WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, today released the following statement in response to the release of both the unclassified summary and classified reports provided by the Biden administration about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan: 

“The President’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan remains a historic blunder that has dealt generational damage to American resolve and our international reputation. It resulted in the unnecessary, tragic deaths of 13 American service members and emboldened our adversaries to act aggressively and contrary to our interests on the world stage. In a functional administration, there would be many individuals held accountable for this failure,” Wicker said. “Instead of addressing honestly and openly the substantial flaws in its decision-making process, the Biden administration has provided the public a full-throated and deeply partisan explanation of its indefensible Afghanistan policy. In private, they have given members of Congress almost no time to read a very long classified after-action review. It would likely be impossible for each member of the Congress to read this document before the executive branch plans to rescind access to it on an arbitrary date.”

“This is not a good-faith response to bipartisan requests for this after-action review, a document that likely contains significant new information that will inform congressional oversight. I will work to ensure that Congress retains access to this after-action review such that this body can perform its constitutional duty the right way.”