we need to take a look at it and figure out how we realign with our values and how we want to show as allies in you to have no way, even those who made it here are stuck in unending asylum backlogs. there have been reports out there that the international refugee assistance program has a iv system but overall we need to agree that this system doesn't allow us to bring people to the united states that we want here and it's amuch bigger question . >> the gentlemen's time has expired, the chairrecognizes miss wagner . >> i think the chair and i would like to put out to my good friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle that the subject of this hearing is the fall of kabul, examining the administrations emergency evacuation of afghanistan. i want to thank the chair for organizing this hearing to examine the buy and administrations responsibility for the catastrophic fall of afghanistan. the hundred 18 congress democrats held a grand total of two hearings on this critical issue. leaving the american people confuse and frustrated. i am hopeful and confident that under chairman paul's leadership we will get to the bottom of this tragic debacle. i want to thank our witnesses for sharing their heart wrenching experiences with us today and i want to recognize their courageous service and sacrifice in afghanistan. i deeply and grateful along with my colleagues and all americans for their heroism and testimony. my oldest son raymond served as a combat infantry officer in afghanistan during operation enduring freedom and went to the same st. louis catholic high school as mister lucier did and graduating just one year apart. i suspect you share the same fundamental motivations that brought you both my son and you too afghanistan. americans and indeed all men and women should be free of tyranny and able to live without fear. us service members, protecting human rights and advancing equality should be celebrated as an example of american compassionate leadership and dedication to human dignity and to our own safety and security. the biden administration flight from afghanistan was a betrayal of our servicemembers and brave afghans who lived worked and fought alongside them. it made america less safe and it created a huge human tragedy of unthinkable proportions. the administrations anneed to take responsibility or its staggering failures. secretary blinken sat in front of this committee and one of two hearings we had while american families sons and daughters were killed in a terrorist attack on the kabul airport. many prayed over the dozens injured but the secretary had no answers for us. a saint lucero family buried their son. he was killed at the abbey gate at just 20 years old. american voters acquitted themselves incredible valor in a dangerous and traumatic situation. sergeant vargas andrews, sergeant gunderson every american is honored to listen to your story . the american people deserve answers to understand why these tragedies unfolded. servicemembers deserve answers. we have tohold the ministration accountable . lieutenant colonel, i am so grateful you shared the story hasina sasi. today is international women's day and it is heartbreaking to think of the thousands of brave, smart, capable afghan women and girls barred from schools, their homes, prevented from accessing basic necessities andhealthcare . why did it fall to task force pineapple to extract hasina sasi? should the department of state have made every effort to get her out of danger ? >> we were very surprised when the bulk of our focus was on afghan special operators and when we learned that mister sasi was on the run it came as a shock. kelly harry who had worked women's global affairs was helping to guide her along with a range of other women leaders and they tried time and again including areaching to washington dc. understand that hasina sasi was the minister of women's affairs. and arguably the most wanted and hunted woman in n afghanistan at that time. her ministry became the ministry of virtue and vice as the taliban took over so she was on the run. no one from the state department brought her in so what she ended up doing was was coordinated for her to move into the pineapple express which was moving through the open sewage canal with her family and up to a point of recognition where this young man here in a couple of other paratroopers pulled her inside the wire and one thing i'll say, i have to draw a shout out to the 82nd . she had a terrible fear of soldiers when she was a child . the russian soldiers, the soviets had accused her father so buwhen she learned it wasn't the sewage canal, it was having to edbe confronted with nato soldiers and she was terrified about it and it was hard jessie kennedy who reached down and grabbed her hand and pulled her out and said my name is jesse, your safe and mhasina sasi said when she went into that canal she had nine brothers and when she amcame out she had six a sitting know why minister was not drawn in by the state department but i do know that had it not been for the 82nd airborne and the people right there atthat hole in the fence that she probably wouldn't have made . >> i appreciate the chair and yield back. >> the chair recognizes mister sherman. >> thank you. one of the most difficult things for our community to do is to apprise the will to fight. you can look at the number of weapons, the capacity and see who can fight the question is who will. and we've gotten it wrong a couple of times in the last couple of years . analyzed the afghan army and determined they could fight successfully for at least four months. and then they looked at ukraine and thought they might even in four days and it turned out to be wrong in both cases. that doesn't mean they're not the best in the world, it just means determining the will of a tsoldier to fight is difficult. one of the things that strikes me not only about this evacuation but others is american citizens in a war zone and they say i just want to go anywhere i want, my government will protect me and there are limits on what the us government can do. so i put forward the safe act and i like to have more cosponsors do it again this or year to say that if americans notable war zone, they would register, they are encouraged to now but we would require them to register. we saw 15,000 american citizens in 2006 in lebanon with lack of registration and that was identified in the gao report as a significant problem in getting americans out oflebanon . we had, we started this evacuation obviously focusing on afghans who are our friends in immigration but the absolute core of the american response to american citizens. mister lucier, in october 2021 before this committee the deputy secretary of management and resources for the state department said the withdrawal would have been easier if us citizens were not the focus, if those citizens had been required to register the embassy . you have experience dealing with the withdrawal of american citizens? >> yes, this is one of the areas which h my organization assisted and make the evacuation go smoother. we had an open invitation through which folks could be referred to us or could help register among those were many american citizens, about 88 in the two week. >> were there people had registered two or three months before the withdrawal that were seeking help and we didn't know where they were, situations where we had people registered when they went into the war zone. >> that was one of the .rimary difficulties that data submissionyou're talking about could have happened . >> i hope to get more cosponsors on the safe act but i've got another question . i don't know if it's come up here but there have been criticizes by the biden administration for the fact that weapons we provided the afghan army we did not recover on our way wout. these weapons were out spread out over a fairly large country, they were high-definition in the hands of armed men. mister lucier, if we had wanted to go in, we claimed these weapons and sense american military all over where these weaponswere and demanded their hreturn , could we have done that and gotten those weapons back without any americancasualties ? >> i'm not a military logistics expert but that would seem to be an incredibly difficult task . >> the fact is that it's very difficult to leave a hostile situation and withdraw and do it in a pristine matter. i know the truong family saw how difficult that is and that was with a vietnamese military that was far more aggressive thanthe afghan military . we have but just around the world withdrawals are difficult. there never pristine, never organize, they never go according to plan and finally the trump administration did not do any of the interviews to identify ids, did not prepare for this withdrawal. america decided we didn't want to prepare for war and there is no pristine way to draw itout . >> the chair recognizes mister iso. >> i didn't plan on responding to the previous round of questions but i just want to contrast perhaps what was just said, president trump left office in january, colonel man, when did you first know there was going to be a hasty withdrawal or withdrawal of americans? >> i started to suspect things were coming off the rails and it was going to be a very chaotic withdrawal around late april and that was mainly because my friend was sending play-by-play signal texts on the fallingof each district . >> so areas of the conflict began to change in april. when were you first notified by the state department that your services would be needed