众议院共和党人周一公布了为期三年的全面调查结果，他们说这是迄今为止拜登政府混乱撤军的最详细的公开报告阿富汗这留下了数百名美国人和数千名盟友，其中一些人如此绝望，以至于在最后一架军用飞机于2021年离开喀布尔时，他们紧紧抓住美国飞机。
众议院外交事务委员会主席迈克尔·麦克考尔(Michael McCaul)的报告依赖于对18名高级官员的采访和2万页文件，指责白宫、其国家安全委员会和国务院没有及时听取军方将领的警告，这些将领警告说，一旦美军开始撤离，安全局势将迅速恶化。
然而，调查没有发现证据表明副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在疏散的计划或执行中发挥了任何作用，尽管她当时公开表示支持总统乔·拜登的决定。
前总统唐纳德·特朗普和其他共和党人认为哈里斯是有罪的，并指出副总统过去曾说过，当拜登决定离开阿富汗时，她是“房间里的最后一个人”。
特朗普上个月在2021年的周年纪念日在底特律对国民警卫队成员及其家人说:“由卡玛拉·哈里斯·乔·拜登造成的，阿富汗的耻辱引发了美国在世界各地的信誉和尊重的崩溃。”撤离期间喀布尔机场发生自杀式爆炸造成13名美国军人和大约170名阿富汗人死亡。
拜登政府反驳了共和党的调查结果，称这是一种党派努力，试图在选举前挑选事实。
共和党的调查也将在哈里斯和特朗普之间的首次政治辩论之前公布美国广播公司新闻将于周二晚在费城播出。特朗普和共和党的忠诚者预计将抨击民主党政府，因为美国军队开始撤离后，民主党政府未能为接管塔利班做好准备。
“2021年8月发生的混乱和破坏永远损害了美国在盟友眼中的信誉，同时鼓励了中国、俄罗斯和伊朗等我们的对手，”得克萨斯州共和党议员麦考尔说。“然而，没有一个人被解雇，直到今天，没有人被拜登总统或哈里斯副总统追究责任。”
上周，麦克考尔发出传票，要求国务卿安东尼·布林肯就撤军作证，并威胁说，如果他不在9月19日作证，他将被判藐视法庭。美国国务院发言人马修·米勒在一份书面声明中指出，布林肯已经就阿富汗问题作证，美国国务院提供了2万页文件，委员会依靠这些文件进行调查。
米勒说:“虽然国务卿目前无法在委员会提议的日期作证，但国务院已经提出了合理的替代方案，以满足麦克考尔主席关于举行公开听证会的要求。”“令人失望的是，该委员会没有继续本着诚意与国务院合作，而是发出了又一张不必要的传票。”
在调查中，米勒指责共和党人将战争政治化，并“提出不准确的叙述”
他说:“国务院仍然对其工作人员感到非常自豪，他们在我们在阿富汗存在的最后几天挺身而出，疏散美国人和20多年来站在我们一边的勇敢的阿富汗人。”。
虽然共和党调查中的许多细节已经通过媒体报道和政府内部审查公之于众，但更有趣的细节来自美国大使馆人员的室内描述。
据共和党人说，有一段时间，工作人员对匆忙撤离变得如此恐慌，以至于他们开始在特百惠容器中装满护照和签证箔纸，以便在塔利班军队抵达他们的大楼外时焚烧。据报道，机密文件最终在混乱中被遗忘，尽管报道没有说有多少或什么类型。
与此同时，国家安全委员会在建立谁有资格撤离的标准方面行动迟缓，报告称这一标准每小时都在变化。报告称，有一段时间，被称为“大厅通行证”的电子签证信被发给符合条件的阿富汗人，但这些文件非常容易复制，以至于盗版副本开始流通，美国很快取消了这一计划。
该报告还描绘了一幅美国国务院和国家安全委员会在阿富汗政府垮台和塔利班接管政权时，迟迟不理解美国人员所处危险的画面。
该报告称，特朗普政府退休后被召回阿富汗任职的罗斯·威尔逊大使(Ross Wilson)在撤军时是美国驻喀布尔的最高外交官，据称他不愿启动由军方牵头的撤离行动。威尔逊之前曾公开表示，他的员工在最后的日子里狂热地工作努力处理尽可能多的旅行文件，帮助符合条件的人撤离。
拜登为国务院在行动结束后对撤离的处理进行了辩护。
“塔利班夺取政权后，我们在喀布尔工作的17天里，我们昼夜不停地为每一个美国人提供离开的机会。我们的国务院每周7天、每天24小时都在联系和沟通，有时还送美国人去机场，”拜登在2021年撤军后说.
