During a Monday broadcast of "CNN Newsroom," Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Seth Moulton lent his support of House Republicans' investigation into the withdrawal of Afghanistan. He also said he would support an audit of the whole war and all four presidents who presided over it.
"One of the GOP majority's pledges is to investigate the Afghanistan withdrawal, and I wonder, would you support such an investigation?" Co-host Jim Sciutto asked.
"I would," Moulton responded, "but I would support an investigation of the entirety of the Afghan War. This didn't all just go to hell in a handbasket with the withdrawal. There were mistakes that were made by multiple presidents, Democratic and Republican, over the course of 20 years. And if we want to prevent those mistakes from happening again, ultimately do the work, the oversight of Congress so that more American troops don't needlessly lose their lives, then we will examine the entire conflict."
"And I'll tell you, Jim," the congressman added, "one of the reasons that it's important to do this now is because so many Americans have forgotten about the fact that we did leave a lot of Afghans behind. And so, my advocacy for the Afghans who served along our — alongside us and are now being hunted down by the Taliban, that hasn't ended. That continues until we bring them all out of danger."
The congressman from Massachusetts then began naming the presidents who presided over the war.
"I hold this president responsible for the mistakes that occurred under his watch. So Joe Biden is responsible for the withdrawal. But Donald Trump, President Trump, is responsible for the decision to negotiate with the Taliban, basically give everything away, and pave the groundwork for this precipitous withdrawal that Biden followed through on. I hold President Obama responsible for the decision to surge troops into Afghanistan and we should have a full accounting of whether or not that worked and whether it was worth the cost."
"And, of course, I hold President Bush responsible for, not only going into Afghanistan in the first place, which I think most people agree was the right thing to do, but ultimately deciding to escalate the war and stay there for what turned into a 20-year conflict. So, there's a lot of accountability to be had here, but it's our job to do that in Congress. There will be a lot of Republicans and Democrats who don't want to examine this issue, that say it's consigned to the past, they don't want to get their president or their party in trouble. As a United States Marine veteran, we absolutely should have accountability and I will be pursuing that with whoever's willing to have that discussion in Congress next year."
Last week, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its latest audit revealing that the $145 billion 20-year experiment for regime change failed.
"The United States sought to build stable, democratic, representative, gender-sensitive, and accountable Afghan governance institutions. It failed," the report read.
"U.S. efforts to build and sustain Afghanistan's governing institutions were a total, epic, predestined failure on par with the same efforts and outcome in the Vietnam war, and for the same reasons," the report added, borrowing a quote from U.S. Army War College associate professor, Chris Mason.
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