A year after the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Army National Guard colonel and congressman Mike Waltz (R., Fla.) called it a "disgrace to our country" that no officials in the military or Biden administration have lost their jobs over the debacle.
"Not one senior Biden Administration official nor military officer has resigned or been fired as a result of the withdrawal. That is a disgrace to our country," Waltz said in a statement Tuesday. "Because of their actions, or lack thereof, the fallout of this debacle has irreparably harmed both our national security and global image."
Waltz's comments came just over a year after the Afghan military shattered in the face of Taliban offensives as U.S. troops withdrew from the country. The botched withdrawal saw Kabul fall into chaos; Taliban fighters seized the city with no opposition, 13 U.S. service members were killed in an ISIS suicide bombing, Afghan civilians died falling from U.S. planes evacuating the country, and the United States mistakenly killed 10 civilians in a drone strike that was intended to target ISIS terrorists.
Waltz described how the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated in the year since the Taliban took control of the country. "The Taliban have rearmed themselves with billions of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment, Al Qaeda & ISIS have reconstituted their ranks as foreign fighters flow into the country, Afghan women and girls have seen their rights stripped away, and famine has inflicted the country," Waltz said.
The congressman called for Republicans to carry out public hearings and investigations into the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan should the party retake the House in November.
"A GOP majority must carry out public investigations in a manner that has broad jurisdictional oversight and subpoena power over the Department of State, Department of Defense, and Intelligence Community," Waltz said. "We owe it to the thirteen Gold Star families who lost their loved ones to an avoidable terrorist attack, to the veterans who served in Afghanistan, and to the thousands of allies we abandoned and made unkept promises of security for their safety to get the accountability they deserve."