to help evacuate american citizens? >> i never received direct notification from the state department our help would be needed. >> to your knowledge work either you or are american allies, were they aware of anything before basically the embassy evacuated in the night without notice? >> august 15 was when everything started for us . >> in the eight months between the departure of president trump and hasty withdrawal in the night about telling our nato allies, if there was planning certainly didn't come to those who then took it on themselves to help get american citizens out. >> i think that's correct. >> i want to go overnumbers very quickly . to your knowledge you and the other partners who were ar helping get americans out, you told numbers, names and numbers of people. was that a handful of people that you totaled up that were left behind as ofaugust 15 ? >> it was much larger. >> was it 50 or 100? >> it was in the hundreds only pushing closer to 1000, not in pineapple but in the various groups . >> so various groups reported as you did to the state department who coordinated them would give numbers, that number was greater than 100 or 200. actually greater than 500 or more by the name of american citizens. >> memory is foggy but i would feel comfortable seeing greater than 100 . >> how was the state department and presidents person that were talking about numbers that were always less than a handful later less than 100, did you give your numbers and did the other organization they are numbers to the state department and thus city and ministration? >> i know for pineapple we were submitting names and information on american citizens and green card holders. >> the only way somebody got essentially was after the fall was names were given, the state department and pass that on to the government and they allow them to be manifested on to the planes coming in from doha airways. >> the first challenge was to get them inside the perimeter , for us that was the bigger challenge, and on top of the wire. >> did you or your people ever get to the fence with blue passports in hand opand be turned away?it >> eyes. >> so american citizens got to the fence, there's american or nato people on the other side and they were unable to get through the fence. >> to be clear the american citizen we were helping was told to go to a specific date by the state department. when he got to that gate it was actually a taliban checkpoint . >> and the taliban turned him away. one of the challenges that i keep asking and for anyone on the panel is did any of you get or participate in any part of f planning of this, what mister sherman called and always chaotic withdrawal, did any of you participate in april in any planning orwithdrawal in america ? did any of you participate in may a? did any of you are to stay in june, just raise your hand if you participated in june. >> we didn't participate in the planning but starting in april we started calling for allies and the withdrawal of troops and we had sustained advocacy strategy over time and commented on the 15th. >> i'm talking about the actual plan from the embassy personnel to leave the base to be closed. at any time before august 15 any of you have any contact with american leaders, dod or state or other agencies that gave you an alert and the ability erto plan the withdrawal of american citizens? so it's fair to say the administration chaotic withdrawal certainly included the fact that the very people who got americans out after august 15, none of you were informed or given any opportunity to prepare prior to august 15, is that correct? mister chairman, i know there's a lot of other things we are going to delve into but the one fact i would hope we get to is if they were planning to january and they said they were given this requirement to get out and august when they left if they were planning i would llike us to have a record of who they were planning with so we would know why our nato allies found themselves without transportation in addition to those americans . on>> chair recognizes miss tyson. >> thank all of you for being so brave for what you did before and what you're doing today to tell your story and you deserve our attention and we want to hear from you. there's been a lot of pontificating but you are the ones who can advise us and informed us. i'd like to pick up on the last question about the communication between the administration and any of you all. communication is a two-way street and i know you have influence, you are in a previous administration. have any of you, the two of you had experts reach out to the administration and express concern that like the inspector general's report that this agreement we were going to pull out was abandoning afghanistan or that the taliban would take over your end of the field, did you express that concern as part of the intelligence they gave ? >> i did not explicitly engage the biden administration for any of the governmental organizations and the reason if i could offer it is leading up until august 15 i didn't intend to get involved with this . >> what about the trump administration when the agreement was made in august. >> i was vocal publicly about administrations and how they were handling the withdrawal but that was the extent. >> congresswoman prior to august 15 i retired to private life and was not involved with policy and it was only because of the urgent need of myself and many of the volunteers behind me saw. >> sometimes hindsight is 2020 and if you had gotten involved earlier you might not have so much tocriticize later . you talk about abandoning the afghans, i don't want to abandon them again so i ask you how you feel about the afghan specialimmigrant visa . we heard from mister cicilline and we've heard be members of this committee voted against an afghan special visa, would that not be helpful now to write some of the wrongs that occurred? >> if you do support extending those. >> i think the program is an important program for our allies . i think there is a tremendous need to enable the executive branch to process those visas and transport the people who were granted approval for a visa out of afghanistan. >> i know the immigration problem is bigger than this but we could be talking about temporary protected status but just this particular program. >> i would agree with extending siv's as long as individuals are properly vetted and not bringing more threats into america. >> you feel comfortable with those people getting able to come and be by our side with a pathway to citizenship. >> as long as they are properly id. .. 's's and more than a than anyone that goes to the immigration system check for air read immigration status and what most the really is there did it because they had to be qualified. exactly. why would somebody vote against him? >> begin congresswoman. try to be as brief as possible. very briefly on the previous question of worrying about -- three years ago i was inyo your office and we were asking about the campaign at the end of that i spoke to you and you said you were hesitant because from your experience in iraq you are worried about the exact same thing happening. it stayed with me for very long time. you answered myed question. just like camille saidid every x months bandwidth incredibly various background checks which included polygraphs and counterintelligence screenings. it takes four to seven years and i'm in support of extending the program. more so both administrative and congressional is incredibly faster and it could be expanded to bring other at risk people who currently not included in the requirements that we are incredibly at risk to those who are facing a dire circumstance. >> perhaps that's where we should direct direct their energies at improving a system so we you don't abandon more people. >> the chairman recognizes mr. mask. >> thank you. sharing my own personal story allows me to cope with the loss of friends and things like that each day. is being haunted by the questions of what if we took a different road, what if we were a foot to the left or put foot to the right constantly f thinkg about what if we would done that and the fact that i still care about it and still think about those people that i've visited in arlington, that helps me personally to cope with loss. and to answer ranking member makes question about should we have withdrawn from afghanistan or not, whether somebody believes we should or should not have withdrawn, it is evident to everybody that it should not have been done in the manner in which it was done. but this administration is perfectly comfortable not being haunted by the losses that tookc place. i don't know how they live with that. because i wouldn't be able to. i want to ask some questions if you. you essentially lift in a tower with your team, your rifle, your ammo, a camera for 10 days. >> that is correct. >> over those 10 days and those tonight he were in their day and night? >> yes, we were. >> did you witness the taliban notal letting people through thr own checkpoints to get to your checkpoint? >> multiple times. >> did you witness the taliban feeding people? >> yes we did. >> did you witness the taliban executing people. >> yes. >> was as recorded? >> we had footage of it yes. >> for the last 10 days of the withdrawal you were literally the frontline the frontline so since that day and in the 558 days in the wake of and since that time have you ever been interviewed by any part of the united states government about what you witnessed on the front-line? >> not by a single