Tyler Vargas-Andrews: “There was an inexcusable lack of accountability”
A former US Marine badly injured in Afghanistan has described the withdrawal in 2021 as a “disaster” in testimony earlier than Congress.
Tyler Vargas-Andrews spoke within the first of a sequence of Republican-led hearings inspecting the Biden administration’s dealing with of the pull-out.
He detailed a interval of chaos and unpreparedness within the days after the Taliban captured Kabul.
Others spoke of tolerating trauma and the ethical harm of abandoning allies.
Sgt Vargas-Andrews, 25, was one in every of a number of US navy personnel tasked with defending Kabul’s airport on 26 August 2021, when two suicide bombers attacked crowds of Afghans making an attempt to flee the Taliban throughout the US evacuation.
13 US troopers died within the bombing, together with 170 Afghan civilians.
Sgt Vargas-Andrews testified that he and one other US Marine had acquired intelligence concerning the bombing earlier than it occurred, and that he had noticed the suspect within the crowd.
He mentioned he had alerted his supervisors and requested permission to behave however had by no means acquired it.
“Plain and easy, we had been ignored,” Sgt Vargas-Andrews mentioned.
In emotional testimony, he described being thrown within the air throughout the bombing and opening his eyes to see his comrades useless or mendacity unconscious round him.
“My physique was overwhelmed from the trauma of the blast. My stomach had been ripped open. Each inch of my uncovered physique took ball bearings and shrapnel,” he mentioned.
Sgt Vargas-Andrews referred to as the withdrawal a “disaster”, including: “There was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence.”
“I see the faces of all of these we couldn’t save, these we left behind,” he mentioned.
The Home Overseas Affairs Committee inquiry into the evacuation from Afghanistan additionally heard from different US troopers and veterans who spoke of the psychological well being toll that the withdrawal has had on them.
Retired Lt Col David Scott Mann, who labored to evacuate Afghans on the time, testified that the expertise making an attempt to get allies out had been “gutting”.
He added that calls to the Veteran Affairs hotline spiked 81% after the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and he warned that the US was on the “entrance finish of a psychological well being tsunami”.
He mentioned a pal he had served with had died by suicide within the aftermath.
“He simply could not discover his means out of the darkness of that ethical harm,” Lt Col Mann mentioned.
Testimony from nearly all of witnesses positioned the blame on each presidential administration since US troops had been first deployed to Afghanistan, from George W Bush to Joe Biden.
Witnesses additionally urged speedy motion to assist Afghan allies who at the moment are in limbo each in Afghanistan and within the US.
“America is constructing a nasty repute for multi-generational systemic abandonment of our allies the place we go away a smouldering human refuse, from the Montagnards of Vietnam to the Kurds in Syria,” Lt Col Mann mentioned.
Republicans who had lengthy pushed for an investigation positioned the blame on the Biden administration.
Panel chairman Mike McCaul, a Home Republican from Texas, mentioned the withdrawal had been a “systemic breakdown of the federal authorities at each degree, and a surprising failure of management by the Biden administration”.
In response, Democrats spoke out in defence of President Biden.
Congressman Gregory Meeks from New York mentioned that Mr Biden had “made the best determination to convey all our troops residence”.
“I am unable to in good conscience think about sending extra American women and men to combat in Afghanistan.”
Mr Biden had beforehand mentioned that he bore “duty for essentially all that has occurred”, however he additionally blamed former President Donald Trump for overseeing the withdrawal take care of the Taliban.
2021: Chaotic scenes at Kabul airport