Incoming GOP House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) has pledged to investigate what happened during the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, which resulted in 13 U.S. service member deaths, billions in military equipment left behind, and the Taliban firmly in control of the country. 

Comer has not wasted any time; he sent a letter to several Biden administration officials demanding relevant documents, information, and communications on the same day he was announced chair.

He said in a statement at the announcement,

The destructive path paved by the Biden Administration ends when Republicans have the gavel in January. We will continue our investigations into the national security threat posed by the Biden family's influence peddling and shady business schemes, President Biden's border crisis, COVID origins and U.S. taxpayer dollars used to fund dangerous research in Wuhan, the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, President Biden's energy crisis, waste and mismanagement of pandemic relief funds, and more."

Owe it to the people

Comer pointed out that the American people deserve to know what happened in Afghanistan, given that American lives were lost and taxpayers are now on the hook for tens of billions of dollars in lost equipment.

He continued:

It has been over a year since the Biden Administration's botched Afghanistan withdrawal and the American people have not received any answers about this national security and humanitarian catastrophe. U.S. servicemen and women lost their lives, thousands of Americans were abandoned, billions of taxpayer dollars are still unaccounted for, military equipment fell into the hands of the Taliban, progress for Afghan women has stalled, and the entire region is under hostile Taliban control. Under a Republican majority, the Biden Administration's obstruction of this investigation will be met with the power of the gavel. We owe it to the American people to provide answers, transparency, and accountability.

Gallup polling earlier this month showed that 98% of people in Afghanistan "rate their life so poorly that they are considered suffering. A quarter said their life is "the worst possible."

A full 86% of people there said they could not afford needed food for their families, one of the highest numbers ever for this statistic.

High and dry

The Biden administration left the Afghan people high and dry, managing the military withdrawal so badly that the Taliban, which had been all but wiped out under Trump, was able to take over the country while our military were still there.

At every step of the pullout process, the administration was inept and failed to do even the most basic things it said it would do.

After vowing to get all Americans out, they ended up leaving behind at least 9,000 when they had claimed it was only 150.

Accountability is certainly needed, and the American people need to see what really happened rather than the Biden-media spin version that dominated news cycles at the time.

It'll be interesting to see what comes of it.