Military Leaders to Face Questions Over Afghan Withdrawal, Evacuation. Will appear before the Senate

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The military brass who led the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan will testify on Capitol Hill in what could be a contentious session over the final days of America’s longest war

Link to tweet

Military Leaders to Face Questions Over Afghan Withdrawal, Evacuation
They will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday in what could be a contentious session over the final days of America’s longest war as well as how a top official has handled...
wsj.com

[gab13by13]

1. Chuck Schumer can act fast,

that was quick. I absolutely will not watch, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz bash president Biden and General Milley.

[BlueJac]

2. Me either

It will be a shit show with fools asking stupid questions

[Demsrule86]

11. Why would the Senate even do this? It makes no sense.

This just gives the GOP a place to speak their lies...

[panader0]

3. Amazing that, less than a month after the withdrawal, these men will testify under oath,

while nine months after the coup attempt, no one involved has had to testify. Something stinks.

[underpants]

6. My theory on that is two fold

The Dems are waiting to make the hearings during an election year.
There are on going prosecutions so the hearings could interfere with those.

[StarfishSaver]

7. Two completely different situations

Oversight is very different than investigations.

The Senate Armed Services Committee hearing is an oversight hearing conducted as part of the committee's oversight responsibility. Calling in military officers to testify about how a military operation was conducted is part of that process, needs little advance planning or information gathering and can be done quickly.

The Select Committee on January 6 is an investigatory committee with a very different role and jurisdiction. Investigations are much more complex than oversight, require extensive work and information gathering before any hearings are called and testimony taken, and then a tremendous amount of follow up work must be done after the testimony - and most of this work is done outside of the committee hearing room and not in public view.

It is not at all unusual for oversight hearings to be held shortly after the incident the committee is looking into and also customary for investigatory hearings to take much longer to launch and even longer to pan out into anything, by virtue of their respective purposes.

[gab13by13]

8. Back in 2017,

when Trump's botched raid in Yemen got a Navy Seal killed, how long did it take for Congress to have an oversight hearing, I forget?

[StarfishSaver]

9. I'm sure you do remember

If not, you can go back and look at the hearing schedules for the Republican led-Senate and House Committees that didn't do their jobs of conducting oversight or holding investigations of the Republican president they protected at all costs.

Thank God Democrats don't operate that way, although you seem to wish they did

[gab13by13]

12. The military investigates

the deaths of its people, it is required to do so. There is obviously not the same requirement for Congress to do oversight, it could have waited for the military investigation, could it not have?

What is going on today isn't oversight, IMO, it's an opportunity to bash president Biden and bash General Milley.

[StarfishSaver]

14. Oversight is completely separate from internal investigations

Congress' duty to conduct oversight of an area of government over which it has jurisdiction does not need to and rarely does wait until after internal investigations are completed.

Oversight has a very different purpose than investigations (although some aspects can and do overlap).

What is the Basis for Congressional Oversight?

Congressional oversight is one of the most important responsibilities of the United States Congress. Congressional oversight refers to the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs and policy implementation, and it provides the legislative branch with an opportunity to inspect, examine, review and check the executive branch and its agencies. The authority of Congress to do oversight is derived from its implied powers in the U.S. Constitution, various laws, and House rules. In affirming Congress' oversight powers, the Supreme Court in McGrain v. Daugherty stated that "the power of inquiry � with process to enforce it � is an essential and appropriate auxiliary to the legislative function."

https://rules.house.gov/sites/democrats.rules.house.gov/files/documents/Archives/comm_gp_cong_oversight.htm

SASC Announces Upcoming Afghanistan Oversight Hearings

The Senate Armed Services Committee today announced its initial slate of hearings to examine the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and lessons learned from the twenty year conflict.

U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said: “Although we have completed the withdrawal of American military personnel and over 100,000 civilians from Afghanistan, I remain deeply concerned about the events that accompanied our withdrawal and the ongoing humanitarian crisis. It is the duty of Congress—and the Senate Armed Services Committee in particular—to hold hearings to learn lessons from the situation in Afghanistan and ensure accountability at the highest levels. The Committee will hold a series of hearings to examine the factors and decisions that manifested over four presidential administrations of both political parties to shape the outcome we now face in Afghanistan.” https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/press-releases/sasc-announces-upcoming-afghanistan-oversight-hearings-

I hope this helps explain the difference.

P. S. I'm not worried about Biden or Milley getting bashed - This comes with their jobs and both men know how to handle themselves.

[Karma13612]

4. Inhofe is really just amazingly disingenuous.......EOM

[underpants]

5. Gen. McKenzie looked like he was about to fall out when Inhofe was speaking.

Not a good visual.

[Patton French]

10. And here comes the feigned outrage and grandstanding (n/t)

[gab13by13]

13. I only was able to watch for 30 minutes,

what oversight functions are GQP Senators performing? I see just what I predicted, a public forum to bash president Biden.

Is this any different when I'm on the golf course and someone I know asks me, did you get vaccinated, and I reply I sure did. He then proceeds to bash me, asks me why? He cites a voodoo doctor who claims vaccines don't work, he screams about masks not working. After that I had a choice to scream back at him, which would have been futile, I wasn't going to change his mind, so instead I kept repeating to him, I don't talk politics on the golf course. I had to repeat that 10 times before he stopped.

My point is that it is pointless to give a platform to a group of people who either don't know the truth, who won't accept the truth, or who are lying about the truth. Democrats asked good questions and were seeking answers and were seeking the truth, but the GQP traitors were disgraceful. We have Josh Hawley, a supporter of domestic terrorism being given a platform to push the insurrection.