PNN – The Foreign Relations Committee of the US House of Representatives on Tuesday summoned Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken and announced that he refused to appear before the committee to testify about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network from “New Arab” report, Michael McCall, chairman of the US House Foreign Relations Committee, said in a letter about the subpoena that Blinken must appear before the committee on September 19, otherwise he will face charges of contempt and disrespect to the committee.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Blinken could not appear before the committee on the proposed dates, but offered “reasonable alternatives” to attend the committee’s public hearing.
Miller said in a statement: It is disappointing that the committee has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena instead of continuing to engage in good faith with the State Department.
He said Blinken has testified more than 14 times before Congress on Afghanistan, including four times before the House Foreign Relations Committee.
He also said that the US State Department has provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of records, numerous high-level briefings and transcribed interviews.
In May, McCall asked Blinken to attend a committee hearing on the September withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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In his letter to Blinken, the Republican chairman of the committee said that current and former State Department officials confirmed that Blinken was the “ultimate decision maker” on US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In April of last year, Joe Biden’s administration published a summary of reports on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. In this report, the administration of Donald Trump has been repeatedly blamed for the tense withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan and it has been stated: There was no indication that more time, more funding, or more Americans in Afghanistan would have fundamentally changed the course.
The 12-page report acknowledges that the US government has learned from this retreat. The report refers to “intentional troop reductions” by the Trump administration.
Republicans have long sought an investigation into Afghanistan. This is one of the issues that the Republican Party intended to investigate after winning the majority in the House of Representatives in the November 8, 2022 midterm elections.
Afghanistan was the longest war in American history, which began in 2001 after the September 11 attacks.
In order to end the country’s longest war, US President Joe Biden set 17 dark and terrifying days in 2021 for the Americans and the world and a deadly and painful end for the people of Afghanistan until the end of the failed “nation building” project.
In his first speech after the withdrawal of his troops from Afghanistan, Biden admitted that this war cost the United States $300 million per day for two decades, and that Washington was faced with two options: withdrawing or increasing the military conflict.
He also admitted that 18 disabled soldiers commit suicide in America every day.