individual or an organization. >> the pentagon has never come to you inev said hey you were in front and you are with your team and looking through the scope on your rifle. what did you see from those thousands of individuals? >> never.. >> the marine corps never asked you when you woke up. walter reed hey sergeant can you tell us from your perspective what took place? >> no, they didd not. the state department, secretary blinken, others? they never came to your room at walter reed and said hey can you tell us what can you say about the siv's or others that were trying to get through to get >>processed. >> they never asked you is it true that people in the state department were sensually not processing individuals at nighttime when you were still having to sit in a tower at all hours? >> no, they didg not. >> battalion commander, company commander did they come after you for your story? statement the company commander in a personal capacity yes but not through the chain of command or in behalf of the marine corps. >> the cia, fbi never came to ask you hey can you tell us when you are looking to the scope on your rifle what makes you thank you could identify the bomber? >> no. >> folks in say hey this is what you are looking for on this day and we think it might be an individual that appears like this traveling in this way in undertaking these actions the intel folks didn't't come and ak you afterwards y hey what the gc for your rifle scope? >> no, they did not. >> are you aware that at some point some folks at the pentagon made this statement that all the people near the blast were concussed or? >> i'm aware of that statement, yes. >> how does that make you feel that you have not been asked by someone who was on the frontline of this that apparently they don't care to hear what you saw witnessed.u >> it makes me feel like my service is not of value to this country for the government. >> thank you. >> the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes mr. wild. >> thank you mr. chairman and let me start by saying sergeant vargas enters that your service is very much valued and why many of us in the u.s. government and i want to be on record as saying that afghanistan has deserved as a lesson about forever wars that the u.s. gets involved in and i say that as the daughter of a proud air force career officer who served in two wars and a half a huge respect for the military having grown up in that environment my entire childhood. but i do think we also have two be very cautious about forever wars andau we have seen out for sure. i really appreciate the opportunity to have this hearing. in august of 2021 i made it very clear that i did not think this evacuation was executed in a way that reflected the extraordinary sacrifices of our u.s. servicemembers and their afghan allies. as a democrat i was critical of the execution and after having said that let me make it perfectly clear that i long ago thought it was time for us to get out of afghanistan. i'm not talking about the manner in which the withdrawal kurd. i continue to concern about the afghan allies that were left behind as their families face extremely -- and shows no respect for human life. at the same time here's what i'm not willing to do. i'm not willing to ignore the two decades of intelligence failures that led our country to sacrifice the lives of so many of our brave servicemembers and to spend hundreds of billions over to gate decades propping up an afghan government that was incapable of defending itself. i'm not willing to ignore the fact that the previous administration did in fact negotiate the underlying agreement for withdrawal on the taliban. this was not the failure of a single off administration. he was the failure of multiple administrations of both parties over two decades and unfortunately our servicemembers who put their lives on the line and those who lost their lives and lost parts of their bodies, our afghan allies and the american people deserve real answers on why we found ourselves in a 20 year war that wasn't possible to win and i want too close with my remarks y saying i started by saying that this should be a lesson in forever wars. i haven't heard it yet today but he categorically reject any comparison that the afghanistan war to what's currently going on in ukraine and united states supported the crane and i just want to make that perfectly clear for that like to move to mr. dasher testimony was very helpful in terms of the sab process and in the interest of time i'm going to just ask you, you write in your testimony about the impact of the previous administrations travel ban and so-called s extreme vetting poly against majority countries. understand what practices were on the programs during that time and what kind of fixes can be made? >> absolutely and thank you maam. when you look at the siu process we were looking at an average of 47 years from submission of an approval application to its issuance and travel by ilm. how did we get to those 47 years? during the previous of administration one of the ways in which we saw this number particularly grow adjudication in that approval process took a long time but in the previous administration what they saw was folks have submitted their application and waiting for interviews a long time waiting for visas in so long in fact e-sight these are unique among all i.d. applicants and that they were waiting until the due penalties until they had been notified because medical applications expired to six months. for siv's it can take much longer so it's extreme vetting andex additional types of -- put in place for data collection and folks after after the end of use saw increased wait times because this population are defaced very strict scrutiny with regards to security concerns. extra burdensome and credibly administered evilly inefficient processes really lengthen that time p for siv after they are interviewed so they think they they are almost through the process and they time and administrative processing hole and they refused it for a long time. thatfu period was a jump in the length of time it took for an sab to become issued and as well as reduced number of sob and depth issued. even those who were interviewed it took extra requirements to get highlighted in ways but that extreme vetting and those extra layers of security betting again the population was incredibly vetted and it prevented many more people from becoming -- >> thank you sir. my time is up i appreciate your answer. >> the chair recognizes mr. burchett. >> banking mr. chairman and appreciate all they witness witnesses and incredible sacrifice the ball made. staff were contacted by nearly 30 afghan citizens. of those 30 we were able to get 15 out again a half later and by the others are still waiting the special immigration visa and they are saying we don't know what happened to theatni others. we are working around-the-clock around thathe and i say round te clock with the state department a lot of the calls remain unanswered. on august 26 since the c bomber attack innocent civilians do the karzai international airport 182 people were killed including .u.s. servicemembers and with those servicemembers was my constituent. army staff sergeant ryan who is pictured right there i know his mom and dad and stepmom and his family and they are just wonderfull people. they live in the same community and they are dear friends of mine. staff d sergeant was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. he was listed as the last casualty of war in afghanistan was laid to rest in arlington national summit terry. mr. gunderson you are won at the first on the scene to provide medical help for staff sergeant. i speak for myself and the rest the good folks in tennessee and i want to thank you foran that. sergeant it was in my notes for your testimony was very compelling to me and i'm not sure the proper way to do this mr. chairman. i'd like to make an official inquiry into the how this request was denied from the state department, from the u.s. military and i'm sure i'm stepping on some toes which is purely unintentional. >> that will be part of our investigation for sure. >> i would love that i appreciate it. mr. mass's question and brought a lot to mine. what is at stake for afghan to work with u.s. if they are unable to get out of afghanistan? >> congressman i wish i could ask everyone of these people sitting behind me because they are leading groups that are still on the phone talking to afghan commanders and special forces special missions units. the national minesi reduction group to win in front of ieds as it went on missions these people are being hunted down systematically and methodically by the taliban. most of their homes have been compromised in their records have been compromised in a large degree. they can get a job because if they going get a job if there's any credential they are immediately identifieded as a member of the afghan special operations community and we have seen scores of these individuals who have disappeared to let them dictate who have been tortured and who have indeed been executed and many times these veterans b behind me who it seea lot of combat and a lot, they are getting these pictures as they sit at the breakfast table at the kids in trying to find a way to help the families out. the afghan special operations community in particular and even higher than that they national reduction group the small group of afghans listed between special operators and ieds are at extremely high-risk right now being hunted and