The House investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the United States military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 has flown under the radar. But the probe is reportedly making some significant progress.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, which is heading up the investigation, has conducted over 15 interviews with current and former administration officials and has already revealed more information about the incompetence the White House showed during the disastrous withdrawal.
The House investigation into the Biden administration's military withdrawal from Afghanistan more than two years ago is progressing even as it is out of the spotlight.
House Foreign Affairs Committee investigators have conducted more than 15 transcribed interviews in the last six months with various current or former administration officials, a committee aide told the Washington Examiner.
The interviews were with Brian McKeon, former Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources; Amb. Ross Wilson, former chief of mission at Embassy Kabul; Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad, previously the Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation; Ned Price, the former State Department spokesman and now a senior adviser to Secretary Antony Blinken; and Suzy George, Blinken's chief of staff, among others.
"I'll say what we've learned so far was that this was entirely predictable," the aide said. "The State Department had blinders up, you know, after the Biden administration took over in January 2021. I'll say the one thing that has become very apparent through this Kabul-centric approach with respect to Afghan security, and the complete disregard of the Taliban's rapid monthslong advances across much of the rest of Afghanistan."
The White House has “entirely stonewalled” the committee’s requests for interviews, the aide added, while the State Department has been more forthcoming with documents and interviews in recent months, but it had been uncooperative as well at the beginning of the investigation.
One of the focal points of the investigation is the Biden administration’s adherence to the Doha Agreement, which was signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban. The accord confirmed that the U.S. would withdraw its troops by May 1, 2021. Investigators are also looking at the decision to relinquish control of the Bagram Air Base in order to maintain Hamid Karzai International Airport.
During a hearing earlier this year, the committee heard testimonies describing the withdrawal effort.
“This whole thing has been a gutting experience. I never imagined I would witness the kind of gross abandonment, followed by career-preserving silence of senior leaders, military and civilian,” Lt. Col. David Scott Mann (Ret.) said.
There are approximately 775,000 Afghan war veterans. According to a survey, 73% of them feel betrayed by the withdrawal and 67% feel humiliated. Those who were there say they still suffer from what they experienced — including mothers carrying dead babies, the Taliban beating people, and people running for their lives.
“I think we’re on the front end of a mental health tsunami,” Lt. Col. Mann said. “Calls to the VA hotline have spiked 81% in the first year since the Afghan withdrawal and they keep coming.”
House Democrats have attempted to shift blame to the Trump administration for the botched withdrawal. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) brought up the Doha Agreement and noted that “it wasn’t President Biden who set an absolute withdrawal date” and that Biden “inherited that.”
Nevertheless, House Republicans have kept the focus on the Biden administration.
“The Biden administration would like Americans to forget about its chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which emboldened our adversaries around the world, abandoned our allies and partners, and cost the lives of 13 brave servicemembers," Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner. "My committee won’t let that happen. We will continue doing whatever it takes to unearth the information necessary to hold those responsible for this cataclysmic failure accountable and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”
The investigation has not yet concluded. But this development shows that the nation is getting ever closer to finding out precisely what happened with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.