[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 165 (Thursday, September 23, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6635-S6636]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Afghanistan

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, I am here to talk today about a subject of 
urgency for our Nation but a subject that many Democrats in this body 
don't want to talk about. I mean Afghanistan.
  Thirteen American soldiers, dead; 169 civilians, dead; hundreds more 
American civilians left behind to the enemy; billions of dollars in 
military equipment abandoned to the enemy, like you see in the images 
right over my shoulder. Yet, nearly a month after this disastrous 
evacuation, the worst foreign policy disaster in this Nation's history 
since Vietnam, there has been no accountability. No one has been fired. 
No one has resigned. No one has been relieved of command.
  Instead, what we have heard is the most incredible and, frankly, 
insulting parade of excuses and evasions from the President of the 
United States and the rest of his leadership team. They have said the 
evacuation debacle was an ``extraordinary success.'' That is a quote. 
That is from the mouth of the President himself. Let that just sink in 
for a second.
  Thirteen American soldiers, including from my State of Missouri, 
lost--13--169 civilians dead; hundreds of Americans left behind enemy 
lines to fend for themselves, left to the Taliban, left to ISIS. Has an 
American President ever--ever--left behind American civilians on the 
field of battle--hundreds of them--and then called it an extraordinary 
success? I can't think of a time in American history.
  It was a disgrace, what the President said. It was untrue, what the 
President said. Yet he goes on and on and on. And now President Biden 
and his team say they didn't leave any Americans behind. They said, in 
fact, Americans weren't abandoned to the enemy.
  I mean, this is simply insultingly false. By their own estimates, 
hundreds of American civilians were left behind and are still there. 
Americans are still trapped in Afghanistan, trying to get out, trying 
to be rescued, left to their own devices. Yet the President of the 
United States insists that it never happened; it was all a success; all 
is well.
  The President said it had to be this way. Those soldiers--what?--had 
to die? I mean, what does that even mean--that the military had to 
abandon billions of dollars of equipment to the enemy; that civilians, 
hundreds of them, had to die; all those Americans had to be left 
behind? I mean, is he serious about that? Does anyone honestly believe 
that? Does anyone honestly believe that this was the only possible 
outcome, that the death of American soldiers and the loss of civilians 
was the only possible outcome, the only way to withdraw?
  It is absurd, and an honest leader would acknowledge it. In fact, an 
honest leader would never have said it. Yet President Biden and his 
team continue to say it day after day.
  Joe Biden has blamed other people. He has pointed the finger at the 
people of Afghanistan. That is remarkable. These people now suffering 
under the rule of the Taliban--they are at fault, apparently. He has 
blamed and his administration has blamed the intelligence Agencies. 
They cast aspersions at the commanders on the ground. And remarkably--
remarkably--many Democrats in Congress seem to be fine to go along with 
all of this, with these excuses and these evasions, this attempt to 
whitewash what has happened in Afghanistan and is happening as we 
speak, as Americans remain behind enemy lines.
  The Democrat leader has stood on this floor and praised Joe Biden's 
handling of this crisis, applauded it. Just yesterday, he said right 
here on the floor that my efforts to get accountability for this crisis 
in Afghanistan were a waste of the Senate's time. Those were his words: 
waste of the Senate's time. He also said it is something that only the 
far right is interested in. His words: ``the far right.'' What an 
insult to the American people.
  All I can say to that is: Why don't you come to Missouri? Why don't 
you talk to the families of soldiers who are serving? Why don't you 
talk to the families of those who have served in this 20-year war? Why 
don't you talk to veterans? Why don't you look the people in the face 
who are grieving and who are demoralized and who are shocked at what 
happened over the last few months in Afghanistan, shocked at the 
abandonment of American civilians? For that matter, why don't you just 
talk to this administration's own officials who rushed to tell 
reporters, off the record, that they were horrified that the President 
had left behind American civilians--horrified.
  To brush all of that aside, to pretend that none of that really 
matters--that is all a distraction; there is nothing to see here--that 
is insulting, and it is wrong.
  Until there is accountability, I will force the Senate to actually 
vote on Joe Biden's nominees for leadership positions in the State 
Department and the Department of Defense. In the face of this crisis, 
in the face of this debacle, the least the Senate can do is vote.
  But the Senate ought to be doing a lot more than that. While grieving 
families are still waiting for answers, while Americans are still left 
behind enemy lines, we should be getting the truth. That ought to be 
our focus. We should be demanding accountability, not sweeping it under 
the rug.
  So let me just pose a few--a few--of the questions that I think need 
answering: Why was the administration so unprepared for what transpired 
during its evacuation? Why didn't it plan for the potential fall of 
Kabul, for the potential surge of the Taliban, for the potential 
collapse of the Afghan Security Forces? Why weren't they prepared to 
withdraw while keeping Americans safe?
  Joe Biden and his team didn't coordinate the drawdown so American 
citizens could leave the country; they ignored them. They told us the 
Afghan Security Forces were 300,000 strong; they were never that large. 
They promised the security forces were well trained; they weren't.