killed. >> thank you. sergeant vargas can you explain a little bit about the mental toll that withdrawal is having on our veterans? >> yes, i can. is another member stated earlier and lieutenant colonel stated moral and mental injury is, i don't thank you can quite measure that. >> you can't see those woods, can you? my father served in the second world war and he got out without a scratch but he suffered from what he called survivor's guilt. you know where he was. >> definitely. thank you for your father service. i myself and guys of my team and friends of mine who are out there serving through any war that veterans are i part of its hard enough being a servicemember in the military whether you go to war or not. that mental toll is significant. going overseas and going towards seeing thers things that we have haven't personally seeing the things that i have everyone handles things differently and i think the approach on mental health that some of these individuals are trying to take is extremely important. for myself and t the reason i am here today and continue from the day that i woke up to walter reed and continue to be vocal about the thingsp that my men ad women have experience to serve next to me because i have the ability to speak about those things that i've experienced so it's my responsibility. as long as everyone at also involved will advocate about for individualsmi involved. >> thank youvi all so much. thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate everybody serving our country. growing up in a family that's very partial to veterans, they were always my heroes and we have four or five on this committee who are my personal heroes so thank you are serving our great country. say i thank you. >> the chair recognizes mr. allred. >> banking mr. chairman and thank you all for your service and for your testimony. it's been incredibly moving for all of us and it's important for us to hear that.s the bravery and efficiency forces us even in the times to rescue 134,000 afghans in american -- and we owe you all an and incredible debt of gratitude for your service. those lights include mohammed and his family will ultimately fell into my district. i had the privilege of meeting and helping them get out. i'll show you the letter i wrote in his application to get out. he was on of those people with identification papers. his kids are the sweetest kids. he didn't just rescue his kids he took out for the kids that belonged to other families that he delivered here to the united states. your bravery, your professionalism save those people's lives. they are real people and i know them and i thank you. >> it's true that those were days but i also felt watching our servicemen and women care for babies and families to me representative the very best of america. the professionalism and the empathy and humanity that you all showed set an example for the world. it's also true that we should not abandon that position. the fact that american found themselves dependent on the taliban force perimeter security and assistance is a disgrace. but we had to come back to the question of how we got to that point and that answers not won honestly that just begins with the final question of withdrawal. the decision to withdraw under the previous administration a questioned and secretary pompeo was sitting in your seat and this committee for you to go this month. i is why we have abandoned u.s. policy regarding the negotiations with the taliban, undercutting the afghan government and why they didn't agree to the afghan constitution and the afghan constitution and provisions protecting women and minorities and secretary pompeo the record inn this committee. it's also true that ending our presence in afghanistan wasn't as in our e national interest ad we should all note that 2022 was the first year in this century that no american servicemember lost their lives in afghanistan. any fair analysis of the events of this withdrawal half to include all and not recognizing that reality is and something that should be bipartisan bringing american troops home and knowledge of their sacrifices and making sure that we serve our allies. to me the question now is what do we do with the lessons that were learned how do we support the 100,000 afghans like these who are here now. i want to thank you for your testimony for raising the afghan adjustment act. iai agree with you and the restn the panel but we should support the afghan national -- mission and here in the united states now. if you could in a minute that i have left discussed why you believe it's important and what it would do. >> thank you congressman for the question. briefly above 75,000 or so afghans that landed on american soil they had no pathway under the immigration law to be admitted. they have no way of staying here in a future without the afghan adjustment act in a way of putting down roots and having legaly status. so i think first and foremost they give some permanency and a welcome home that we were hoping that offer afghan allies. the act includes fixes for the esa d system and it allows for afghans beyond those who were evacuated in that first waive to come here and as i've mentioned over and over this hearing we just do not have immigration pathways that are available to afghans and to hear that ever single day. they do not exist. they afghan h adjustment act wod take care of that population to love them to be here and to live in america safely and freely and all the comes with that. >> thank you. spend the chair recognizes mr. green. >> thank you chairmen for your your persistent leaderships on this issue and thanks to our witnesses for being here today. thank you for your service to our country. many of you may recall from the movie lone survivor the helicopter that crashed and rescued rescued stranded navy s.e.a.l.s all on board perished including my friend steven reich and another man i know well from the unit master sergeant trey ponder. trey's parents are my constituents and i often see them in the district there before begin my comments i want to say to award to mike afghanistan veterans. our service and our sacrifices were not in vain. we kept our nation safe from a attack for 20 years. no one who served in like myself lost friends should ever feel was for s nothing. we protect america and you protected america for 20 years. when i signed into theou one 60th special aviation one of the first guys to meet me was a guy named corey. he was recovering from wounds he sustained on roberts ridge. the navy s.e.a.l. neil roberts had fallen from one of our aircraft unable to rescue him and so we lives by the code. leave no man or woman behind. so two chinook helicopters were dispatched with a massive reaction force and they landed to attempt a rescue roberts. both were shot down. 40 or so ranger sales and special operations aviators were stranded on that hilltop surrounded by 250 taliban. intense battle that lasted almost 24 hours, seven americans gave their lives because they lives by the oath leave no man behind. the ranger code which i learned back in the day has a line or two that is relevant for today. every ranger graduate, every member of the ranger graduate knows this creed read those lines and i quote i will never be the fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy. under no circumstances will i ever embarrass my country. senior general officers at the pentagon have told me they insisted that the evacuation occurred from bagram airbase. those leaders, we can debate whether or not we should have could have, what have stopped not withdrawing it off but they decided to withdraw and senior general officers told me the evacuation t told him it should have occurred at bagram airbase. those leaders to the prison when he 303500 soldiers to guard the base. according to those generals and a room at the white house the president himself said no, go to 600 -- with 600 you can't hold bagram so the decision became necessary. that decision killed 13 american warriors and left hundreds of american citizens behind enemy lines, many of whom fell into the hands of the enemy. and more, that decision made by joe biden to leave americans behind was an embarrassment to this nation. and it most certainly crystallized vladimir putin's decision to invade ukraine. and i will debate that with anyone who cares to take me on. now in the few minutes i have colonel to think it would have been safer at the bagram airbase ifro we would have surrounded by 30,000 troops? >> i'm going to ask a sensitive question that's tragic for myself. i'm going to ask a question about the veterans here. do you know anyone who soon after this disaster -- disastrous withdrawal committed suicide because they felt like it was all for nothing quite i see lots of heads nodding. i do too. the plight of those men and women are on the president period.n we live by the host we have meant no man behind. i want to say very quickly take this to your friends, take this to our brothers and sisters. it was not in vain. we kept america safe for 20 years. those sacrifices saved americans lives fromm a attack back home. thank you for yourri service. thank you, thank you for your sacrifice.ou god bless you and mr. chairman ideal. >> the gentleman yield. >> thank you mr. chairman and i want to thank all of our panelists for serving w our country if you served in the military and all the work you did to get afghans to safety. sergeant sanders i know you deploy it from -- and i want to say a special thank you to you for a your service. you have made their country