拜登和其他民主党人也为撤军和关闭驻该国20年的大使馆的决定进行了辩护，称特朗普与塔利班达成协议，在2021年5月1日之前离开后，他们的选择有限。
川普与塔利班的协议包括美国军队撤离和从阿富汗监狱释放5000名塔利班战士，只要塔利班承诺不与基地组织合作或参与“高调”的袭击。
为了结束战争，并担心如果美国违背协议，塔利班战士可能会把美国军人作为目标，拜登政府坚持到底，但将美国撤军的最后期限修改为2021年8月31日。
白宫负责监督和调查的发言人莎伦·杨(Sharon Yang)说，“他要么加大对处于20年来最强势地位的塔利班的战争力度，让更多的美国军队处于危险之中，要么最终结束这场历时20年、耗资2万亿美元的最长战争。”。“总统拒绝派遣另一代美国人去打一场早就应该结束的战争。”
当时负责的军事将领此前曾作证说，他们今年早些时候向拜登提出的建议是，无论特朗普同意什么，都要在该日期后维持约2500名士兵。
“20年过去了，我们军方帮助建立了一支军队，一个国家，但我们无法打造一个国家。敌人占领了喀布尔，政府被推翻，我们支持了20年的军队逐渐消失，”撤军时担任参谋长联席会议主席的马克·米利将军去年3月作证说。
“这是一个战略失败，”他说。
GOP probe details deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, finds no direct role by Harris
House Republicans on Monday released the results of a sweeping three-year investigation they say is the most detailed public accounting yet of the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal fromAfghanistanthat left behind hundreds of Americans and thousands of allies, some so desperate they clung to U.S. planes as the last military aircraft departed Kabul in 2021.
The report by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul -- which relied on interviews with 18 top officials and 20,000 pages of documents -- blames the White House, its National Security Council and the State Department for being slow to listen to military generals who warned the security situation would deteriorate quickly once U.S. troops began to depart.
The investigation did not, however, find evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris played any role in the planning or execution of the evacuation, although she expressed public support for President Joe Biden's decision at the time.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have suggested Harris is culpable, noting past comments by the vice president that she was the "last person in the room" when Biden decided to leave Afghanistan.
"Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world," Trump told National Guard members and their families in Detroit last month on the anniversary of the 2021suicide bombing at Kabul's airport during the evacuation, which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.
The Biden administration pushed back on the findings by Republicans, calling it a partisan effort that sought to cherry-pick facts ahead of an election.
The Republican probe also is being released ahead of the first political debate between Harris and Trump, whichABC News is hosting on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Trump and GOP loyalists are expected to hammer the Democratic administration for failing to prepare for a Taliban takeover once U.S. troops began to depart.
"The chaos and devastation that took place in August of 2021 has forever damaged U.S. credibility in the eyes of our allies, while emboldening our adversaries like China, Russia and Iran," said McCaul, R-Texas. "Yet, not a single person was fired and, to this day, no one was ever held accountable by President Biden or Vice President Harris."
Last week, McCaul issued a subpoena for Secretary of State Antony Blinken's testimony on the withdrawal, threatening to hold him in contempt if he doesn't testify on Sept. 19. In a written statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted that Blinken has already testified on Afghanistan and the State Department provided the 20,000 pages of documents the committee was relying on to inform its investigation.
"Though the secretary is currently unavailable to testify on dates proposed by the committee, the State Department has proposed reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul's request for a public hearing," Miller said. "It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena."
On the investigation, Miller accused Republicans of politicizing the war and "presenting inaccurate narratives."
"The State Department remains immensely proud of its workforce who put themselves forward in the waning days of our presence in Afghanistan to evacuate both Americans and the brave Afghans who stood by our sides for more than two decades," he said.
While many of the details included in the Republican investigation have already become public through media reports and internal government reviews, among the more interesting details come from inside-the-room accounts of U.S. Embassy personnel.
At one point, according to Republicans, staff grew so panicked at the rushed evacuation that they began filling Tupperware containers with passports and visa foils to burn as Taliban forces arrived outside their building. Classified documents were eventually left behind in the scramble, according to the report, although the report doesn't say how many or what type.
Meanwhile, the NSC was slow to establish criteria for who was eligible for evacuation, a standard the report says changed hourly. At one point, electronic visa letters known as "hall passes" were given to eligible Afghans, but the documents were so easily replicated that bootleg copies began circulating and the U.S. quickly scrapped the plan, according to the report.
The report also paints a picture of a State Department and NSC slow to understand the danger U.S. personnel were in as the Afghanistan government collapsed and the Taliban took control.
Ambassador Ross Wilson, who was brought out of retirement in the Trump administration to serve in Afghanistan and was the top American diplomat in Kabul at the time of the withdrawal, was allegedly reluctant to trigger a military-led evacuation, according to the report.Wilson has spoken publicly before that his staff worked feverishly in those final daysto try to process as many travel documents as possible to help qualified people evacuate.
Biden has defended the State Department's handling of the evacuation in the wake of the operation.
"In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul after the Taliban seized power, we engaged in an around-the-clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases, walking Americans into the airport,"Biden said in 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal.
Biden and other Democrats have also defended the decision to pull out U.S. troops and shutter the embassy after 20 years in the country, saying their options were limited after Trump struck a deal with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021.
Trump's agreement with the Taliban included the departure of U.S. troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons so long as the Taliban promised not to collaborate with al-Qaeda or engage in "high-profile" attacks.
Wanting to bring an end to the war and concerned that Taliban fighters might target American service members if the U.S. reneged on the deal, the Biden administration stayed the course but amended the U.S. withdrawal deadline to Aug. 31, 2021.
"He could either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk or finally end our longest war after two decades and $2 trillion spent," said Sharon Yang, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations. "The President refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago."
Military generals in charge at the time have previously testified that their recommendation to Biden earlier that year was to maintain some 2,500 troops beyond that date regardless of what Trump had agreed to.
"At the end of 20 years, we the military helped build an army, a state, but we could not forge a nation. The enemy occupied Kabul, the overthrow of the government occurred and the military we supported for two decades faded away," Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the withdrawal, testified last March.
"That is a strategic failure," he said.
