[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 157 (Monday, September 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the State work period, as 
Senators attended business back home, the Biden administration's 
reckless decision to retreat from Afghanistan was carried through to a 
damaging and deadly end.
  The consequences of its hasty retreat were not just foreseeable; they 
were actually foreseen. And yet, against the advice of Members from 
both parties and even its own national security experts, the 
administration plowed right ahead.
  Just weeks after abandoning our strategic airbase in the dead of 
night, the Biden administration told Americans and vulnerable Afghan 
partners they were largely on their own to make it to the commercial 
airport in Kabul if they wanted out of Afghanistan.
  And by the White House's own admission, some of the Americans who 
wanted to come home were left behind. So let's let that sink in. 
President Biden left Americans who wanted to escape behind, in the 
clutches of the Taliban.
  Of course, Americans aren't the only people we left behind. In order 
to meet an arbitrary political deadline, the Biden administration also 
pulled out before we helped all the brave Afghans who stuck their necks 
out to assist American servicemembers and build a better future for 
their country.
  Our Nation made a promise of aid and safety in exchange for their 
service; and on this President's watch, we actually failed to keep the 
promise. We left Americans and vulnerable Afghans behind.
  The administration naively expected the Taliban to behave like any 
law-abiding member of the so-called international community, supposedly 
subject to tremendous leverage for recognition and for funding.
  Well, our adversaries are sending emissaries to the Taliban, and the 
terrorists in Kabul seem unconcerned with diplomacy. Trust in the 
Taliban to ensure safe passage to the airport for evacuees was fatally 
misplaced. Anyone who expected the group to become ``inclusive'' should 
now rightly expect to literally be laughed out of the room.
  The administration confidently insisted it would own the consequences 
of its withdrawal efforts; but as soon as their lack of planning bore 
real, deadly consequences, it pointed the blame at everyone but the 
reflection in the mirror.
  Now, in a bizarre twist of narcissism, the White House is now holding 
up its belated and frantic evacuations as worthy of praise and credit.
  So where are we now?
  A wall outside the compound that, until recently, housed the U.S. 
Embassy in Kabul now bears a mural of the Taliban flag. Four terrorists 
once detained at Guantanamo Bay now hold senior positions in the 
Taliban regime. And in the void left by our coalition's withdrawal, we 
are less able to collect intelligence and fight terrorists on their own 
soil.
  This failure was entirely avoidable; the consequences were totally 
foreseeable; and the stain on our retreat has left America more 
endangered, less credible, and with fewer capabilities in the face of 
real and growing terrorist threats.

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