very proud. we have talked a lot about how the evacuation happened. i was wanted the original members of the working group to my colleague mr. crowe it on a bipartisan basis and i worked with many recruits to get hundreds of afghans out of afghanistan and we are still betting that process. i think a lot of the criticism that we have heard should be leveled at this body and this committee because it's our job to oversee and over the years we have systematically underfunded and underappreciated their work to the point when we had to do this the state department didn't did have the capacity it needed to do the mission but i would welcome working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to figure out how we boost the department funding capacity and oversight to make sure the state department has the capacity in the future not only for a scenario like this. because no diplomacy helps prevent or minimize conflict and we can prevent more situations. specialist gunderson you said in your testimony you were born when you're before september 11. i am the youngest person on this dais and i was in middle school when september 11 happened. we talked a lot about the failure of oversight and the abdication of responsibility. i want to talk about the abdication of responsibility with this body because congress did not take a single vote on the war in afghanistan. you are when you're old and i was 11 years old. that's 21 years that congress allow this war to continue without ever doing our jobs and oversight to make sure that what we are doing is actually making sense. our generation has been told over and over our entire lives that we are making gains that we just needed a little more time in the few more resources. san diego's one of largest military bases in the country and we are about a large afghan refugee community as well so i take this very personally. we lost more than 2300 servicemembers and tens of thousands of afghans over s the0 years and the trauma that they experience there and my colleague mr. green talked aboue that. watching her troops leave afghanistan was a stark reminder of the cost of two decades of war but was also a stark reminder of how we got there. for many years where we had military leaders come in front of us and tell us we just need a little more resources and little more time for telling the public that we were running -- winning. privately they knew was never going to be possible. commander subtwenty wrote about this in an op-ed in december 2019 and mr. chairman and mr. chairman i ask unanimous consent to enter that opted into the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> i want to read the few sentences from this. however despite knowledge of the top that little progress ispr being made in afghanistan that victory was never likely in the entirere enterprise was being mismanaged isn't the story that the government or the military told thehe public. instead time and time again official talked about how local forces were getting better and it was impossible for the taliban to -- and american forces always seemed to be turning a corner in afghanistan myo last quote the inability of top officials to tell the truth it harder for me to come home from the i war. mr. lucier following on the ranking members questioned you think the outcome would have been differentmb if we had twor five or 10 more years and i know we talked about the consequences of this retrograde -- and i feel that personally but can you speak to the mental health application -- implications and how you would have felt as a veteran experiencing those those horrifying things won't knowingly couldn't win? >> yes maam, thank you. it's a difficult question. i spoke out in favor of bringing that were turned and bringing that war to an end. it was difficult to watch the news. afghanistan was not at the time making a lot of headlines. texting your friends do we know who it is yet and is it someone we a know is an way to experiene the word left in the year 2012 for it to continue to visit my life on the news as i tried to move on and go to school. i don't know what the right answer was too ending that war but what i do know the oversight decided they didn't have public conversations for the y last 20 years at congressional hearings in foreign policy writ large that specifically afghanistan and we didn't have a robust public conversation about the war that i thought and deployed to for the 10 years after i got home that have been going on for 10 years meant that we weren't as prepared to haveye that conversation because there wasn't a robust records and there hadn'tse been congressionl oversight but it was a war that at times felt forgotten except for folks like myselff goldstar family and it's worth noting how many have come here and how many are down here. 70,000 afghan troops troops. send the thomas time has expired. the chair recognizes mr. davidson. >> i thank the chairman. a very heartfelt thanks for having this hearing. it's a shame we had to wait this far out to half to have it like this and while this committee is generally very collaborative and bipartisan the delay and it should be noted. part of the problem is the lack of accountability for frankly senior leaders or that they are uniform or out of uniform. people deployed on the ground were held accountable for of things, engagements that were often incompatible with the mission that they were sent to the lack of ahe clear mission ad no one defined with the mission was for many years on the ground there get me sending people over. each commander would define it differentlytt. you don't have deserved in uniform to know it's a bad plan to give the military a person and try to get the civilians out. the fact that it turned out the way that it did is probably better than you would think since you took the military out first the military outburst and i then got this billions out. i wonder if you could comment about the challenges that you faced and is a member of congress is the chairman highlighted in his opening remarks i wasn dealing with people who were sending me copies of americans holding citizens, dozens p of them in areas of the country trying to get out desperately trying to get out manifest with hundreds of people on planes working with the state department and finally the people on the ground would get a safe third country to give him clearance to leave. ratherce than help our own state department contacted this country and work to cancel the clearance so that people stayed on the ground. i still can't figure out her motive for that but i know that it happened. i can imagine the people that were stuck on the ground and the people who have risked theirir n lives to accomplish this disjointed mission over the years and some of whom were lost after they had to disperse and hide and be hunted down because they are state department gave control of our embassy in all of our known allies over to the and it turned into a hunting list but they hunted them down. i can imagine that but i know a lot of you had a hand in this. if you could comment on what it was like in the world to that you and others playedom because frankly we needed civilian dollars to come in and do this is mind-blowing. this is clearly the mission of the united states of america. yet we were trying to bridget on people who felt a bond of loyalty so thank you for doing that but what were you confronting as you are dealing with that? >> congressman congressmen thank you and i appreciate the question. there has been a lot that has happened in the last year and a half that is shaken my faith in our government. there is a gulf between our obligation to our allies in august of 2021 however thousands of our citizens saw that colin jumped in and helped and they did it from emptying out their savings accounts and took on challenges that they should have had to take on. my faith in america has never been stronger. it was unreal at times to get request and i'm not the only person on this panel that has received it from congressional offices and executive level agencies and high-ranking officials asking for help evacuating their allies, us, private citizens from our own government to assist what's essentially a governmental function. it was humbling. it was terrifying. it was at times -- >> i just want to say we had a conversation here republicans particularly republican veterans came back here to washington to save to make this an event-based exit not a time driven thing but an event driven thing. when do we get all of our people out. instead the administration state-owned timeline of 31 august and inconceivably to me we had colleagues who wanted to deny this mission that you guys are partbl of in the private sector trying to save people in other parts of the country and but for the record that you preserved and state department computers i truly believe they would have tried to deny and lie and say that they weren't even there. thankfully we have the evidence from your statement and we still have faith in the american people is well-founded and may god this country and the people who are still trapped in afghanistan finally doing the right thing. the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes ms. manning. >> thank you mr. chairman. i want to thank each and everyone of them witnesses for joining us today. i want to express my deep gratitude for those>> of you who have served for your selfless service to our country and to all of you for helping americans and vulnerable afghans. as we all know the war in afghanistan went on for