[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 158 (Tuesday, September 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6465-S6466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on a completely different matter, 
providing for the common defense and protecting the American people is 
one of the fundamental responsibilities our Founders entrusted to the 
Federal Government. It is a core obligation of the Commander in Chief.
  Yet, to a deadly degree, a parade of mistakes in Afghanistan tells us 
President Biden and his team have failed this most basic test of 
competence. For 20 years, the United States has successfully kept 
terrorists from staging another major attack on our homeland.
  Over the years, we have reduced our own military presence in 
Afghanistan, secured greater assistance in foreign partners, and 
supported local Afghan forces who did the vast majority of the 
fighting. This strategy kept al-Qaida on the run. It kept the Taliban 
from taking control, and it kept Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven 
for terror.
  In only a matter of months, President Biden and his team have 
squandered all of that--squandered it. The collapse we witnessed wasn't 
inevitable. It didn't happen on its own. It happened because President 
Biden pulled the plug on our Afghan partners and pulled the rug out 
from under our allies who were with us in this shared fight.
  Everyone seemed to realize this is a historic disaster for the United 
States, except maybe the President and his loyal retainers.
  Secretary Blinken points to the frantic evacuation of 100,000 
desperate people as a huge success. Seriously? They initially didn't 
envision having to evacuate anyone. The number of people evacuated is 
not a metric of success for

[[Page S6466]]

this administration; it is a measure of their failure.
  Back in April, my colleague the Democratic leader heaped praise on 
what he called President Biden's ``careful and thought-out plan with a 
real timetable and a firm end date.'' Does he stand by this lavish 
praise for a careful and thought-out plan? Crickets. Was it wise to 
conduct our retreat during the height of the fighting season? Was it 
sound strategy to preemptively abandon the strategic Bagram Air Base in 
the middle of the night without telling our partners? Was it careful 
and prudent to tie our departure to the 20th anniversary of September 
11?
  Our botched retreat from a so-called endless war cost more American 
lives than nearly the prior 2 years combined. And make no mistake, the 
war against terror hasn't ended--far, far from it. In a rare moment of 
candor, the Biden administration's own experts have admitted explicitly 
that we will face new terrorist threats from inside Afghanistan sooner 
rather than later. We will have to face a more entrenched and 
emboldened enemy with fewer resources, fewer friends, and more 
constraints.
  So virtually every reason and advantage that President Biden said 
this policy would bring about has already proven absolutely false.
  The administration said leaving Afghanistan would let us focus more 
resources on China, but its catastrophic retreat has tied up even more 
resources, including strategic naval assets from the Indo-Pacific. And 
while the administration's officials are consumed--consumed--with this 
catastrophe, China is cultivating deeper ties with the Taliban.
  The administration told us our military and intelligence community 
could keep terrorists at bay with over-the-horizon capabilities, but 
longer distances, fewer assets, and less intelligence are already 
taking their toll, and innocent civilians appear to be paying the 
price.
  Even still, the White House continues to peddle misleading 
comparisons with operations in other theaters, ignoring the unique 
challenges of keeping close eyes on a landlocked country with a hostile 
government thousands of miles from U.S. bases.
  Administration officials like to say there is no imminent threat 
posed by al-Qaida emanating from Afghanistan. But their abandonment of 
Afghanistan has already allowed that threat to grow, and we will have 
fewer resources with which to confront the gathering threat. According 
to press reporting, just this very morning, the Deputy Director of the 
CIA has acknowledged they are seeing al-Qaida terrorists flowing back--
back--into Afghanistan, and our intelligence capabilities are already 
diminished.
  But there is a larger pattern of broken promises. The President said 
that everyone who wanted to get out would be able to do so, that we 
would leave no one behind. Instead, we left Americans and vulnerable 
Afghans behind.
  Secretary Blinken said the Taliban committed to allow Americans and 
vulnerable Afghans safe passage to the airport. Instead, we know 
Americans and Afghans were prevented from getting to the airport. Many 
still cannot leave.
  The administration said that we would have tremendous leverage over 
the Taliban, that they would need international recognition and 
funding. Yet the Taliban doesn't seem to be terribly concerned with 
global PR.
  The administration said they would hold the Taliban accountable. They 
haven't.
  The administration seems to believe the Taliban would establish an 
inclusive and representational government. Look, we are talking about a 
government of medieval theocrats--medieval theocrats--the same killers, 
kidnappers, and hostage-takers who aided and abetted the terrorist 
architects of 9/11.
  Well, their government is, however, inclusive in one way. It is 
inclusive in one way. Listen to this. It includes four--four--of the 
Guantanamo Bay terrorists released by President Obama in exchange for 
Bowe Bergdahl; four people who were at GTMO, exchanged for Bowe 
Bergdahl. And that is only part of the government. It also includes a 
senior Haqqani terrorist with a $5 million bounty on his head and 
American blood on his hands--another top official in the government. 
This is not a government that cares about staying in the good graces of 
the so-called international community.
  Enough fluff. Enough spin. It is time for hard truths and 
accountability. The Biden administration's conduct over the past 
several months demands thorough instigation by the Senate. That will 
begin with Secretary Blinken's hearing at the Foreign Relations 
Committee today. I hope the Secretary and the administration he 
represents are prepared to answer some tough questions about past 
decisions, as well as future plans. The American people and the 
vulnerable partners we have left behind deserve nothing less.

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