Duckworth Highlights Need for Nonpartisan Afghanistan War Commission During Foreign Policy’s “Her Power” Digital Summit

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) who served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years and is Chair of the SASC Airland Subcommittee, participated in Foreign Policy’s “Her Power” Digital Summit to highlight the need for her bill, the Afghanistan War Commission Act of 2021, to establish a nonpartisan, independent commission to examine every aspect of the 20-year war in Afghanistan and report out actionable recommendations to ensure our nation learns the right lessons and never makes the same mistakes again. During the event, Duckworth also discussed how our nation can better empower women and girls around the world and talked about her experiences in the Army as well as the barriers she’s torn down during her career. Video of Duckworth’s remarks during the event can be found here.

Key Quotes:

• “My legislation would establish the commission to look at the span of the 20 years of the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan, but then also look at the breadth of government—from administrations in the White House, to all the different Congresses, to each of the different departments—because we need to learn what we did wrong. After 20 years and trillions of dollars of taxpayer money, within a week of us leaving Afghanistan, the country collapsed—what happened?”

• “I’ve always been the only woman in an all-male unit or one of just a handful of women. And all along the way, I was just trying to do my job—but that involved me having to get the rules changed. And so what I try to do now is make sure I mentor younger women to pursue those the careers that they want to pursue, but also mentor young men as well. Because young men need to see that women can be leaders, that women can be strong, that women are people they need to respect and try to emulate.”

• “One thing about both the military and being an elected official is that I do get equal pay for equal work, which is something I’ve enjoyed my entire career, which most civilian women do not enjoy. A lot of military women, when they leave the military and go into the civilian workforce, actually see a drop in their income relative to their male counterparts. And that's why you see a higher percentage of homeless veterans are actually women and women who are heads of households.”

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