Veterans' searing testimony drives GOP-led House panel hearing on Afghanistan exit.
that killed 13 American service members along with scores of Afghans.
"I opened my eyes to Marines -- dead or unconscious -- lying around me," he said. "A crowd of hundreds vanished in front of me, and my body was catastrophically wounded."Vargas-Andrews lost an arm and a leg in the explosion, but much of his testimony focused on the hours leading up to the attack -- the moments when he believes he and his fellow Marines could have stopped it from ever happening. He testified that on Aug.
In his opening statement on Wednesday, McCaul accused diplomats and the White House of ignoring grim intelligence assessments depicting the realities on the ground in Afghanistan as the Taliban crept closer to Kabul, eventually overtaking the city in August 2021.
"At this moment, I truly understood that the Afghans were risking everything -- even death -- to escape the Taliban," he said, choking up. "I see the faces of all the people we cannot save -- all those we left behind."
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