Biden administration to blame for chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, ex-military say
Mike Brest
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Former U.S. service members laid the blame for the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan nearly two years ago on the Biden administration.
Retired Col. Seth Krummrich, who was serving as chief of staff at Special Operations Command-Central; retired Col. Christopher Kolenda, a combat leader in Afghanistan; and Command Sgt. Maj. Jacob Smith testified in front of a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on Thursday to share their perspective with lawmakers on how the withdrawal played out.
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Republicans used the hearing to focus primarily on the final weeks of the U.S. military’s two decades in Afghanistan, while Democrats primarily expressed the viewpoint that congressional oversight should be broader for lessons learned than simply the final weeks of the war.
“The bottom line is the administration controlled how we withdrew and when we withdrew, making them the majority stakeholder of many guilty parties in the failure and collapse of Afghanistan in the current Taliban rule,” Krummrich told lawmakers.
President Joe Biden went against the guidance from his top military advisers to withdraw the entire U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, which occurred at the end of August 2021, which Krummrich described as “a shock and a rude awakening for all the planners.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the House Armed Services Committee in March he didn’t have any “regrets” about how the withdrawal took place. When asked about the remark, Krummrich said he felt “extremely frustrated and let down,” while Kolenda referenced service members in his unit who were killed in battle. Smith declined to answer because he’s still active duty.
As the Taliban rapidly ascended to power in August of that year, with the military practically out the door, they decided to conduct a noncombatant evacuation operation. They ultimately put roughly 120,000 at-risk Afghans on flights out of Afghanistan, though not before an ISIS-K terrorist, who had been released from Bagram prison when the United States handed over control of it to Afghan forces, detonated a suicide bomb killing 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians.
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The families of some of the U.S. service members killed in the bombing were in attendance for Thursday’s hearing. Lawmakers and witnesses both recognized and expressed gratitude toward the Gold Star families.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, since Republicans took back control in January, has honed in on the withdrawal as a topic worth investigating. Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) has repeatedly verbally sparred with and issued subpoenas for the State Department, which he has said at times has been less than forthcoming with requested documents.