Blinken set to testify on Afghanistan before House lawmakers angry over chaotic end of war

America’s top diplomat, the first official in the Biden administration to report publicly on events in Afghanistan to Congress, will appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs and is expected to face grilling from the lawmakers from both parties who are furious with the outcome. After nearly two decades, more than $ 2 trillion in US public funds, the deaths of over 6,000 Americans and 100,000 Afghans, and a frantic US airlift effort, Afghanistan has returned to Taliban control.

Along with administration officials, lawmakers were taken by surprise when the Taliban quickly crushed Afghan troops, leaving US citizens, legal permanent citizens, and Afghans working with US troops and diplomats struggling to leave the countries during the evacuation effort rushed – or left behind. Many lawmakers were personally trained as they rushed to help voters escape Kabul.

Blinken, generally stable and unfazed in his public appearances, will meet angry requests for answers about the actual number of US citizens still inside the country, efforts underway to help them leave, if the United States considers to formally recognize the Taliban, the fate of US military equipment and why 13 US servicemen died at Kabul airport in a terrorist attack that the administration knew was coming.

This attack – claimed by the ISIS-K group – will also raise questions about the terrorist threat Afghanistan poses to the United States in the future.