it s disheartening that they declined to testify. the debacle in afghanistan is an interagency failure and the fact that you re the only one stepping up is disheartening. i agree with the chairman that this was a the withdrawal was a dismal failure. one of the things we need to get to the bottom of who is responsible for this and who made the decisions. there is real questions right now as to who is making the decisions. we know for a fact that the president of the united states is somewhat disadvantaged here in that someone is calling shots. he can t even speak without someone in the white house censoring it or signing off on it, is recently as yesterday in mid sentence he was cut off by someone in the white house who makes the decision to the president of the united states is not speaking correctly.
preserved american credibility. i feel this administration is trying to blame the prior prior administration and contrary to some that have said that the prior administration started this is responsibility, that is simply not true. the prior administration, when they took steps towards withdrawing from afghanistan, entered into an agreement that had very, very specific conditions. i was privy to those so i have personal knowledge of this. in february of 2020 agreement was contingent, contingent upon the taliban reducing violence, and meeting counter-terrorism commitment and engaging in subsequent talks with the afghan government. and most importantly, most importantly, it was telegraphed to the taliban that failure to meet their commitments would be met with grave, grave circumstances for them. the taliban failed to meet any of these commitments and yet,
compel him and others over the course of the last 20 years to testify. third i implore the administration so remain focused on afghanistan. it is critically important that the world bear witness and take action when possible in response to taliban abuses. your visit, mr. secretary, to qatar and germany sent the right message and i urge sustained attention to afghanistan in the months and years to come. i also urge the administration to strengthen its resolve and efforts to secure the relocation of our civil society partners at grave risk left behind in afghanistan. they include heroic individuals working for organizations on the the front lines of u.s. efforts to strengthen democracy and human rights including the rights of afghan women and girls. finally, i know that senator young is not with us today. he is home in indiana attending the funeral of marine corporal humerto sanchez. he was among those killed in the
for 20 years, congress has conducted over sight and provided funding for the mission in afghanistan. and i know from my own time as a staff member here in this room for then senator biden just how invaluable a partner of congress is. as i said when i was nominated, i believe strongly in congress s role as a partner in foreign policy making, i m committed to working with you on the path forward in afghanistan and to advance the interests of the american people. on this 20th anniversary of 9/11, as we honor nearly 3,000 men, women and children who lost their lives, we are reminded of why we went to afghanistan in the first place. to bring justice to those who attacked us, and to ensure it would never happen again. we achieved those objectives a long time ago. osama bin laden was killed in 2011. al qaeda s capabilities were
americans and afghans to whom we have a special commitment depart afghanistan if they choose. just as we ve done in other countries where we have evacuated our embassy and hundreds or even thousands of americans remain behind. for example, in libya, syria, venezuela, yemen, somalia, there is no deadline to this effort. third, we re focussed on counter-terrorism. taliban s committed to prevent terrorist groups from using afghanistan as a base for external operations that could threaten the united states or our allies including al qaeda and isis-k. we ll hold them accountable for that. that does not mean that we will rely on them. we ll maintain a vigilant effort to monitor threats, robust counter-terrorism capabilities in the rpg to neutralize if necessary. and around the world where we do