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AFGHANISTAN CHAOTIC WITHDRAWAL ... SOME KEY FACTS TYT Investigates: WATCH: MAGA Rep. Cuts Off Debate...Dem Responds With EPIC Fact-Check PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQzYAYhIkB4 Peter Burgess COMMENTARY This video makes my blood boil! Trump and the GOP in Congress have done a huge amount of damage to the USA both in terms of general international reputation and specific issues related to Afghanistan. I spent of lot of time during my working career working in difficult parts of the world. This included Afthanistan. I was part of a UN team headed by ???????? that was charged with 'planning' a sustainable independent Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal. Not long after our initial deployment, the team was disbanded. My understanding was that President Bush (senior) had pulled US support for our mission. I did not see reliable confirmation of this and the reason for this has never been clear, though it was reported at the time that the President did not want the US to become involved in an expensive foreigh intervention! While I did not get to participate in the official planning and oversight of the US involvement in Afghanistan during the 20+ years since then, I stayed interested in the theatre. It has bothered me for a long time that the media reports had a big focus on what the US and allied military forces were doing and not so much on any of the activities that were going on in the civilian sector ... with or without international assistance. The impression I got for most of this period was that the funding of civilian development assistance activities was tiny by comparioson with the available military funding. From my viewpoint, one of the main reasons why global socio-enviro-economic performance has been so weak for so long is that most of the money funding has been allocated to seriously wrong priorities. The rather poor results should have been anticipated and something done a long time ago to change the priorities! Sadly this never happened ... and worse, the problem persists with no sign that any change in this direction is going to happen! Peter Burgess
WATCH: MAGA Rep. Cuts Off Debate...Dem Responds With EPIC Fact-Check TYT Investigates 528K subscribers ... 472,332 views ... 8.7K likes Oct 14, 2024 #BreakingNews #Politics #News Ralph Norman and Jason Crow have a heated exchange on Joe Biden's Afghanistan withdrawl. For more from TYT Investigates, SUBSCRIBE at: / tytinvestigatesreports You can read our stories at https://www.TYT.com/investigates LIKE and FOLLOW us at / tytinvestigates . And connect with us on Twitter @TYTInvestigates #News #Politics #BreakingNews 241010__IV01_CROWNORMANGOPRULESAFGHANISTANWITHDRAWAL Transcript 0:00 do you know Congressman Cory Mills I do know Mr Mills would you like me to answer some of the questions let me just ask you uh you know in fact in fact I served with Mr Mills in Iraq do you realize who was who did he tell a number of people when he rescued the stranded Afghanistan's as best he could and then other countries who did he say was his biggest threat from this Administration when he was flying over there well I'm going to take this as a rhetorical question so if you want to tell me that's fine you can tell me what's your opinion actually let allow me to answer the numerous misrepresentations I'd be happy to do I'm not look I'm not going to let you filibuster here because we've got other I'm not trying to all I'm saying is cor ask him Cory Mills who went on the missions himself the biggest threat one of the biggest threats he faced was from this B Administration shooting his plane down he will tell you that today and that is that that is unbelievable coming from a patriot like like Corey Mills is Con mcro you can you 1:00 could put in the you can I would like for you to give me the date and time that Donald Trump agreed to uh the withdrawal as Biden directed because I don't think it's there uh very Qui very quickly I'm not going not going filibuster you you can I'm not looking at filibuster there just my name has been invoked several times and I feel compelled in fact I I think this this committee has an obligation to allow me to respond to the things that up to a point up to a point mhm just I have some time to respond uh no I'm not going to okay can I can I you they say this was a success really yeah really Mr C we heard several statements that didn't seem to comport with what you know happened on the ground uh it seems to me like Trump negotiated a pretty bad agreement uh and then they want to forget about that uh and uh the idea that Trump left it all stable uh why don't you respond to some of the issues that you just heard well 2:03 uh thank you Miss ledra Fernandez um first first of all I mean this proceeding uh is another example they they they literally don't want to talk about the issue and they don't want to hear from people who have facts that would run contrary right they Cherry Picked facts from their purported investigation they they make claims in this hearing and then don't allow me to respond to them they um are doing it through the rule committee instead of having a hearing that we could hold tomorrow because we actually have a scheduled hearing tomorrow and we could have this debate so they just don't want the truth and that's that's pretty clear Congress Congressman Crow thank you for your service um this war in Afghanistan began in I think August of 2001 the October October of 2001 it ended with withdrawal of August of 20 um 21 21 who ordered the 3:02 evacuation are you talking about the the go to zero order are you talking about the Doha agreement or you talking about talk about the the withdrawal of the troops the closing of the basis what administration ordered that was it Donald Trumps or was it Joe Biden Donald Trump is the president who entered into the Doha agreement in February of 2020 that agreement bound the United States to the Taliban to go to zero so