  Has no one bothered to read the reports of the inspector general for 
Afghanistan? I commend them to you. They are harrowing. It is harrowing 
reading. The inspector general has been warning for literally years 
that the Afghan Security Forces were unprepared and unreliable. He has 
warned that our own Defense Department has, for years, concealed the 
true state of the Afghan Security Forces and their inability to carry 
out their mission. These aren't secrets. These are reports, many of 
them published in the Nation's leading newspapers.
  Yet the administration didn't factor them into their planning, didn't 
seem aware of the facts on the ground, didn't seem able to prepare to 
deal with the realities, even as Americans were put into harm's way. It 
really does make you wonder: What was the Biden administration actually 
focused on? I mean, what was it doing with its time? What was the 
President doing with his

[[Page S6636]]

time for all of those months--or Secretary Blinken or Secretary Austin 
or the National Security Advisor? What were they doing while 
Afghanistan collapsed into chaos?
  I think the facts suggest an answer. Rather than focusing on 
protecting Americans from the enemy, rather than focusing on getting 
Americans safely out of Afghanistan, they were focused on fighting a 
phony culture war that they invented and that appears to be their top 
priority.
  Just consider: On June 11, when Secretary Austin was asked if he 
thought that the U.S. military was a fundamentally racist 
organization--this was at a hearing in the Armed Services Committee 
here in the Senate: Is the U.S. military a fundamentally racist 
organization?--he said: I can't give you an answer. And, instead, he 
talked about the military's urgent support for ``equity''--his words. 
One week later, 21 districts in 9 Provinces had fallen under Taliban 
control in Afghanistan, and the Afghan Security Forces began to abandon 
their posts.
  On June 21, Secretary Blinken announced the ``Progress flag'' would 
fly at the State Department, a special flag that celebrates, in 
Blinken's words, ``diversity and intersectionality''--that famous 
catchphrase of critical race theory. The very next day, the Taliban 
seized the main Afghan trade gateway as the enemy's advance began to 
pick up pace.
  On June 23, General Milley said in his testimony to the House Armed 
Services Committee: ``I want to understand white rage.'' That is his 
quote. And he defended the administration's recent focus on White 
extremism in the military. The very next day, U.S. intelligence 
assessed that the Afghan Government would collapse within 6 months of 
our withdrawal.
  On July 1, Secretary Blinken was busy changing U.S. passports to 
create new selections for nonbinary, intersex, and gender-nonconforming 
categories. The very next day, American troops withdrew from Bagram Air 
Base, what had been the hub of American power in Afghanistan, leaving 
it for the final time.
  On July 14, Secretary Blinken invited the United Nations to formally 
investigate ``the scourge of racism, racial discrimination, and 
xenophobia'' in the United States. He invited the United Nations, that 
frequently corrupt body, to investigate his own country for racism, 
xenophobia, and racial discrimination. Meanwhile, at the very same 
time, even as Blinken spoke, the Taliban offensive was surging across 
Afghanistan.
  On August 9, Secretary Austin was busy crafting a new, controversial 
COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all of our servicemembers. The very next 
day, U.S. intelligence officials warned that the Afghan Government 
would collapse within 90 days or sooner.
  On August 17, Jake Sullivan--that is the National Security Advisor--
said that the Taliban were helping to provide ``safe passage'' for 
Americans fleeing Afghanistan. Well, one week later, the terrorist 
attack at Kabul left 13 American soldiers dead, at least 169 civilians 
wounded, and, shortly thereafter, hundreds of Americans left behind as 
our last transport lifted off.
  Facts are facts. These are the facts, and they tell the story. Joe 
Biden and his team were more focused on their culture war than they 
were on protecting Americans. That is the long and the short of it. 
They were more interested in imposing a radical left social agenda than 
in getting Americans out of Afghanistan.
  They were interested in using the military as a social experiment 
rather than respecting it as the warfighting institution it was built 
to be. Rather than making decisions that were sound in tactics and 
sound in strategy, Joe Biden and his team were aiming to please their 
radical, woke, progressive base. And the American people paid the 
price.
  Now the American people deserve accountability for what has happened. 
They deserve accountability for the lives lost. They deserve 
accountability for the civilians killed, accountability for the 
Americans left behind.
  And that is what this body is for. That is this body's 
responsibility. It may be an inconvenience to the Democrat leader; it 
may be an unwanted responsibility for supporters of the President; but 
it is our job nonetheless.
  Americans have died. Americans have been abandoned. The Nation 
deserves an accounting, and it is not too much to ask the Senate to do 
its job. It is not too much to ask the Senate to get the truth, and it 
is not too much to ask the Senate to force accountability for this 
terrible crisis that this President has disgracefully led us into.
  I can say, for my part, I will do everything I can to get that 
accountability, to get that truth, and to give the American people the 
answers that they deserve.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.