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u.s. news Diaranson 29 september 2021

Joint Chiefs chairman calls Afghan war a ‘strategic failure’

(AP) — The top U.S. mili- “You can’t measure the hu-
tary officer called the 20- man heart with a machine,
year war in Afghanistan you have to be there,” Milley
a “strategic failure” and said.
told Congress on Tuesday
that he believes the U.S. Austin acknowledged short-
should have kept several comings in the final airlift
thousand troops in the from Hamid Karzai Inter-
country to prevent the un- national Airport that began
expectedly rapid takeover Aug. 14, such as an initial
by the Taliban. wave of violence at and near
the airfield that led to multi-
In his first congressional ple deaths of Afghan civilians.
testimony on the tumultu- But he asserted that the airlift
ous withdrawal, Gen. Mark was a historic accomplish-
Milley, chairman of the Joint ment that removed 124,000
Chiefs of Staff, refused to say people from Taliban rule.
what advice he gave Presi-
dent Joe Biden last spring “To be clear, those first two
when Biden was considering days were difficult,” said
whether to keep any troops in Austin, who is a veteran of
Afghanistan. the war. “We all watched with
alarm the images of Afghans
But he told the Senate Armed rushing the runway and our
Services Committee it was aircraft. We all remember the
his personal opinion that at “I recommended that we to agree with that advice,” ther fracture into civil war.” scenes of confusion outside
least 2,500 were needed to maintain 2,500 troops in Af- Milley said. “He doesn’t have Austin questioned decisions the airport. But within 48
guard against a collapse of the ghanistan, and I also recom- to make those decisions just made over the 20-year course hours, our troops restored
Kabul government and a re- mended early in the fall of because we are generals. And of the U.S. war in Afghani- order, and process began to
turn to Taliban rule. 2020 that we maintain 4,500 it would be an incredible stan. In retrospect, he said, take hold.”
at that time, those were my act of political defiance for a the American government
In a blunt assessment of a personal views,” McKen- commissioned officer to re- may have put too much faith The Biden administration
war that cost 2,461 American zie said. “I also had a view sign just because my advice in its ability to build a viable faces criticism on multiple
lives, Milley said the result that the withdrawal of those was not taken.” Afghan government. fronts for its handling of the
was years in the making. forces would lead inevitably final months of the war.
to the collapse of the Afghan Testifying alongside Milley “We helped build a state, but
“Outcomes in a war like this, military forces and eventually and McKenzie, Austin de- we could not forge a nation,” Sen. James Inhofe, the
an outcome that is a strate- the Afghan government.” fended the military’s execu- he told the Senate commit- ranking Republican on the
gic failure — the enemy is in tion of a frantic airlift from tee. “The fact that the Afghan Armed Services panel, told
charge in Kabul, there’s no The Senate hearing was at Kabul in August and asserted army we and our partners Austin and Milley that the
way else to describe that — times contentious, as Repub- it will be “difficult but ab- trained simply melted away withdrawal and evacuation
that is a cumulative effect of licans sought to portray Biden solutely possible” to contain – in many cases without fir- amounted to an “avoidable
20 years,” he said, adding that as having ignored advice from future threats from Afghani- ing a shot – took us all by sur- disaster.”
lessons need to be learned, military officers and mischar- stan without troops on the prise. It would be dishonest
including whether the U.S. acterized the military options ground. Under questioning, to claim otherwise.” Republicans in particular
military made the Afghans he was presented last spring he, too, declined to say what have intensified their attacks
overly dependent on Ameri- and summer. advice he had given Biden Asked why the United States on Biden’s decision to pull
can technology in a mistaken about whether to make a full did not foresee the rapid col- all troops out of Afghanistan
effort to make the Afghan Several Republicans tried troop withdrawal. lapse of the Afghan army, by Aug. 30, saying it left the
army look like the American unsuccessfully to draw Mil- Milley said that in his judg- U.S. more vulnerable to ter-
army. ley, McKenzie and Defense Milley cited “a very real pos- ment the U.S. military lost its rorism.
Secretary Lloyd Austin into sibility” that al-Qaida or the ability to see and understand They are demanding more
Gen. Frank McKenzie, who commenting on the truthful- Islamic State group’s Afghan- the true condition of the Af- details on the suicide bomb-
as head of Central Com- ness of Biden’s statement to istan affiliate could recon- ghan forces when it ended ing in Kabul that killed 13
mand had overseen the final ABC News on Aug. 18, three stitute in Afghanistan under the practice some years ago of American service members
months of the U.S. war, said days after the Taliban took Taliban rule and present a having advisers alongside the in the final days of the with-
he agreed with Milley that a control of Kabul, that no se- terrorist threat to the United Afghans on the battlefield. drawal.
few thousand troops should nior military commander had States in the next 12 to 36
have been kept in Afghani- recommended against a full months.
stan, despite the Trump ad- troop withdrawal when it was
ministration’s agreement under discussion in the first It was al-Qaida’s use of Af-
with the Taliban in 2020 that months of Biden’s term. ghanistan as a base from
all U.S. troops would leave which to plan and execute its
by May 2021. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., attacks on the United States
asked Milley why he did not on Sept. 11, 2001, that trig-
choose to resign after his ad- gered the U.S. invasion of
vice was rejected. Afghanistan a month later.

Milley, who was appointed to “And we must remember that
his position as chairman of the Taliban was and remains
the Joint Chiefs of Staff by a terrorist organization and
President Donald Trump and they still have not broken ties
retained by Biden, said it was with al-Qaida,” Milley said.
his responsibility to provide “I have no illusions who we
the commander in chief with are dealing with. It remains
his best advice. to be seen whether or not the
Taliban can consolidate pow-
“The president doesn’t have er or if the country will fur-