no accountability. you gentlemen have spent your lives and i completely respect it troops in combat, you have been in combat and had troops under your command killed in action and you have been part of an institution where accountability is so critical and the american people respect that up and down the chain where there are instances commanders get relieved. up and down the chain we see it. the mccain incident, fitzgerald incident. aav incident with the marine car. 3 star and 4 star officers relieved of duty. but on this matter on the biggest national security fiasco in a generation there has been zero accountability. no responseability from anybody. so i will ask this final question of all of you. senator cotton talked about it. madam chair, if i may. could you submit your
you gentlemen have spent your lives and i completely respect it, troops in combat, you ve had troops under your command killed in action, you have been part of an institution where accountability is so critical, and the american people respect that up and down the chain. commanders get relieved up and down the chain. we see it. the mccain incident, the fitzgerald incident, the aab incident with the marine corps. three-star, four-star flag officers all relieved of duty. but on this matter, on the biggest national security fiasco in a generation, there has been zero accountability, no responsibility from anybody. soly ask this final question of all of you. senator cotton talked about senator sullivan madam chair, if i may could you submit your
accountability. you gentlemen have spent your lives and i completely respect it, troops in combat, you ve had troops under your command killed in action. you have been part of an institution where accountability is so critical. commanders get relieved up and down the chain, we see it, the mccain incident, the fitzgerald incident, the aav incident with the marine corps. but on this matter on the biggest national security fiasco in a generation, there has been zero accountability, no responsibility from anybody. so i will ask this final question of all of you. senator cotton talked about it. senator sullivan, could you submit your question for the record, please?
0 why wasn t action taken to secure the kabul airport or retake bagram then? thank you, senator. you re right, the tempo had picked up significantly, yet the taliban continued to make advances. our entire chain of command, myself, the chairman, general mckenzie routinely engaged the afghan leadership to encourage them to solidify their defensive plans, to make sure they were providing the right logistics to their troops and further stiffen their defenses, to no avail. to compound that, president ghani continued to make changes in the leadership of the military and this created further problems for the afghan security forces. i don t mean to interrupt you, but my time is lapsing. this gets to the overestimation, i think the overly optimistic assessment, because even as late as july you re still encouraging the afghan special forces, you re expecting the ghani government to remain. in december of 2019, the washington post reported that the u.s. military commanders privately express
0 retake bagram then? thank you, senator. you are right, the tempo had picked up significantly. the taliban continued to make advances. our entire chain of command, myself, the chairman, general mckenzie, routinely engaged in after began leadership to encourage them to solidify their defensive plans, to make sure they were providing the right logistics to their troops and stiffen their defenses to no avail. and to compound that, president ghani continued to make changes in the leadership of the military and this created further problems for the afghan security forces. mr. secretary i don t mean to interrupt but my time is lapsing. this gets to the overestimation, i think the overly optimistic assessment. even as late as july you are still encouraging the afghan special forces, you are expecting the ghani government to remain, but that was not the case. in december of 2019 the washington post reported the u.s. military commanders privately expressed a lack of confidence that the a