over 20 years over ford menstruations and the american people bought and paid for this war in so many ways. they deserve a full accounting and many mistakes were made along the way by many decision-makers over many years. so i'd like to start with a february 2020 trump doha agreement. mr. lucier when i read that agreement i was shocked with how few conditions there were. there were no protections for the women and girls in that in the stand, for the afghan people who had helped us work side-by-side with their forces. frankly there were hardly any requirements for the taliban to me. in retrospect what should have been done differently in negotiating a reaching that agreement? >> thank you for the question. like you pointed out robust safeguards and more vulnerable populations would have been helpful in preventing some of the situations that we see today. i think some of my feelings about the war and how it was conducted and how it ended her in an op-ed in something that i've spoken about. ii want to go back to the 70,000 folks who are here and the question of how the war should have ended. there lots of interesting in different questions a week should grapple with and should have grappled with at the time. a lot of folks on this witness stand, those are important conversations that we can have. these folks who are are facing life and death in dire circumstances are relying on us to take action to move forward. that's where i'm spending the majority of my time effort and research and how tojo get more mast's and protect more women and girls who were protected and that's what i'm focused on. >> i have degree one of the most heartwrenching tragedies of the taliban's takeover has been the devastating impact on women and girls in of afghanistan, women high-ranking positions and had good productive jobs who are no longer able to work. girls who were attending school who love learning who are preparing for the future were no longer able to get any education. several w years ago before the withdrawal we had assumed meeting with a group of these women and we asked them if they were trying to get out. surprisingly they said no that they wanted to stay and fight for the soul of their country. so ms. mackler what is being done to help women and girls in afghanistan and what more can be done? c i don't know. i'm an immigration lawyer. there's only pressure that can be put on the taliban to uphold the standards of human rights. just today "the new york times" had an article about the winter that afghanistan is going through but we have too continued to shine a light on their conditions that they are under. i have met truly extraordinary women in the early days of the declaration and one young woman barely 23 years old who escaped hours before the fall of kabul and has been running a nonprofit and she continues to be doing that from united states and she's not the only ones who continues at work with another network's appointment to continue to work that is even less visible now. i also, many of them were colleagues and the commander of our platoon in the u.s. military who works with now working on afghan security she and others like her have told me their biggest wish in their previous desire is to find a way to return so they can keep fighting that fight. >> i want to thank all of the probe work you're doing and i wish we could hear more. my time has expired and i yield back. >> the chair now recognizes mr. walsh. >> thank you measure chairman nye to want to thank everyone. i know this is painful and it's deeply personal, deeply personal to many of us. i have your pictures up when of my interpreters spartacus who was beheaded by the taliban a young man of 19 years old whose only wish was to when they comep to y america and he was literaly saving my life. i have here a picture of rahim who we did manage to get out on the s. -- sib program. what did the taliban do when we successfully such an outstanding success get these people out if they are hunting down their families. they captured his cousin tie him up behind the taliban truck drag him throughsi the village and killed him. to say don't you dare ever work for america or work with america or the west again and they have also beaten his brothers nearly to death. even when we are successful they start targeting and going after the families. you had to basically become your own state department to take you had to charter international flights and arrange country clearances and you had to deal with international borders because the state department failed. is that an accurate statement and do you agree with that statement? i don't disagree with that congressman. >> congressman the state department found itself in a very difficult situation with very little guidance as ours you can tell no event planning and unclear lines of authority so while many individuals tried their best to help us they found themselves hamstrung. >> thank you for that clarification because this is the failure of leadership of the most senior levels of the state department of white house. mr. mann to have members and veterans who have exhausted their personal savings trying to help these afghans whose in the moral compass federation and said so many of our veterans have basically taken on an uncle sam size problems with the pension funds. >> you. >> do no members have exhausted their children's 529 plans? >> some of them are in this room. they do no members who have -- and are headed to divorce and he no members who have committed suicide in you mention brad and he was my operations officer. he is now dead because of his moral injury. i don't even know if you can quantify it but you mentioned and 81% increase in there has been a 40% increase just to the last anniversary in the suicide hotline. at the same time is it fair to say these veterans feel betrayed by their own government? >> i do. they make you think added to their moral injury to see the president of the united states calling it an outstanding success and i quote? >> ith believe even more hurtful is not mentioning of it in tuesday the gain addresses.. that is what i was about to ask and the fact that he didn't even say the word afghanistan hurt them even more? he didn't even say the word. >> i do. mr. hoang for everyone on the panel is this world for? we have had members of this committee for house foreign relations committee and foreign affairs committee of the united states government and the house of of representatives in the present of united states and secretary of defense and secretary of state celebrate the fact the war is over and the taliban and al qaeda isis get the memo that we decided the president decided the war was over?? do we still have people trapped behind enemy lines, over 80,000? i know the answer is yes and in fact today? this morning at 9:23 a.m. i received a desperate e-mail from one of my interpreters who was formerly a schoolteacher. decided to work for a better future for women and children in afghanistan that he's now being hunted and he's been hiding for years. do you think that he thinks this war is over? or the taliban systematically hunting these people down? anybody disagree with that but ? i will just end with this. mr. mann you are absolutely right what happens in afghanistan does not allow mustaine afghanistan. members of this committee celebrated when president obama pulled us out of iraq in 2011 with no follow on plan. isis, caliphate comes roaring in three years later and we now have more members in more military members back dealing with that than when we left in 2011. they were wrong then and they are wrong now. mr. chairman i i will disclose this thing i've never been more proud of my fellow americans and veterans as i am of this group. i've also never been more disgusted with my own a government. this was a, incompetent episode on the part of this administration and it is not worthy of the men and women that we all carried and there've bravery and sacrifice. mr. walt gilkes back. i want to start off by saying thank you you for your courage and your testimony and your service. moreay importantly our focus iso get this right. we are dedicated to ensuring that your supported in the next time around here testimony that we can move forward. with that being said i have a question for mr. lucier. tell us about your experience helping afghans to it afghans to get back with him in particular what were the challenges on what works well? >> thank you can't summon. happy to talk about that. either friends and families of american citizens in afghanistan are those who were there themselves identify themselves to us and our goal was to do a pre-verification of that data to make sure your passport holders. and then coordinate with government entities on the ground at the time to arrange for safe passage to the airport and offer some guidance and intelligence and information available at that time to help them make that trip home to the gates of heaven accorded ahead of time. it was difficult process. we have folks self-identifying because the last identification ahead of time and are not required to register with the step program. lots of information was coming quickly and that was why the challenges. many folks self-identified as american citizens because they thought it would get them through the gates faster so having to adjudicate that for 220 volunteers who had no experience adjudicating and the tape her work was difficult and required a lot of oversight in cooperation. we had a relatively good amount of success and it wasn't perfect. getting american