no US service members no contractors all us Personnel out of the country within 14 months of the signing of that agreement agreements can be agreements can be modified by the current Administration Donald Trump had I mean tell me what date uh that he said he would follow the same I guess evacuation procedures that Biden did so he said he wouldn't have he would never have done it like this he would have gotten the Americans out in fact indeed um in January of 2021 and President Biden came into 4:01 office during the transition the administration the Biden Administration received zero information from the Trump Administration on compliance with the agreement by the Taliban uh where the inter agency was on the the review of the impact of a potential withdrawal so all of that had to be reviewed so the president ordered an inter agency review starting in January in 20221 at the culmination of that inter agency review in April of 2021 uh President Biden decided to continue the withdrawal that was started by Donald Trump and and substantially accomplished by Donald Trump so when he came into office it was the lowest number of troops since 2001 in Afghanistan because Donald Trump had started that withdrawal already but Donald Trump never made the statement he would do the withdrawal like Joe Biden did that has said that yeah that that is 5:01 true because Donald Trump actually said he would do it faster uh and would have accomplished it in 2020 in fact in 2020 fall of 20120 he would have done it he hold on Congressman he would have done it he would withdrawn every American there the troops would be the last one defending it and it's it's really not I mean you bring him into this uh it has it makes no difference the 20-some years that we've been in this war there was one evacuation Americans died they were left there uh who made the call to leave $7 billion worth of uh that that's false actually that number and I will get to that okay I'll I'll explain why that's false first of all was there let me ask you this was there any um was there any supplies left you can dispute the number but was there any supplies left and was 54 million in currency left I I would be happy to address that but I want to First address your question about the withdrawal in fact it was Donald Trump who said unequivocally that he wanted to 6:01 bring all the troops home by Christmas 2020 he did not say and then and then his command let me finish sir and then his Commander said no that's not going to work that would be a disaster right so then they extended it and and then then the Biden Administration came in and Joe Biden extended it even further because under the Doha agreement under the agreement that Donald Trump negotiated all troops were going to have to be out by Spring of 2020 but the military commander said that was not plausible and not good to do because we all know that in military terms retrograde operations that's the military term for withdrawal are the riskiest most complicated and difficult things to do so he listened to his commanders they renegotiated with the Taliban to withdraw by August 2021 which is what they did Telegraph what he was going to do and he left American troops who died that's the bottom line that is not true and he left you can okay well then I guess the resolution that 7:00 chairman McCall's doing is for people who lived I mean for you to make that kind of statements really is amazing I'm claiming my time I'm reclaiming my time this Administration was was the was the administration that made that made the call to leave Americans there this Administration was the one that made the call to leave whatever amount of whatever amount of uh artillery guns SUVs in in Afghanistan sir do you know where 7 billion number comes from okay I'm going to finish my I'm not going to tie this committee up uh you can debate uh it's been reported I mean you can have a different opinion you can't have different facts I can tell you that number and so the fact is from South Carolina controls of time the fact is that uh this Administration Bears responsibility for the deaths just like it's interesting you said the Taliban you made some comment about them being at war with America uh they would have gone to more war with with America where 8:02 the 15 million that are coming across illegally are they vetted to make sure there's no tobine or terrorist no so this Administration has blood on its hands and this Administration with with his policies uh Bears responsibility and this resolution uh is the least we can do now you can try to go back through the years where Rights and Wrongs were done but there was one beginning and one withdrawal and it does a disservice to these dead Americans This Administration has been a boondoggle not just in this American lives are are danger just like The Invasion at the border that all kind of reric is trying to to say that Trump calls that he did not it's just not true Donald Trump is not true that he said he would do the exact evacuation that Joe Biden did he said he'd get the Americans out first and they would be protected so um it's amazing we're having to even debate this resolution would you like me to address any of the questions or any 9:00 of the issues you raised you know it's just roric not really because okay well I'd be happy to correct the record and explain to you uh the the misrepresentations in this that you're going to vote for I'm not it's it's no consequence a couple of things that I think are really important and there's a lot there's more than we have time to to um dispel uh but a couple of things I did not co-chair the investigation uh I was the ranking member of the oversight and accountability subcommittee on the Foreign Affairs committee this is a subcommittee that the majority established to conduct the bulk of the investigation or their purported investigation into Afghanistan and as the ranking member of that subcommittee I never saw a draft report in fact I didn't see the report until