AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL HEARING-4/19/23-REP STANSBURY

REP STANSBURY: There's no question that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic. It was terrifying, it was violent, it was difficult, and the loss of those 13 service members can never be replaced. They paid the ultimate sacrifice for their service on behalf of our country, and we should be honoring their memory here today in this committee hearing. But I wanna also acknowledge that the American mission in evacuating both our service members, Americans, citizens, as well as our allies in Afghanistan, was not in vain.
In fact, in those final days, we were able to evacuate 124,000 US citizens, um, and other, uh, nationals who were allies to the United States. It was President Trump who failed to actually ensure that the Taliban upheld their portion of the agreement before agreeing to rapidly remove American troops, putting our troops at risk in those final days.