

"Plain and simple, we were ignored," he said. He told the panel he believes those individuals were responsible for the attack. He said they spotted him and his associate in the crowd and alerted supervisors and requested authority to engage but never got it. Vargas-Andrews said he and another Marine assigned to protect the airport received intelligence about a possible suicide bomber approaching the area. servicemembers protecting the airport dead, many others injured and scores of Afghan civilians killed. He recounted the events leading up to the bombing that left 13 U.S. 26, 2021 terror attack at the Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport.

The hearing's most compelling testimony came from Tyler Vargas-Andrews, a Marine sergeant injured in the Aug. Marine tells panel: 'Plain and simple, we were ignored'

in a stronger position to lead the world and address the challenges of the future, while continuing to welcome our Afghan allies and maintaining our ability to deal with terrorist threats in the region," according to the statement. "As a result, we are no longer losing American lives and spending tens of billions of dollars a year fighting a war with no end in sight, putting the U.S. In a statement White House spokesperson Ian Sams insisted Biden made the "tough decision" to end the war in Afghanistan despite that Trump had "failed to establish an evacuation plan." Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat, acknowledged "mistakes along the way" but he maintained that Biden "made the right decision to bring all our troops home because I can't in good conscience imagine sending more American men and women to fight in Afghanistan." forces with Taliban leaders months earlier. And Democrats were quick to point out that former President Donald Trump set the withdrawal date in motion when he negotiated the framework for pulling out U.S. Multiple Democrats and some of the witnesses noted that the policy ultimately implemented by the Biden administration was a product of multiple administrations' policies. forces out in the summer of 2021, declared what happened in Afghanistan "a systemic breakdown of the federal government at every level, and a stunning failure of leadership by the Biden administration." Panel chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, a persistent and vocal critic of the decision to pull all U.S. military as the Afghan government fell and the Taliban regained control of the country stand as one of the most damaging periods of President Biden's tenure in office. forces and rushed evacuation of allies by the U.S. government's lack of planning and continued problems as they try to process visas. And veterans who scrambled and set up mini State Departments to evacuate Afghan allies recounted frustration with the U.S. Lawmakers also heard from a young Army medic who is still haunted by images of trying to save his fellow soldiers killed during that attack. end to a more than 20-year war featured emotional and graphic testimony from a Marine injured in the bombing at the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The House Foreign Affairs panel's first oversight hearing on what happened leading up to and after the U.S. forces from Afghanistan in the summer of 2021. House Republicans vowed when they took control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterms they would hold the Biden administration accountable for the fallout from the chaotic withdrawal of all U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Tyler Vargas-Andrews testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the injuries he sustained during the emergency evacuation from the airport in Kabul during the U.S.
