Can military leaders answer for Afghanistan?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
This week in Congress, top military officials are testifying on what went wrong in the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will anyone in the government be held accountable?
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie are on Capitol Hill testifying in front of the Senate and House Armed Services committees on the fall of Kabul and the disastrous U.S. exit from Afghanistan.
As lawmakers press for answers, Alex Horton reports on whether this hearing will result in accountability for the years of government missteps in handling the end of America’s longest war.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.8 | The public has just been lost in the sea of deceit and dishonesty from military leadership and several administrations. |
| 0:25.6 | Reporter Alex Horton has been covering the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the aftermath of that withdrawal. |
| 0:35.9 | That includes a drone strike last month that went very wrong. |
| 0:40.2 | It all started when a US drone picked up a white Toyota Corolla leaving what intelligent analysts thought was an ISIS safe house. |
| 0:49.8 | And as it was moving through the city, the analysts and commanders who were watching it became more and more convinced that this was a threat. |
| 0:59.7 | The US military believed that this vehicle was carrying an ISIS bomb and that they needed it to strike. |
| 1:06.4 | In the time for that missile to fire from the drone to the car was about 30 seconds. |
| 1:11.9 | And in those 30 seconds, just in the last closing seconds before the missile struck, |
| 1:17.0 | in the drone feed, three kids emerge right before the explosion happens. |
| 1:27.8 | It turned out that this wasn't an ISIS threat. |
| 1:31.1 | It was an aid worker transporting containers of water for his family. |
| 1:37.2 | The strike killed 10 civilians including seven children. |
| 1:40.3 | And today, the military is finally facing questions about that drone strike in Afghanistan. |
| 1:46.5 | And the many, many other mistakes the US made during 20 years of war. |
| 1:54.7 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 1:57.6 | I'm routine powers. |
| 1:59.6 | It's Wednesday, September 29th. |
| 2:14.8 | This week on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are questioning top military leaders about what went wrong in Afghanistan. |
| 2:21.3 | They're talking to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, |
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