A former US soldier who was seriously injured during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan has told Congress that the 2021 withdrawal of US troops was extremely 'devastating'.
Tyler Vargas Andrews testified before the Republican-led committee that is reviewing the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal of US troops from Kabul.
Tyler recounts in great detail the events of the day after the Taliban captured Kabul. In his statement, he said that the American government in Kabul was absolutely not ready for this withdrawal.
At this point, others mentioned the mental trauma caused by the incident and the morale degradation caused by deserting the Allies and fleeing.
Sergeant Vergas Andrews was among the soldiers who were given the responsibility of securing Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, when two suicide bombers attacked the crowd of Afghans who had gathered there to escape from the Taliban during the US evacuation.
Thirteen US soldiers and 170 Afghan civilians were killed in the attacks.
In his statement to Congress, Sergeant Vergas Andrews stated that he and another American Marine had already received the intelligence report about the attack and had even spotted the attackers in the crowd.
He said he informed his supervisor and requested permission to take action, but that permission was never granted.
Sergeant Vergas Andrews said, "The simple fact is that we were completely disregarded.
In emotional statements before Congress, the soldier described how during a suicide bombing, his comrades' bodies flew into the air and he saw their corpses when he regained consciousness. He said, "My entire body went numb due to the blast. My stomach burst. Every part of my body that was in the explosion was shredded by bomb fragments and steel ball bearings."
Sergeant Vargas Andrews called the military withdrawal from Afghanistan "catastrophic" and said, "There was a lack of accountability to an incredible degree and extreme negligence was demonstrated." He added, "All the faces that we couldn't save, all the faces we left behind, are in front of me."
The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, investigating the events surrounding the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, also heard from American soldiers and retired soldiers who suffer from mental illness due to the trauma of the withdrawal.
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, who was tasked with evacuating Afghans at the time, said that their experience of evacuating Allied forces to safe locations revealed that the system was "completely destroyed."
He further stated that after the withdrawal, there was an 81% increase in calls from senior military officials requesting immediate assistance, and they warned that "America is going through a mental health crisis.
Lieutenant Colonel Mann said, "He could not escape the trauma caused by the ethical degradation that made him feel the darkness."
Most of the soldiers presented before this committee held George W. Bush responsible for the events in Afghanistan, culminating in all the orders reaching Biden.
These witnesses demanded that all the allies present in Afghanistan and the United States be immediately assisted.
Lieutenant Colonel Mann said, "Due to a system that has allowed allies to abandon them in their bad times, generations of people have a dirty stigma on their mouths, from Montagnards of the White Names to the Kurds of Syria."
The Republican Party, which has been demanding an inquiry into the allegations of mismanagement during the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan for some time, holds Biden's administration responsible for the entire incident.
Mike McCaul, a member of Congress elected from the state of Texas, who is the chairman of this committee, says that there was an administrative paralysis at every level in the federal government during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and an astonishing leadership failure was seen in Biden's administration.
In response to the Republican Party's allegations, the Democratic Party is defending Biden.
New York Congress member Gregory Meeks, who has connections to the region, says that Joe Biden made the right decision by calling all the troops back home.
"I can't even imagine sending American men and women to Afghanistan," he said.
President Joe Biden...
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