![]() ![]() Instead, they spent the next four months ignoring the realities. 'Multiple people in the Biden administration said they’d plan for every contingency. 'The president promised, “There is going to be no circumstances where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy like in Vietnam.” Yet they were. '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 McCaul in his searing opening statement. Michael McCaul, criticizing the Biden administration for withdrawing troops against the advice of generals and the intelligence community. His story followed an opening statement by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Republican Rep. Thirteen American service members died when the suicide bomber detonated explosives packed with ball bearings amid the chaos of the city's airport He also says that no one in the Pentagon or the White House has taken accountability for the missteps. 'A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me and my body was catastrophically wounded with 100 to 150 ball bearings now in it.'Įven after his catastrophic injuries, Vargas-Andrews claimed no one asked him for a report. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious and lying around,' Vargas-Andrews said through tears, describing the events of that day. 'I'm thrown 12 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what happened. His sniper squad was then hit with the suicide blast. Our expertise was disregarded, no one was held accountable for our safety,' he told the committee. They asked for the authority to shoot, but it wasn't given. Vargas-Andrews and the Marines with him also asked a battalion commander to come to the tower to look at the suspect. 'The response, leadership did not have engagement authority for us, do not engage,' he said. 'I requested engagement authority while my team leader was ready on the M110 semi-automatic sniper system,' he added. 'Over the communication network, we passed that there was a potential threat and that there was an IED attack imminent - this was as serious as it could get. He described how there was intelligence that an attack could be imminent, but they could only stand by. He recalled 'surreal' scenes at the airport, with Afghans trying to kill themselves on the razor wire rather than face Taliban 'torture'. His appearance was part of the Republican investigation into the Biden administration's bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. He detailed how military leaders ignored his warnings minutes earlier, and how those stationed at the airport were told not to engage - even though the Taliban were shooting people trying to get on a plane. Vargas-Andrews broke down in tears on Wednesday as he recounted his harrowing ordeal in Congress, and criticized the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal that Republicans have called a 'stunning failure of leadership'. His right arm and right leg had to be amputated over the course of 43 surgeries that followed. Just moments before the attack, the California veteran spotted a terrorist matching the suspect's description and asked if he could 'engage', but he says his leaders refused.īetween 100 to 150 ball bearings ended up in Vargas-Andrews' body in the explosion that killed 11 fellow Marines, two Navy corpsmen and hundreds of Afghan men, women and children. It was August 26, 2021, and an ISIS-K suicide bomber had detonated on the perimeter of Hamid Karzai International Airport during the chaotic evacuation sparked by the Biden administration's withdrawal of troops after 20 years in Afghanistan. Tyler Vargas-Andrews was on a security detail in a Kabul tower, watching desperate Afghans trying to flee the brutal Taliban, when he was blindsided by an enormous wave of pressure.
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