US generals implementing chaotic Afghan exit testify at House hearing aimed at holding Biden accountable

WASHINGTON -- Two top US generals who implemented President Joe Biden's plan to withdraw troops from Afghanistan testified at a House hearing Tuesday, as Republicans renewed their effort in an election year to hold the incumbent president accountable for the deadly evacuation.

At the hearing held by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former Commander of the US Central Command Kenneth McKenzie were both dressed in suits and ties instead of military uniforms, because they had retired from their respective posts. Lawmakers hoped the retired generals could give more candid testimonies now that they are ordinary citizens.

Milley and McKenzie said their remarks were consistent with those given in previous testimonies that they provided while still on duty -- that the chaos, including the loss of 13 US soldiers in a terrorist attack at Kabul International Airport on Aug 26, was the result of multiple contributing factors.

For the deadly attack at Abbey Gate near the Kabul airport, McKenzie said, "I and I alone bear full military responsibility," while Milley said "we owe them answers," referring to family members of those slain soldiers. Some of the relatives were present at the hearing.

The retired generals placed blame on the State Department, which they believed authorized the evacuation order too late -- more than one month after the Defense Department began to move US forces in the region.

"As you are aware, the decision to begin a NEO rests with the Department of State, not the Department of Defense," McKenzie said, using an acronym for noncombatant evacuation operation. "But we could do nothing, nothing to commence the operation -- the evacuation -- until a NEO was declared."

According to McKenzie's explanation, the positioning of U.S. forces was initiated as early as July 9, 2021 by the Pentagon, yet it was not until Aug. 14 that the State Department finally authorized the NEO.

"I believe the call to execute the NEO came too late," Milley said, echoing McKenzie's opinion.

The committee's chairman, Michael McCaul, expected more evidence to come out of the hearing and aid his ongoing investigation into the matter, which has so far yielded an interim report.

"Our investigation has uncovered repeated instances of the White House refusing to listen to warnings about the situation on the ground in the country," the Texas Republican said in prepared opening remarks.

McCaul lambasted the State Department for delaying the execution of the evacuation, leaving the Kabul airport unsecured and US forces in harm's way. "As the saying goes, 'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.' And fail they did."

The Biden administration has fiercely rejected the characterizations by McCaul and his fellow Republicans alike. Administration officials have blamed former President Donald Trump's administration for a lack of coordination with them over how to carry out the withdrawal mapped out in the Doha Agreement signed between the United States and the Taliban in 2020.

Even as Biden's hands were tied, the officials have said, his administration worked in an extremely hostile environment on the ground and eventually managed to airlift over 124,000 people out of harm's way.