“That’s the key question that we need to examine,” Taft said in response to a question from Sam Surowitz, UD’s director of veterans programs. “Why we were not able to stand up a military that could protect and defend the country (Afghanistan) going forward.”
The commission is charged with producing a report — parts of which will likely be classified — three years from an as-yet unscheduled first meeting.
Taft expects the commission to hire an executive director to manage its affairs, and he expects a mix of meetings held in Washington, D.C. and online.
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan “left many questions both in Congress and with the American public,” Turner said. “It damaged the United States’ reputation, and it also called into question the management and operations of what was occurring in Afghanistan.”
The commission was mandated in the National Defense Act of fiscal year 2022.
The U.S. started fighting in Afghanistan in October 2001, days after the events of Sept. 11 that year. U.S. forces initially went into the country to pursue al-Qaida leaders sheltering there.
Through April 2021, nearly 2,500 American service members were killed in Afghanistan, with more than 3,800 U.S. contractors. Some 66,000 Afghan national military and police and nearly 48,000 Afghan civilians also died in the conflict, according to an Associated Press tally.
The 445th Airlift Wing, based at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, played a role in the withdrawal and evacuation of Americans and Afghan nationals from Kabul in August 2021. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed at the Kabul airport in the war’s final hours.
Said Turner, “There is a lot to review, and the American public and Congress need answers.”
Among the questions Turner said need to be answered: What went wrong in the first days of the U.S. action there? Why did the Afghan drug trade grow during the U.S. presence in Afghanistan? Why did Afghan national forces fall so quickly as U.S. forces pulled back? And what are the lessons of the war?
“What was done right and what was done wrong,” Taft said. “And what can we can learn from this experience that will make our country and our state more secure?”
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