Former US commander Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., who oversaw the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, said while testifying in a congressional hearing that he alone bears responsibility for the American soldiers killed during the attack at Kabul's airport.
"I was the overall commander, and I and I alone bear full military responsibility for what happened at Abbey Gate," McKenzie, who led US Central Command from 2019 to 2022, said at a congressional hearing Tuesday.
The Gold Star families who lost loved ones during the Abbey Gate attack were present at the hearing Tuesday by the GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee that highlighted an assessment of the Biden administration's withdrawal.
13 US service members and 170 Afghan civilians were killed in an attack led by the Islamic State terrorist group outside the Abbey Gate airport on Aug. 26, 2021. Troops were helping evacuate people from the country at the time, according to NBC News.
Retired Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also testified at the hearing. Lawmakers believed the two generals could be candid and open up with more information to members in the room now that they are no longer serving.
"We owe them answers," Milley said about the Gold Star families in his opening statement, promising to help them understand what happened.
"There's nothing that I can say or do that's going to fill that gaping hole in your heart. But as I've told you before, I'm committed. I will honor that commitment to get you the answers to get you to the truth."
It will take a "considerable amount of time" to get those answers, Milley said, emphasizing that much of the record remains classified.
"It was a tragic event, one of many that have occurred over our 20-year engagement in Afghanistan," McKenzie said about the Abbey Gate attack.
"It remains my opinion that if there was culpability in this attack, it lies in policy decisions that created the environment of August 2021 in Kabul. ... The simple fact is this: On the battlefield, even with good planning, and tremendous execution by bright people on the ground, the enemy sometimes has success."
However, later into the session, both McKenzie and Milley placed some of the blame on the State Department, revealing that the order of evacuation from Afghanistan came too late.
McKenzie elaborated it was up to the State Department -- not the Pentagon -- to authorize the order, which finally came on Aug. 14, 2021.
"I believe that the events of mid and late-August 2021 were the direct result of delaying the initiation of the [evacuation] for several months," said McKenzie, who explained that the Defense Department had already begun positioning US forces in the region as early as July 9, 2021.
"But we could do nothing, nothing to commence the operation, the evacuation" until it was declared by the State, he added.
"I believe the call to execute the [evacuation] came too late," Milley said.
Both of the retired generals claim their previous testimony on the withdrawal stands as is and that the havoc didn't occur overnight, as multiple factors contributed to the collapse of the Afghan government following the US departure from the country.
Milley noted that he remains unsure how many Americans were left behind, saying, "The starting number was never clear."
During their testimony before Congress regarding the chaotic withdrawal in 2021, the former generals disclosed that they had recommended to President Joe Biden that the US keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan well after the Aug. 31 deadline.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, shared his criticism on Tuesday of the Biden administration's execution of the military pullout.
"I believe the accountability ensures mistakes of the past are not repeated. But from where I sit, the president and this administration refused to acknowledge their failures," McCaul said. "I launched this investigation to make sure that the mistakes made in Afghanistan never, ever happen again."
In April 2023, the White House blamed the Trump administration for incidents encountered during the withdrawal in a released statement.
However, Trump continues to berate Biden, claiming Biden and his administration's handling of the withdrawal is the real reason the evacuation order failed.
