[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 159 (Wednesday, September 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6531-S6532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              AFGHANISTAN

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, on another matter, today, I speak to my 
fellow colleagues on the extraordinary courage, bravery, and patriotism 
that the men and women in our Armed Forces showed to the entire world, 
yet again, in the last several months in Afghanistan.
  Now, we see plenty of evidence that they were placed in an impossible 
situation because of the bad judgment and leadership failures of 
President Biden.
  Despite President Biden's bad judgment, our men and women in uniform 
again exceeded expectations. In the process of doing their job for 
people whom they don't even know, we lost 13 of our best who gave the 
ultimate sacrifice for their country, and 18 more suffered serious 
injuries.
  I pray--and I assume all Americans pray--for their families for the 
loss that those families have suffered.
  Those 13 young men and women will never, and should never, be 
forgotten. They are heroes.
  This disastrous exit was entirely avoidable, which makes the loss of 
life even more gut-wrenching.
  Intelligent and honest people can disagree on whether the Americans 
should have left Afghanistan, but it is unthinkable that anyone could 
justify the manner in which this administration carried out this 
disaster.
  The Biden administration left Americans behind. This is the United 
States of America. We never leave our people behind. I have heard from 
many Iowans who are outraged by this moral failure.
  When he took office, President Biden arrogantly announced that 
``America is back.'' Now the world is seeing America in retreat. The 
Russians and Red China are crowing over this comedy.
  I and others have compared the imagery and the perception to the fall 
of Saigon. But, remember, in that case, we had pulled our military out 
before we broke our promises to the South Vietnamese military.
  In this case, it appears that crucial support for the Afghan military 
was withdrawn while we were relying on that same military to hold off 
the Taliban long enough to complete our withdrawal.
  I have been at many briefings related to President Biden's Afghan 
exit. I have tasked my oversight and policy staff to do the same. Some 
have been classified briefings; others were not classified. What I can 
say--and what I believe the American people ought to know--is that this 
administration couldn't track the state of play on the ground in the 
way that they should have had the capability to do.
  Every briefing gave a more dire and desperate picture than the one 
briefing we received before. It was obvious that this administration 
was losing control. Yet it was clear to me and my colleagues that the 
administration never sufficiently changed its posture in the region as 
the facts on the ground changed from bad to worse.
  When the administration officials were questioned about this 
strategy, they often publicly responded that what they were doing was 
based on Presidential-level decisions.

[[Page S6532]]

