Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told Newsmax Thursday that the House Foreign Affairs Committee is looking for "accountability for the Biden administration" over the deadly military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
"It is as simple as that," Self said during an appearance on Newsmax's "National Report." "What was most meaningful to me is that the Marine sniper had identified the suicide bomber, had his sights on him, asked for permission to take him out, and his battalion commander said, 'I don't know who has the authority to give you permission to shoot.' That is unconscionable. This was a combat zone. We have rules of engagement that give you that authority under certain conditions.
"All those conditions I understand were met and he was not given permission to shoot the man that then caused 13 casualties," he continued. "So, that's the sort of accountability we need to know."
Self stressed that the committee needs to know more about the military chain of command.
"I'm talking about the secretary of defense, I'm talking about the president himself," he said. "Who was responsible for that debacle that we heard about yesterday?"
When asked if the committee would be seeking testimony from officials at the State Department, which was reportedly leading the withdrawal, Self said, "I believe that Chairman [Texas Rep. Mike] McCaul has every intention of subpoenaing the senior officials in the DoD and the administration and the State Department to see who actually was running this debacle, who was in charge, who was giving the orders at the highest levels of the government.
"Listen, our soldiers do what they're told," he said. "They are rule followers. They want to do the best they can. But when they have weak leadership, as was demonstrated in Afghanistan, who was giving the orders at the highest levels of the government? That's what we want to know."
Acknowledging that there is "an emotional cost" to warfare, Self said that the United States "can do better."
"We can do better with military leadership," he said. "We can do better with rules of engagement that are understood and hard and obeyed. We can do better.
"Explosions are cheap, they're easy to hide," he added. "There is no protection when you allow a suicide bomber to walk among the very people and you know he's there. That's the issue."
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