In July 2021, Joe Biden abandoned Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield in the middle of the night after nearly 20 years of US occupation. The Biden regime shut off the electricity and slipped away in the night without notifying the base’s Afghan commander, who discovered the Americans’ secret departure more than two hours after they left. Later, it was reported that the ISIS suicide bomber, Abdul Rehman, who murdered 13 U.S. servicemembers and 170 Afghan civilians had been incarcerated at the Bagram Air Base for four years, but was set free by the Taliban in July, shortly before the suicide attack.
Gateway Pundit (h/t Nita) The Taliban quickly took control of Bagram Air Base, which is only 30 miles north of Kabul on August 15th and released thousands of terrorists held at its prison. The Biden Regime, General Mark Milley and the Afghans left the Taliban military equipment, uniforms, rations and even sports drinks for the Taliban terrorists.
Stars&Stripes A Marine gravely injured in a suicide attack during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 choked up as he told House lawmakers on Wednesday that he had spotted the suspected bomber hours before the blast.
The ensuing explosion at the airport’s Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. troops and about 170 civilians and wounded 45 service members. Vargas-Andrews lost an arm, leg and kidney as a result of the attack and has since undergone 44 surgeries.
Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, 25, said his unit had warned commanders that they saw two suspects in the chaotic crowd outside Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, that fit a description flagged by U.S. intelligence, but the Marines were denied permission to shoot. “Plain and simple, we were ignored,” Vargas-Andrews said.
His emotional testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday was part of a revived effort by Republicans since taking control of the House in January to examine the tumultuous end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
“What happened in Afghanistan was a systemic breakdown of the federal government at every level and a stunning failure of leadership by the Biden administration,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the committee chairman. “I will not rest and this committee will not rest until we determine how this happened and hold those responsible for it accountable.”
McCaul said “our game plan” was to ultimately bring Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to Capitol Hill for further scrutiny.
Vargas-Andrews cried several times as he recounted the days and hours before the deadly suicide attack. He described the desperate attempts of exhausted and dehydrated Afghans to reach evacuation planes as the Taliban killed and brutalized them in full view of U.S. service members. Troops were not allowed to engage, he said.
“We were just helpless,” Vargas-Andrews said. “We passed over intel, let people know what was going on but [we were] unable to do anything.” Vargas-Andrews, a gunman and radio operator, belonged to a scout sniper team and was tasked with scanning and controlling the crowd and helping the State Department process evacuees.
He said an intelligence bulletin went out at 2 a.m. on the day of the suicide attack describing a potential bomber and his male companion. Vargas-Andrews said he and others saw the individuals, “nervously looking up at our position,” between noon and 1 p.m. When Marines relayed their findings to a commander and asked for permission to shoot, the commander said he did not have the authority to approve such an action, he said.
“We asked who did and [the commander] said he didn’t know and would find out,” Vargas-Andrews said. “In that time, the two individuals disappeared into the crowd.”
Vargas-Andrews said the Taliban routinely executed civilians in view of U.S. service members and that he and others “communicated the atrocities to our chain of command” but that “nothing came of it.”
The Marine and veterans who testified Wednesday expressed frustration with a lack of accountability for the haphazard withdrawal and said no one from the military or any other government agency had interviewed him about his experiences at the Kabul airport. He said he feels his service “is not valued to this country by the government.”
Aidan Gunderson, a former Army specialist with the 82nd Airborne Division, described the withdrawal as an “organizational failure at multiple levels.” He said the two weeks that he spent on the ground in Kabul after the city fell to the Taliban were harrowing. Scenes of mothers carrying dead babies and the smell of feces and urine in the airport’s corridors continue to stay with him, he said.
And he remains plagued by the faces of all the people the U.S. military could not save.
Pray Hard says
“This is not the story of a Biden failure …”? I wonder how much he got paid to say that?
BareNakedIslam says
Who – the Marine?
Pray Hard says
Let’s save tens of thousands of Afghans, but fuck our own military personnel. Sound about right?
BareNakedIslam says
Yep.
Pray Hard says
MObama’s rules of engagement. Let them kill you first before you shoot back.
Mike real name Smith says
I think this post is spot on relevant.
Roughly 40 years ago I was hitchhiking at night on an on-ramp to the 401 hwy in Ontario Canada. An 18 wheeler truck stopped just past the on-ramp and I assumed the driver stopped for me. He hadn’t, but when I approached his rig he told me to get in and he’d
me a lift as far as it fell along his route.
Along the ride he told me that he was on front gate guard duty in Lebanon in 1982? Beruit when 241? US Marines were blown up by a suicide truck bomber.
He told me he was court martialed for OPENING FIRE on this truck without authorization and dishonorably discharged for using his brain. He was quite pissed over the affair and was disgusted with US of A
I have no reason to invent this story, and judging by his emotional state, I doubt he was making the story up on the fly.
History rhymes?
BareNakedIslam says
If true, that’s really horrible.
Rebel Patriot says
Democrats/liberals hate the U.S. military. They only consider the military as useful idiots and can be thrown away like trash when necessary.
Shun says
The Muslims in the UK do not need anything from the non Muslims other than just enough time. Latest from London. Daily Mail Uk with video today:
“Terrifying moment Iraqi immigrant, 28, stabbed university student, 18, in bid to be deported because he was disillusioned with life in a taxpayer-funded hotel after arriving on a small boat and racking up a string of convictions”
This generations nightmare is well under way. We must take care of ourselves. Nothing wrong with vigilance when a Muslim is around.
VMS says
And there are thousands just like him!
ME Infidel says
When I was living and working in Afghanistan back in the early 70s, it was a s**t hole country, but a country with some promise. Now, FIFTY years laters later, it’s worse off than it was then. And, that’s just ONE issue.
With few exceptions, we elect the dumbest, most corrupt political hacks to all levels of American government and buffer them with a Leftist bureaucracy and a media filled with Marxist lackeys. Obviously, John Galt did move to Atlantis and brought the best and brightest among us with him…except, of course, for Maxine Waters.
VMS says
From the photos I’ve seen, before the Taliban took over,, the Afghan women were smartly dressed. From the descriptions in books about the country, they could get an adequate education. All opportunity for them is gone now. And it’s all Biden’s fault.
Pray Hard says
Only partly true and mostly Western propaganda. Afghanistan has always been one of the most barbaric moslem countries.