Beginning in afghanistan, the general advised President Biden against his disastrous Foreign Policy decision. I now recognize myself for an Opening Statement. On april 14th, 2021, President Biden announced the United States woulderally withdraw its military forces from afghanistan. For months before that announcement, the Intelligence Community and his senior military advisers, including both gentlemen testifying here today issued dire warnings about the withdrawal one, 23 state Department Employees in cable channel, secretary blinken, warning of their grave concerns for afghanistan s stability and for their safety. Yet, nothing was done. Instead, our investigation uncovered the white house refused to listen to warnings about the situation on the ground, and disturbingly, we have uncovered the state Department Leadership prohibite uttering the word neo shorthand for emergency evacuation until as late of august of 2021. Too little, too late. Eventually, this committee learned the state department did not even request an emergency evacuation until after kabul was surrounded by the taliban. As a result, the airport was not secured until au 17th, 2 days after kabul fell. As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. ]a and fail, they did. The next two weeks created International Outrage and humiliation for the United Statesople all over the world watched as babies were flung over barbed wire fences by mothers without help, desperate afghans fell to their deaths from airplanes, and hordes of people surrounded the airport as they tried to flee for their lives. The damage to our reputation and credibility the United States credibility around the world, that damage will last for generations. Our servicmembers were forced to watch as american citizens and afghan hours were beaten and murdered outside the gates of the airport. These brave americans were told to standby as terrorists brutalized innocent civilians. Then, on the morning of reports of a terrorist attack at abby gate flooded the news. 13 u. S. Service members were murdered, with dozens more injured. 170 afghans were killed with countless injured as well. Some of the abby gate goldstar Family Members are here today, and we honor you. We honor your sacrifice. , to t today and the American People, i say, i willrest until i get to the bottom of this tragedy. You deserve answers, the American People deserve answers , and i intend to deliver. With the last u. S. Military plane left, on august 30th, 20,americ citizens remain trapped in afghanistan. As were tens of thousands of afghan allies who risked their lives serving beside our troops and diplomats. Among many if no those allies olympus are still trapped, constantly in fear for their lives. I want to thank both of our witnesses for being he■re today despite current view, the officials actively trying to limit your testimony, you have agreed to appear here voluntarily, and im grateful to you, sirs, for your service to our country and your service to ion. I also want to thank the abbey gate allstar families for joining us here today. While ■cthe president has never publicly stated the names of your children, i will, here, today. Their names are darren hoover, ■ , hunter lopez, dagan page, roberto sanchez, david espinoza, jerrod schmitz, brian mccallum, dylan roland, kareem nakui, maximnovak and ryan dos. Those are the names of the fallen. They will not be forgotten. With that, the chair now recognizes thank you, let me start by thanking former chairman of the chief of staff, general mark a milli and United StatesCentral Command, general f. Mackenzie jr. , for testifying before the committee today and sharing as you did before the hoe keep military and policy insight on the United States withdrawal from■zafghanistan. I also want to thank you both for the years of sacrifice and service to our and recognize the hundreds of thousands of american servicemembers, diplomats, and department professionals that work to support the United States efforts in afghanistan over thcourse our presence in the country. I also want to recognize the 2461 American Military personnel who gave their life in afghanistan for of course, that includes who my heart bleeds for the 13 brave americans who were killed in an isis terrorist attack while facilitating the 124,000 people over the course of 17 days in august of 2021. As i previously said, President Bidens efforts to end the 20 year war in afghanistan have rang out true at home as it was the right ones. While that decision was in our countrys best interest, another number of contributing factors complicated the withdrawal, namely president donnie fleeing afghanistan august 15, 2021, an resulting collapse of the Afghan Government. As we heard in our hearing last month, from former special representative to afghanistan, reconciliation, kilizad, former President Donald Trump, empowered the taliban at the expense of the Afghan Government with the doha deal. The Trump Administrations commitment to facilitating the relief of taliban prisoners in that were in their custody, and initiated significant, unilateral, u. S. Troop drawdown placed the taliban in the strongest positions since the united afghanistan 20 years earlier, continued troopdespite the tali complying with the terms of the doha agreement, undercut the United States leverage with the taliban. During the transition between the trump and Biden Administration, it also became clrat the Trump Administration lacked a comprehensive plan for withdrawing from afghanistan despite the may 1st deadline fast approaching. Upon taking office, President