it was publicly released I had no say in their report nor did they ever at any time engage with any of the minority 10:00 staff or members in putting the report together so that's just one illustration of many is to how this is a partisan hit job and not an effort to try to get to the truth and that's the fact and no Afghanistan was not stable in January in 2021 not only were there the lowest number of US troops since 2001 but the Taliban has had been advancing and taking territory since 2013 in fact the US military commander General Scott Miller in charge of all US troops for the years leading up to 21 enduring testified that it was quote a slow bleed end quote we were losing and Joe Biden had only two options left Donald Trump gave him only two options because he didn't have enough troops on the ground and all the military commander said very clearly 11:02 that if he had broken the Trump agreement with the Taliban an agreement by the way that Donald Trump negotiated without the Afghan government they gave no no talk or no um allocation for human rights or the white rights of women doesn't speak about that at all in the agreement and actually says that the Afghan government had to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners that's what Trump agreed to that further destabilized the situation on the ground that's what Joe Biden was facing either go back to war with the Taliban and surge troops in however many 10,000 15,000 20,000 let me just ask a question so Trump negotiated agreement that called for the release of the Taliban prisoners and when were they released they were released they started to be released uh in 2020 right so they they were released under Trump correct so Trump negotiated 12:02 an agreement that releases all of these Taliban prisoners into society Trump negotiate from what you're telling me Trump negotiates an agreement that brings down the troops to very a slow bleed to very dangerous levels for the rest of the American troops is that what what I'm understanding that's right okay so those are the facts of what was happening during trump it was not stable is what you've now described Donald Trump's agreement agreed to the closure of bases the reduction of troops and contractors the release of Taliban prisoners gave no accommodation whatsoever or requirement for human rights or the protection of women and girls and completely excluded the Afghan government from those negotiations and does this resolution make reference to any of Trump's excellent negotiating uh uh skills in terms of that sounds like a pretty lousy negotiating uh deal for America it it simply 13:01 references the agreement but it talks about none of the components we just talked about so and are there any other elements that you want to correct with regards to uh The Exchange that has taken place yeah one other thing uh you know one of your colleagues mentioned something about7 billion dollar of of weapons and equipment that were left behind that number actually is the entirety of US military weapons and equipment given to the Afghan National Security and Defense Forces over the entire 20 years of the war right much of it destroyed in combat much of it Beyond us useful life much of it um left unserviceable after contractors and servicing and maintenance were not provided for that is the entirety so to take that number and to say that what was left in the hands of the Taliban is just completely misleading so the statement about the 7 billion that was given to the afghanis so it was no longer our equipment is that that's right in fact General Millie and 14:01 general Miller testified very clearly uh during the the uh transcribed interviews that the United States military took all of its equipment with them is there anything else that you want to correct in the the record well there's more than I think we have time for this evening but um certainly that's a good start there there's no clock in the rules committee uh uh you're sure this is it this is the last Democrat that gets to ask questions you know just this notion this notion that the withdrawal by the way the the the a lot of the the challenges of the of the withdrawal many of them uh occurred because president ghani fled the country after president ghani fled the country with no which nobody anticipated by the way nobody thought that was going to happen I spent I've spent much of my 15:00 adult life either serving in Afghanistan focusing on Afghanistan issues nobody saw that coming and then that led to the precipitous collapse of the Afghan military and the police forces which then led to a very challenging withdrawal environment in in that month but there's no evidence that shows the situation on the ground and the the challenges at the airport in August of 2021 were avoidable uh and that the the or let me be clear that the attack on on abig gate and the death of those 13 members was avoidable in fact the department of defense's own investigation showed very clearly that there was never a positive Ida of the bomber and and nobody knew who that person 16:00 was and the majority's assertion that Reliance on the Taliban to run checkpoints is somehow related to that ignores the reality that the Taliban and the Isis are actually sworn mortal enemies and continueed to try to kill each other to this day and in fact the Reliance on Taliban checkpoints made our troops safer because instead of having to guard the Outer Perimeter and maintain those checkpoints we were able to be in an inner perimeter so these are many many things that are false or misleading uh in this resolution and I would urge my colleagues to um not support it thank you uh I think that anytime we have the loss of life and especially in it's and it's like that it's very sad and and and it and it's hard for the country it is unfortunate when it gets used uh in such a partisan and politicized manner like this uh and uh with that um Mr chair I will yield back

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