[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 170 (Wednesday, September 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6754-S6755]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Afghanistan

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, yesterday's Senate Armed Services Committee 
hearing gave us disturbing new information on the President's 
Afghanistan debacle. Thanks to yesterday's

[[Page S6755]]

hearing, we now know that President Biden pulled troops from 
Afghanistan against the advice of his military commanders and was less 
than truthful after the fact when asked about their recommendations.
  General Milley and General McKenzie's testimony made clear that they 
had both recommended that the United States leave a small contingent of 
U.S. troops in the country--advice that the President ignored.
  Thanks to President Biden's ill-considered withdrawal from 
Afghanistan, here is the situation we now find ourselves in. The 
Taliban is once again in control of Afghanistan, and just in case 
anyone thinks this is a kinder and gentler Taliban, let's look at the 
facts.
  The Taliban has stocked its government with terrorists, including 
former inmates of Guantanamo Bay and members of the Haqqani Network, a 
U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization with a number of members 
on the U.N. Security Council's sanctions list. Many of the members of 
the new Taliban Cabinet are on the U.N. Security Council's sanctions 
list, and the government is well stocked with pre-9/11 Taliban leaders, 
the same leaders who allowed Afghanistan to serve as a refuge for al-
Qaida.
  So that is the new Taliban government. What is it doing? Well, in 
mid-September the Taliban announced that secondary schools would reopen 
for boys. There was no mention of girls. The Taliban official announced 
that women would not be allowed to play any sport that might show their 
bodies. Women are being excluded from the workplace.
  In Helmand province, barbers have been barred from shaving or 
trimming beards.
  In one city, the body of an alleged criminal was hung from a crane in 
the city square, while in Kabul, Taliban members brutally flogged a man 
accused of stealing a phone. And a senior Taliban leader announced the 
return of executions and the cutting off of hands as punishment.
  A kindler, gentler Taliban this is not.
  And this formerly somewhat ragtag group is now the possessor of a 
significant amount of U.S. military equipment, including weapons, 
combat vehicles, aircraft, and surveillance equipment, much of it 
acquired from the Afghan National Security Forces.
  And while the President might like to blame the Afghan forces for 
disbanding, the truth is he bears part of the responsibility for their 
collapse. For years, the United States trained and equipped Afghan 
troops to fight the way that we do, including a reliance on close air 
support and a sophisticated intelligence-gathering operation. And the 
limited number of U.S. troops still in the country were playing an 
essential role--providing intelligence, logistics, and air support the 
Afghan military needed.
  Then the President pulled all remaining U.S. support almost 
overnight. It is no surprise that in the wake of that, the Afghan 
military quickly collapsed. There is no question that there were 
preexisting problems in the Afghan forces, including fraud and 
corruption. But the Afghan military was playing a key role in combating 
the Taliban and terrorist activity in Afghanistan, and it was the 
abrupt withdrawal of U.S. support that precipitated its collapse.
  Thanks to the President's withdrawal, our ability to combat terrorist 
activity in Afghanistan and the region has been significantly degraded, 
as General Milley's testimony yesterday made clear. As the Washington 
Post reported:

       Al-Qaeda remnants are in Afghanistan and interested in 
     growing, Milley said, but the United States no longer has 
     military or intelligence assets on the ground to keep tabs on 
     the militants.
       The withdrawal makes it ``much more difficult for us to 
     conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,'' Milley 
     said, including missions to locate militants.

  That, again, is from the Washington Post.
  In short, there is every reason to expect that Afghanistan will once 
again become a haven for terrorists. In fact, because of the huge 
number of weapons and equipment we left behind, it is probably more 
accurate to say that Afghanistan will likely become a terrorist 
superstate. Meanwhile, as I said, our ability to effectively detect and 
defend against emerging threats in Afghanistan has been significantly 
diminished. There is no intelligence or counterterrorism strategy that 
will fully offset the loss of American boots on the ground.
  U.S. military and intelligence personnel still in the country, in 
coordination with our local partners, were playing a critical role in 
providing intelligence on evolving terrorist threats in Afghanistan and 
throughout the region. That intelligence network is now gone. We no 
longer have human intelligence on the scene.
  We no longer have any bases in-country from which to conduct 
operations. Future missions will have to be staged from distant bases 
or seaborne assets, complicating the mission and significantly 
increasing our response time.
  That is not just an inconvenience. By compromising our ability to 
respond to terrorist activity, this withdrawal is endangering our 
country. For 20 years, we have managed to prevent another major 
terrorist attack on U.S. soil. How long is that going to last when 
Afghanistan is once again a haven for terrorists and our intelligence 
and response capabilities have been permanently weakened?
  I haven't even mentioned the damage that the President's bungled 
withdrawal has done to our relationships with our allies. The 
President, who, supposedly, was set to restore America's standing in 
the world, is instead presiding over a national embarrassment that has 
left our allies wondering whether or not we will keep our commitments. 
We have damaged our credibility with our allies. It is clear that 
Russia and China are enjoying our humiliation on the world stage, not 
to mention the way that our withdrawal has empowered our terrorist 
enemies.
  Ceding Afghanistan to the Taliban and its terrorist allies has not 
exactly made us look like an intimidating foe. It wouldn't be 
surprising if terrorists are thinking that all they have to do in 
future battles is wait us out until we give up and withdraw.
  I am sure the President would like to put his chaotic Afghanistan 
withdrawal behind him, but there is a big problem with that--namely, 
the fact that his administration still has U.S. citizens left behind in 
Afghanistan. The administration has been hazy on the details, either 
because it is not sure how many American citizens are left or because 
administration officials don't want to give a number. But it is clear 
that there are still a number of Americans stuck in Afghanistan.
  And then there are the tens of thousands of Afghans we abandoned--
Afghans who were affiliated with the U.S. Government or worked with the 
U.S. military and whom we promised to protect. These individuals and 
their families are currently in grave danger.
  My office continues working to evacuate a number of green card 
holders and at-risk Afghans to safe countries in the region, and 
several of the individuals we are working with have received death 
threats from the Taliban.
  And while there are dedicated State Department and Defense Department 
personnel coordinating with veteran-led groups to evacuate Afghan 
citizens, the administration is still--still--struggling to develop a 
clear path for getting them out of the country.
  We still need to learn more about the chaotic U.S. evacuation, which 
resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers and scores of Afghan 
civilians. But one thing is very clear: President Biden made an ill-
considered and disastrous decision when he chose to withdraw our troops 
on an arbitrary timetable, and the Afghan people are currently 
suffering the consequences.
  And should Afghanistan once again become a terrorist haven, as seems 
likely, our country could also pay a deadly price. We have to make sure 
it doesn't come to that.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.