President Accountable for Afghanistan Debacle

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on the ongoing disaster in Afghanistan.

As a Vietnam-era veteran, I have seen the outcome of a poorly executed withdrawal, with tragic images of our allies hanging off of aircraft.

The scene that unfolded at Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul last week is a betrayal to the American military, American citizens, our Afghan partners who aided American troops in the global war on terrorism, and the Afghan people.

The catastrophe that we have seen over the last few weeks was completely avoidable. We have watched as the Taliban quickly took control of the country, released terrorists from prison, and began implementing sharia law on those we left behind.

Just as important, we will have less safety of our homeland, and it will have lasting repercussions.

Madam Speaker, one of the most basic things you learn in the military is to never give your enemy the upper hand. We gave the Taliban the upper hand when we broadcast our withdrawal plans to the world but not to our allies and our coalition partners. The arbitrary and symbolic timeline the administration gave to get our troops out is during the peak of the fighting season.

The administration needs to take full responsibility for this debacle. They are making the decisions and need to be held accountable for those decisions. The President said that the buck stops with him, but he has continued to point fingers and blame others.

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