U.S. Army Captain Sam Brown (ret.) is an Afghanistan war vet, a Purple Heart recipient and a Republican candidate for Senate in Nevada. But he’s a lot more than that. His wounds are so extensive he almost gave his life for this country and everyday lives with the consequences of his sacrifices. Those injuries were received in the heat of battle, in a furnace that tries men’s souls. Sam Brown came out hurt, but his soul is in the trim. Thus, he is the kind of man we desperately need in the US Senate and he has some questions for Joe Biden and his administration.

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I’m not running to be a politician.

I’m running to be a public servant.

Career politicians will never fix what they’ve broken.

Their existence depends on a broken system.

Pitch in $25 today so we can say goodbye to the same old establishment mentality.https://t.co/nFu9H6fYqX

— Sam Brown (@CaptainSamBrown) September 10, 2021

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Brown: The Biden administration’s Afghanistan withdrawal has been a parade of gut-punching failure after gut-punching failure. I was blown up after my vehicle was struck by an IED and nearly died there. As a veteran of the war and as an American, I have questions. We all deserve answers.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony to Congress this week is the first opportunity for the American people to hold the Biden Administration accountable under oath for its failures that left Americans and our allies behind in Afghanistan and tragically cost the lives of 13 service members. Here are questions Secretary Blinken needs to answer in front of Congress and in front of the American people.

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Why didn’t Secretary Blinken speak up about President Biden’s arbitrary and rushed deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops? When President Joe Biden decided to withdraw all remaining U.S. forces from Kabul, Secretary Blinken must have known we still had thousands of Foreign Service Officers on the ground, staff in our embassy, and allied Afghan partners who would soon be at the mercy of the Taliban if the government fell.

He also must have known the latter was a real possibility; he was told by his own diplomats on the ground that the Afghan government would quickly collapse once American forces withdrew.

Why did Blinken seemingly ignore this intelligence? Why didn’t Blinken forcefully speak up to protect the interests of the State Department, and most importantly, American lives? Why didn’t he warn U.S. personnel on the ground that they were in imminent danger and develop his own emergency evacuation plans for State Department staff and other Americans?

How did the State Department fail to evacuate every American from Afghanistan?  After the last U.S. troops withdrew, there were still thousands of Americans left stranded in Afghanistan, despite the Biden Administration’s promise that not a single American would be left behind. Many of them tried to make it to the airport but were turned away after President Biden placed Taliban thugs in charge of security in Kabul. Though many have gotten out since then, we still don’t know exactly how many remain.

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Protecting Americans abroad is one of the core missions of the State Department. That Secretary Blinken allowed this to happen under his watch goes beyond incompetence—it is a betrayal of our government’s commitment to protect and defend American lives. How did the State Department’s evacuation plan fail to get every American out? How does the State Department still not know exactly how many Americans are stuck in Afghanistan? Why were charter planes filled with Americans held hostage at the airport?

The State Department’s failures put hundreds, or possibly thousands, of American lives in jeopardy. Blinken needs to provide a full recounting of every failed decision the State Department made in their plan to evacuate Americans—if there was even a plan at all.

This piece was written by David Kamioner on September 14, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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