citizens to engage my experience typically we found the right person and we mare able to identify someone improve out that passport holder usually would move. at the end of the process only four were remaining and all four had the self selected to remain and they were offered multiple times that u.s. special forces operators could go out to the city to get them. because they have extended family members said they could not bring with them and choosing to separate from those extendedd family members they chose afghanistan. that was my experience and their other stories but that was my and really quickly ed buck to talk about the story of why those folks. we have people sign case numbers but she was a grandmother and she was with her grandchildren and other nephews and nieces. two more times she was offered that assistant that she was to remain and the taliban knocked at her door and she yelled back ato them. she was unable to access or medication while she was there. we knew that and we urged her to leave but she did not. the opportunity was available and she chose to stay. unfortunately in december of 2021 because she did not have that access she passed away. it was a tough moment in the tough day. we had all talked to her soo was hard for someone that we knew who was eligible to leave but who chose not to and made that choice and gave her life for her family. the process of american citizens was incredibly difficult. we had to learn on the fly. generally the cooperation with american citizens services and maybe we are just lucky but it was veryer good. >> ms. mackler beyond an integration pathway to the united states would easy in terms of diplomatic engagement or economic assistance multilateral work with partnering countries or areas to make sure we are helping vulnerable afghanistan to and defending the u.s. interest values and with respect to afghanistan? >> i think the answer would be that we should allow people to comment people want to stay home to stay home. they had talked about not supporting sanctions or other ways to get them here because they are really suffering. continuing to support them and continuing to allow them to live with dignity without starvation or poverty that they are experiencing our efforts and supporting our allies and allowed them the choice of not having it be by force. >> thank you for testimony that yield back. >> the gentlelady of sennacherib recognizes mr. kean. thank you mr. chairman. first i would like to thank our witnesses for their service to our country and your actions in securing cobol and 2021. like so many of you i cannot forget the images on tv showing afghan civilians crowding around gates inwi the aftermath of the bombing claiming the lives of 13 american servicemembers and 169 afghan civilians. despite the valiant efforts of theirte servicemembers to withdw and two decades of dedication and sacrifice in afghanistan the american people witnessed a conclusion. it was the nation's longest war. mr. gunderson i want to thank you for being here today and during your testimony indicated that a single -- is given appropriate -- for what they would encounter in kabul. can you speak to the impacts of that lack of preparation and what could have been done differently and how did this compare to other deployments? >> thank you cars meant for the question. i think the lack of preparation came from the fact of lack of not knowing what the ground situation was going to be. i know for myself the entire 24-hour flight to the other side of the world was long and i thought i never predict it will is going to be on the ground. i think we didn't know it was going to be in the ground. luckily there were things were able to find. we asked every day what do we do about water we didn't know there was no plan. >> sergeant vargas andrews he described the taliban shooting and brutalizing afghani's. how did you and the other servicemembers feel about having toto stand by and watched watch taliban engage in these acts? >> myself and my team in the tower fell especially. the army for someone move shipping containers 15130 yards between us and the taliban and their checkpoint so the guys on the ground didn't always see what is going on. we were just and felt. we let people know what was going on. unable to do anything. >> we have discussed, thank you. we have discussed today at length much of what went wrong during the withdraw and we have heard from the witnesses and heard their stories about those chaotic and frightening days. my question to the entire panel what were some of the biggest questions concerning the withdrawal but have yet to be answered and what do you think experience that lawmakers in congress need to be asking who should be held a accountable? we will start with you sir. the biggest question is what happened to the folks who made their way to america and what's going to happen to them? that question remains unanswered in the second when is the cure can we talk so much about the does so well their funding isn't secured right now so the nextam administration could move away from that and all the lessons learned in the private partnership that has -- those questions loom larger of this community until they are at our work will remain in the most difficult perry where we don't have certainty or what's going to happen to this partnership. >> congressman i would say what the big questions on my mine is how do we help all of these veterans and other o volunteer groups hang up the phone today on the world's longest 911 calls and says happen as we talked about that cashed in their pension funds in their retirement accounts and it is taking a massiven toll. not just on their fiscal capability but on their mental health and they are not going to quit. they are never going to quit doing this so if we could figure out how to responsibly relieve them of what they are doing to provide them with got to figure it out. >> of the gentleman yields and the chair recognizes mr. stanton. >> i thank you very much chairman and thank you do each of our panelists for your bravery and dedication, service to our country and the evacuate american citizens and their afghan allies in incredibly dangerous circumstances. your work and the work of thousands of combat veterans saved many many lives in this body owes you a huge debt of gratitude. but for tens of thousands of our afghan allies who are brought to the states their arrival was to start of the nearly two-year long bureaucratic on that has left them without permanent legal status. i want to draw this committee's attention toan when particularr vulnerable group. in the weeks before kabul fell my team and i helped to evacuate women who served in the afghan national army female tactical platoon. the ftp's as they were called for combat soldiers who were recorded -- recruited vetted and trained by elite u.s. forces. these courageous amazing women reverse their lives by going where mail soldiers wouldn't and in majority country searching and questioning women and children in pursuit of taliban targets. the platoon conducted 2000 missions including high-risk and highly classified missions alongside the green beret, navy s.e.a.l.s. there worked to support the american mission and their gender make them and their families a top target for the taliban yet the women from this unit who are now in the united states, only one has been granted asylum. they have been kept in legal limbo for well past the allotted 180 day deadline for nearly a year. these women have done their part, submitted their applications gone through interviews and now they are just waiting, waiting without information that they are owed. i am deeply frustrated by how uncertain their future still are. they served side-by-side with our soldiers. these women put their lives in their family lives on the line to assist the united states. is this how we repay our -- and not his tens of thousands of evacuees including ftes who have been here for nearly two years have lost their parole status. it's a morro bay earlier that despite broad and bipartisan support congress could not come together too pass the afghan adjustment act and to fix this and give these ftps and thousands of others certainty andds stability. ms. mackler in your testimony talk about the importance of passing the afghan -- act. if congress does not pass the afghan adjustment act and does not provide legal resident pathways to ftps and other evacuees what could happen to your clients in evacuees like them. >> think it you for the question congressman. i work on helping afghans resettle in america -- in new york. first of all just to be clear the afghan adjustment act was -- any afghans on status if there is no extension of that parole and no other solutions to come up they will be subject to deportation. they will be here without status and they will be at risk of immigration. many of them have applied for asylum essence all of them have but there are bidding requirements. their application are held up well past 180 days. simply put they will be at risk for deportation and deportation to where's the question. nevertheless their lives here are not able to begin. so that's an unacceptable solution and situation. with that i will deal the remainder of my time to represent a crow. >> thank you mr. stanton. in a little bit of time that i have i want to address other issues momentarily but i want to send a message to my fellow veterans and to those who might beo listening. never confuse your individual service with policy decisions that are made in washington d.c.. each of youon stood up, you raie your right hand, you did your job. it was right, it was honorable and a remains rightnd and honorable. this country owes you a great debt of gratitude for that service and you should be proud because i am proud of you. so many people are proud of you. policy decisions will be made here and mistakess will happen and we will debate that we will have those discussions but do not confuse those with that right and honorable service that all oft our federal -- veterans share. >> the chair recognizes mr. moran. