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three years have passed since the united states withdrew its troops from afghanistan in august 2021, and the u.s. house of representatives foreign affairs committee is still investigating the matter. according to reuters on the 18th, the committee issued a subpoena to secretary of state blinken on the same day, requiring him to attend a hearing held by the committee on the 24th of this month and testify on the withdrawal of u.s. troops from afghanistan.

us secretary of state blinken

reuters quoted a statement released by the committee as saying, "if blinken fails to appear, the chairman will instead hold a full committee meeting and consider a report. the report will recommend that the u.s. house of representatives find blinken in contempt of congress for violating a duly issued subpoena."

this is not the first time that the house foreign affairs committee of the u.s. congress has attempted to subpoena blinken on the issue of withdrawing troops from afghanistan. earlier this month, michael mccaul, a republican and chairman of the committee, asked blinken to attend a hearing on the 19th of this month. mccaul said in a statement that the committee is investigating the biden administration's "catastrophic withdrawal" from afghanistan and asked blinken to attend relevant hearings and testify, but has failed to communicate with the state department on the specific date many times. in view of the state department's "continued delays and non-response" to the foreign affairs committee's repeated requests to set a hearing date, the committee hereby issued a subpoena to blinken. mccaul also said that current and former state department officials have confirmed that blinken is the "final decision maker" on the withdrawal from afghanistan, "so you can inform the committee to consider possible legislative measures to help avoid similar catastrophic mistakes in withdrawal."

earlier, the u.s. state department responded that blinken would not be able to testify on that date. the hill quoted state department spokesman matthew miller as saying that blinken has testified in congress more than 14 times, including four times in the foreign affairs committee, one of which focused specifically on afghanistan. miller added that the state department has proposed reasonable alternatives to meet mccaul's request for a public hearing, and that the state department has provided nearly 20,000 pages of documents to the foreign affairs committee.

according to the associated press, earlier this month, republicans in the u.s. house of representatives released a report on the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan, severely criticizing the biden administration for its failed performance in the chaotic withdrawal and believing that the latter was responsible for the "catastrophic ending" of the afghan war.