Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday urging him to release any after-action reports on the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Budd said in his letter to Austin:
Over the past 20 years, the American people have invested approximately $2 trillion of their tax dollars in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. More importantly, nearly 3,000 U.S. service men and women made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation in Afghanistan, fighting the war against a Taliban-controlled government and the terrorists who attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. These military families deserve transparency and accountability from your department.
His letter comes after a report by the Wall Street Journal that at least one has been completed but held for further revision. The paper reported:
The Pentagon leadership is reviewing an assessment of the military’s role in the Afghanistan conflict but hasn’t decided if aspects of the highly classified document will be released, according to people familiar with the issue.
The draft report, which was submitted to top Pentagon officials earlier this month, is one of a series of assessments—known as after action reports—that each agency is conducting to assemble a record of the American role in Afghanistan. The Pentagon’s report was sent back earlier this year for revisions to broaden its scope, according to a Department official.
But so far, none of the reports has been released, preventing a public accounting of the administration’s decision-making and execution, particularly in the conflict’s final days.
Budd noted in his letter that it has been 11 months since the Biden Administration mismanaged the withdrawal from Afghanistan and “essential questions have been unanswered.”
“Department of Defense (DOD) leadership has offered little insight to the public into how failures in intelligence and execution occurred. You and your team must communicate to the American people how those painful experiences can inform and improve future decision-making and strategic planning,” he wrote.
President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and others attend a casualty return at Dover Air Force Base, Del. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
“While I understand that some of this information must remain classified due to its sensitive nature, I struggle to see how you could decide the public has no interest or right to portions of these reports, which could help explain how the evacuation went so wrong,” he added.
“Your department’s ability to ‘learn every lesson’ would be severely undermined by failing to disclose key findings from these after-action reports,” he said.
Budd said he successfully added an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act requiring the DOD to restore all accountings of military assistance provided to the Afghan security forces that used to be publicly available on the DOD website as of July 1, 2021.
He elaborated: “Several Government Accountability Office reports had been removed in August 2021 without a significant or satisfactory explanation. I am formally requesting an update on how your department is complying with this statutory requirement.”
Budd, who is running for the U.S. Senate and is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, asked that Austin provide a timeline for the public release for the after-action reports no later than August 16, 2022.
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