Biden conducted a thorough interagency review ano options, the president could either continue the withdrawal started by his predecessor or break the agreement and return us to an active war with the taliban, a ciificant surge of troops for an undefined time. Taliban made clear that backing out of the doha agreement would result in resumption of hostilities that would place our service numbers, once more, in their crosshairs. Let me be clear. This is not opinion on the timeline. In fact, this is the picture painted by the afghanistan afteraction report, conducted by the state department, which dod has cooperated throughout its own internal reviews of the withdrawal. These are the facts outlined by this committees own investigation, which is been comprised of over well one hundred hours of transcribed testimony, most of the public hearing, and 11,000 cases of documents produced by the same department i also, again, like to reinforce the importance of broadening the scope of afghanistan, proper oversight of afghanistan, which requires an honest look back, not just at a few months, but at the entire 20 years of more over 4 administration generals early and mackenzie, i am looking forward to your continued commitment to truth and transparency today, helping us gain a better understanding so we may learn from our successes and mistakes, and i want to o commend all who contributed to the successful evacuation and airlift of 124,000 people from afghanistan. We understand, over the course of our interviews and investigations, that this was an all hands on deck undertaking, and all i am thankful such an airlift was successful given the dynamics in chaotic situations on the ground, we must also scrutinize the Lessons Learned, including the traffic coming. I look forward to hearing how the defense department, similar to the state, afghanistan, aar, have taken efforts to assess and learn from our withdrawal so that we do not repeat those mistakes in the future. Let me close just by saying, i would like more so to make special mention of our previously bipartisan commitment to ensuring specialsas for the work with u. S. Service members and formats throughout our ican in the house is using to release the srts to the administrations requested right now i know mcconnell and the majority number is on this committee agree that Congress Must act on filling our promises to them, and i hope to have your support in working with democrats on getting that done. With that, i yield. The member yields. Only add to that comment, we are working very bipartisan manner to increase the number of sivs. I think it is vitally portant, partners left behind, to provide the visas necessary for them to get out of there, and im pleased to announce i dont want to announce the number yet, but we will negotiated and have an agreement. So, with that, i am pleased to have with us here, today, the rmer chrman of the joint chiefs of staff, general mark milley and former commander of u. S. Central command, general Kenneth F Mackenzie jr. Both generals played a pivotal role withdrawal, but also a pivotal role throughout our nations history in many conflicts. I commend you for your service toour nation. Your full statements will be made a part of the record. I will ask each of you, keep your remarks to five minutes. Finally, as a reminder, todays hearing is subject to the veracity protections of section 1001 the United States code that makes it a crime to knowingly make any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to the committee in investigation. With that, i now recognize general mark milley for his Opening Statement. Thank you, chairman Ranking Member meeks, members of the committee, thank you for what youre doing. Im grateful for the opportunity to be here with general mackenzie. My purpose here today is help you form a holistic assessment most important, i am personally here today, voluntarily, to help the families of the fallen, 13 fallen at abbey gate, and the thousands fallen tens of thousands fallen and countless other members that suffered the invisible woman to florida. Help them get answers. Im humbled to be here today with three goldstar families fromher families couldnt make it, but i intend to contact them in the coming weeks. They know my family is for them they know that there w any public petition or anyone i can ever bring back there faall of us can, and all of us must honor their sacrifice to protect our country to be forever grateful answered the call for the colors. Each of them paid the ultimate sacrifice, freedom likes on before them in order to keep our nation safe, and we owe them answers, and im committed to assist in the effort to get them answers, but we should also not be under any illusion. Were not going to get all the answers here today. The process will take a considerable length of time. We must that much of the record, in fact, is clsified and beyo so, for over two decades, between 2001 and 2021, about 800,000 of us the ■umUnited States military served in afghanistan, and thousands of others from many agencies. Of those, 2460, shoulders, sailors, airmen and marines, gave. Almost 30,000 more were wounded in action, and countless others suffered those invisible wounds. That includes the 13 from navigate. We must always honor all of their sacrifice, each of them, over two decades of fighting the taliban, bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice and ultimately protecting america. We lost overn mj 200 u. S. International troops and many more wounded in action. Units that were under my direct command, shoveled