  Joe Biden owns this disastrous exit, plain and simple. But, also, 
Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, and General Milley are not without 
blame.
  The exit has realized the worst fears of every Afghan who, over 20 
years, learned to dream of peace, and every naysayer who said: Wait, 
and they will leave. Our enemies were right, and now we have left.
  The Biden administration certainly left the women of Afghanistan 
behind. They are once again being beaten, killed in the streets for 
supposed crimes, such as daring to speak, wanting an education, not 
covering their faces, and, in some cases, simply walking in public.
  The Biden administration, in its hasty exit, effectively armed the 
Taliban with advanced American military weaponry that is now being used 
to oppress the Afghan people. The Taliban is now patrolling our streets 
in Kabul in American vehicles, wearing American uniforms, and carrying 
American-made weapons.
  Some of the violent terrorists released by the Obama administration 
are now in political leadership roles in this Taliban regime. Other 
members of the Taliban leadership have remained on the FBI's most 
wanted list, and they have been on that list for many years, including 
one with a $10 million bounty. Now, if this were a movie script, nobody 
would believe it.
  In addition to the equipment and the funds, it is crucial that we 
remember the human cost in Afghanistan. We lost 2,461 servicemembers, 
18 of whom came from my State of Iowa. We also lost 3,846 contractors, 
66,000 American military and police, 1,144 allied servicemembers, 444 
aid workers, and 72 journalists. These numbers hit home. They hit deep. 
And we should never forget them.
  These numbers also don't account for the stain on our national 
reputation for blatantly disregarding the welfare of the Afghan people 
who fought alongside us to help us accomplish our mission there. 
Leaving behind allies will have consequences that will affect our 
ability to build coalitions in the future. It will negatively impact 
our ability to defeat future enemies.
  Looking through the negatives, the heartache and the pain that our 
country has suffered from this terribly executed exit, I remain 
hopeful. Where the Biden administration has failed, we have seen 
veterans and current members of our armed services filling the 
leadership gap. Where our government didn't keep its promise by working 
together, these veterans and current members of our armed services and 
the groups associated with them quickly built ad hoc networks to ensure 
their Afghan brothers-in-arms and their families were able to leave 
their crumbling country safely.
  Americans have been inspired by reports of Operation Pineapple 
Express, organized by special operations veterans who, without even 
being asked or without even asking for permission, helped hundreds of 
Afghan allies and their families to safety.
  One of the more inspiring stories from this disastrous exit involved 
an Afghan family being guided by his former U.S. marine brother to 
Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport. The Afghan family was instructed by 
the U.S. Marine veterans to carry signs with them that invoked Marine 
Corps phrases that our marines at Abbey Gate would understand but the 
Taliban would not understand.
  After several attempts, the marines on the wall saw the signs and 
were able to retrieve the family and escort them through Abbey Gate 
only moments before the suicide attack that took the lives of 11 
marines, a Navy corpsman, a U.S. soldier, and scores and scores of 
Afghan civilians.
  When the Marine Corps veteran network was eventually able to make 
contact with the interpreter, he was asked if he and his family were 
all right. His reply was, ``Of course I'm good. I'm with marines.''
  Now, that is just one story, but this isn't the only amazing story 
regarding our veterans and our servicemembers. Pictures that were taken 
during this time show the desperation of the Afghan people: mothers 
desperately throwing their children to American troops in the hope that 
even if the parents couldn't reach safety, their children could. These 
pictures also show the pure hearts of these American warriors whom we 
honor.
  During this 20-year conflict, our service men and women have never 
wavered in their duty to God and country, consistently showing their 
ability to annihilate the enemy. They defeated the Taliban, liberated 
the people of Afghanistan, and protected our country from further 
terrorist attacks for 20 years.
  During their final hours in Kabul, our young warriors did something 
unimaginable for almost any other country's military: They injected 
humanity into the dark fringes of a war-torn conflict during a mass 
evacuation. We have seen the pictures of marines in full battle attire 
holding crying infants. We have seen our servicemembers giving the 
shirts off their backs to keep children warm. This stands in contrast 
to the actions of political leaders thousands of miles away here, where 
we stand this very day.
  Despite the Taliban's most recent acts of barbarism, the Biden 
administration has begun discussing potential recognition of the 
Taliban as a government. The possibility of taxpayer-funded foreign aid 
has been dangled as a carrot to incentivize their good behavior. This 
is pure naivete on the part of anybody in this administration thinking 
about that.
  The Biden administration's string of foreign policy blunders has 
created a domino effect that Americans will feel for years to come. 
Afghanistan could once again become the epicenter for terrorist 
activities that will launch future attacks on our Nation--hopefully not 
another 9/11. I pray that my concerns will not become reality, but 
somehow I have to have fear that they will be reality. At the very 
least, Americans' credibility on the world stage with our allies, even 
with our enemies, has taken a huge hit.
  In the unfortunate event that our worst fears come to light, my 
solace is in the knowledge that our service men and women continue to 
have the strength to overcome the failures of our own political 
leaders.
  So, to my fellow Americans, let us never forget the sacrifices of our 
men and women in the armed services and the sacrifices that that means 
for protecting our freedom and security. Their service and sacrifice 
have been of immeasurable value. All Americans owe a debt to them that 
can never fully be repaid.

                          ____________________