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you to all of you that are here today. i'm devastated by the testimony of the stories we are hearing and i will just tell you from my perspective the foreign policy for national defense defense policy and the homeland security policy of the u.s. must clearly be strong, steady and strategic. our policies and practices must adhere toac the principals, otherwise our allies will not trust us, our foes will not fear us and neither will respect us. without such policies and practices and without trust and respect that comes with it, our countries practicability to lead in this war collapses alongside its broken principals. americala will no longer be able to claim the moral high ground and foreign allies will no longer aca be able to stand with them in those critical times. additionally i convinced he will incentivize our -- to become more aggressive in incentivize anyone from partnering with us. both are devastating to this nation and heightens the chance for additional military conflict in additional loss of military and civilianna lives. i want to turn to sergeant barger sanders and your testimony. i want to give you an opportunity to address some of those things because you asked us to give you the opportunity to elaborate. if you haven't had sufficient opportunity today to do that i want to give you more opportunity to elaborate on what you've been through since then. >> i appreciate that congressman. for myself at this time or the time leading up to the blast i was behind a gun in the tower with another individual sergeant valencia observing the crowd with threats. staff sergeant hoover came and told me together an interpreter and his family member from the canal. have a 14 was back in case we had to pull out quickly and i walked out there with staff sergeant hoover and talked about the situation. he was a combat veteran and prior to that and explained that was unlike anything he's ever experienced in afghanistan prior. we walked out to the canal and their interpreter had to sign to identify him. we did a search on them for weapons and any threat. move to take them to the main search area for processing and he stated he had family still in the canal and a wife and four kids back there so we stayed in that now that they. i told him i shared with him -- he had passwords and we would pull out his family to render them and i would stay down there for 2030 minutes and ensure another individual was helping him while he waited for his family to to appear for a state in the canal facing the far side of the canal during -- near the wall with staff sergeant hoover within four or 5 feet of me. 10 minutes went by and that's when the suicide bomber detonated. posts that i open my eyes finally i knew right away what it happened and started crawling due to gunfire from the neighborhood. started crawling and over the course of those few minutes could not, i was overwhelmed but i was awake and aware and the other half of our team had just come back charles schilling schilling and the rest of the guys to had gone up to the tower to convene a make sure was okay. he asked for bolt cutters that i carried in my pack and ran out their wrist his own life and got to meet and he's screaming my name in getting turner cuts on the entry has me along with the marines would save my life. he cut open a hole in the fence at the base of that tower and cut down the casualty distance probably by 120 yards at least and to this day i wanted to publicly recognize him for that. he and the actions of my friends that day save my life. >> i certainly appreciate that testimony. mr. hoang you were talking earlier and i think use the phrase they keep her hope and hope becomes forlorn. that speech comes from duty on the country but they want to ask you what you think of those three hallowed words duty, honor, country? do you think our withdrawal in afghanistan met with those principals >> as i said earlier i think there's a lot that has happened at a shaken my faith in government and there's a lot to be desired about the way our government executed that withdrawal. however as i stated earlier the way my fellow americans stepped in and did what needed to be done when they saw our government fall short -- me. i think duty is what we do and honors how we do it in countries where we do it in this instance i do not believe we did our duty with honor that you deserve and the american people deserve and the people of afghanistan deserve. thank you guys. the gentleman yields back. saying thank you mr. chairman. thank you ranking member makes thank you to all of our work this up today. it feels inadequate to say. thank you for your service to our country and that includes many in our audience i know and that i don't know. this is painful and powerful testimony that is important for us to hear. i'm glad you are here. i thank you for being willing to go through this repeated pain. we owe a tremendous debt to all of you. we owe tremendous debt to the more than 800,000 servicemen and women who served our country over the course of 20 years. more t than 2400 lost their livs and more than 20,000 wounded and i'm not even beginning to touch those who will never be the same in spirit fouling post-traumatic stress. we have lost so many of you have cited to death by suicide. they come to this hearing awash with awe and all of you. sadness with the reality of this war and other wars of course but it's also come to it with great humility knowing that i can't get near what you do, what you've done and what you have sacrificed. near it but i do think it's important to bring out the facts and the truth of the end of this war as some have cited and it is not over. i will start with sergeant vargas-andrews. thank you for your service and your sacrifice and it's inadequate to say i'm sorry. man oh man we are proud of you. i want to follow-up on 22 questions you wrote in your testimony that i had read and you mentioned at the end. you said ask me about one old girl that i reunited with her family. could you tell us that story? then i thank you maam. i think what i can say is for a lot of people out there and the actions they had specifically around the airport there were lot of moments to them that were than mental strain into the servicemembers and for myself what working to push back the crowds and i was on the ground and a little girl hasac squeezed her way through the crowd at seven or eight yearsun old holdg a four or 5-month-old baby in her arms holding the hand of who i assume to be her little brother was four or five years old. they were and bruised and the chaos was just i had tunnel vision i saw her nice to need to help them. i picked up the baby and the little boy and she followed me to get to a safe area. i noticed the baby's face was blue and purple so i went to the nearest person that resembled a medic and started asking if they had a small breathing bag to conduct cpr because i didn't know if the baby had already past but i assumed it wasn't breathing. i didn't want to injure the baby by trying to perform cpr myself. the individual i don't remember who wasf sat there and help to resuscitate the baby. his face flushed pink and the little girl started asking for her dad and crying. i took her back to the gate and i could tell she was asking for her father and climbed up on the suv and held her up. i was asking her do you see your dad and trying to make her understand what i'm saying. she understood and we sat up there for a minute or two and in this crowd of hundreds of people below us she pointed in the direction of maybe 30 or 40 people back and terror hundreds of people holding of papers and documents and whatnot on when individuals holding his hands on his head crying and looking at her. i said that as her dad. i left the troops at the opening of the gape to help get this guy through and we pulled them through and the little girl hopped off the sab and ran to t him. she hugged him and he hugged her and they both cried. we a reunited them with the othr two children and he had paperwork for all of those families showing their pictures and whatnot. for me that was a moment that my personal injury was worth it. i have freedom and opportunity because of that. >> that there's an expression of in the jewish tradition that i was lean on that i keep in the catholic faithf and that is to have saved the single life is to have saved the entire universe and somebody give done that. to help us make sure we live up to our obligation to people whom we must save, rescue and help to get on with their lives as we help the women and girls. mr. mr. chairman i yield back and i thank you. spend the gentlelady up and we have both on the house floor right now so the committee will stand in recess until 2:20 for votes. i know it's been a long hearing if you could stay we would greatly appreciate that but i think they are still eight more members that have questions. we stand in recess until 2:20.

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