for multipand afghanistan. Every commander who has ever served in combat knows that we personally issued the orders that gave the task, rp place, the time, the soldiers deaths or wounds, and we also know it was th killed or wounded them. Combats an unforgiving environment and those of us who served in the fidelity of Ground Combat lived with the every night. Well live with that for the rest of the days of our lives. Theres no military leader, lost troops in combat who doesnt know that feeling. This is personal to me. I will do everything in my power to ensure that these families and all of our veterans and family know the truth and have the answers. At the peak of her military states had just over or just under a lip is more hundred thousand troops and about 20,000 unique contractors. The senior, the United States instantly brought out troops, close spaces and retrograde agreement. Nothing we discussed today happened overnight. It was a process overall that spanned decades. The outcome in afghanistan was a competitive effect of many decisions over many years of war, and like any complex phenomenon, there is no single back to determine the outcome, but multiple factors in domination. The fall of 2020, as i previously my analysis, my personal analysis, was that an accelerated withdrawal would likely lead to the collapse of the Afghan Security forces and government. Resulting in a largescale civil war reminiscent of the 1990s takeover. November 2020, dod received orders from the white house to reduce troop levels, 2500, january 15th, 21. When the Current Administration took office, january 21, roughly 2500 u. S. Troops on the ground with 22,000 nato troops and contractors. Beginning in february of 21, the National Security council conducted a 10week interagency review of the doha agreement with various options presented and debated. Previous public testimony, i noted, at that time, my analysis, based on my assessment and the recommendations of the commanders to include general mackenzie, the consensus of the joint chiefs of staff, was that we needed to maintain a minimum force of 2500 troops on the ground, mostly special forces, with allied troops and contractors in order to sustain the Afghan NationalSecurity Forces and its government until the Department Divisions of the doha agreement were met. For the support■tmy view at the time, it was only a matter of when, not if, the Afghan Government would collapse and the taliban would take control. Again, i previously publicly testified, and i consistently supported and negotiated an end to the war, but only if there was a reduction and permanent ceasefire with afghanto afghan negotiations leading to an agreement between the Afghan Government and the taliban, and it was my , absent those conditions, i was not in favor of unilateral withdrawal for the u. S. Forces because of my assessment and the associated costs and risks. A president in fact, two president s when no one could satisfactorily explain when or even if those conditions would ever be met, and if we stayed indefinitely and an open war would likely begin withincrease risk of additional catastrophes. 14 a, 21, President Biden made the formal announcement of his decision to honor the doha agreement with a military ■r withdrawal while maintaining the continued diplomatic presence. The department of defense understood that our mission was to conduct a retrograde and remaining u. S. Military forces and equipment, while leaving a small contingent to defend the American Embassy all diplomatic outcomes were negotiated. On 14 august, the noncombatant evacuation operation decision was made by the department of state in the u. S. Military alerted muscles, mobilize and rapidly deployed faster than any military in the world could ever do. It is my assessment that that decision came too late. The deploying forces ickly took operational control of the airports with a significant element, the 82nd Airborne Division marine, national guard, special forces, along with our cia partners, lected nato forces. Additionally, we set up multiple bases in the process of evacuation of the countries throughout the middle east. In short, the United States military performed one of the most incredible evacuations under pressure in recorded history and an equally difficult dynamic and dangerous environment. That performance is due to the individual bravery, competence, compassion, of every private and general role in this deal. At the end of 20 years, we, the military, helped build an army, state, and we cannot for donation. Enemyoccupied kabul, overthrow the government occurred, and the military supported for two decades faded away. That is a strategic failure. But the military also provided help, for 20 years, that the Afghan People we provided oppo millions, and in the final days, we gave 130,000 people their lives and freedom■1 at ve high cost. Most important, we protected the United States from terrorist attacks from afghanistan, which was our original mission, and e Mission Remains today. Many lessons are to be learned from many years of war, 20, and the 10 years brought on from forces and the lengthy evacuation. Mr. President , i would like to submit this record. An objectione mecca people, think the most important lesson to learn is that your troops the United States military the private and general, did all that bravery and duty could ever do. Your military defended you successfully for 20 years, and contues to do that, and for that, every american should be eternally grateful. All the veterans of afghanistan, hold your head high. I know there