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Senior US military officials linked the fall of the Afghan government and its security forces in August to the agreement reached by former President Donald Trump with the Taliban in 2020 that promised the complete withdrawal of US troops.
General Frank Mackenzie, the head of the Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that as part of Washington’s efforts to complete a full withdrawal by the end of August, the United States would collapse once the number of U.S. troops dropped below 2,500. The supporting Afghan government has accelerated the pace.
“The signing of the Doha Agreement has had a very harmful effect on the Afghan government and its army-psychologically more important than anything, but we set a date-to determine when we will leave and when they can expect all assistance to end. “Mackenzie said.
He was referring to an agreement signed by the Trump administration with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar on February 29, 2020, in which the U.S. promised to withdraw its troops completely by May 2021. The Taliban promised several conditions, including stopping the U.S. Assault. And coalition forces.
The stated goal was to promote peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government, but such diplomatic efforts failed to make progress until former US President Donald Trump was replaced by President Joe Biden in January.
The new president of the United States pushed forward with the withdrawal plan, but extended the deadline to August 31.
Mackenzie said that he also “for a while” believed that if the United States reduced the number of its military advisers in Afghanistan to less than 2,500, the downfall of the Kabul government would be inevitable, and “the military will follow.”
He said that in addition to the low morale effect of the Doha Agreement, the military cuts ordered by Biden in April were “another nail in the coffin” of the 20-year war effort because it made the US military turn a blind eye to the situation in Afghanistan. The army, “because our advisers are no longer in those units.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who testified with MacKenzie, said he agreed with MacKenzie’s analysis.
He added that the Doha Agreement also promised that the United States would stop airstrikes against the Taliban. “As a result, the Taliban have become stronger, they have increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, and Afghans are losing a lot of people every week.”
‘Strategy failure’
Wednesday’s House hearing may be part of Congress’s expanded review of the United States’ failure in Afghanistan, which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars after years of limited congressional oversight of the war.
General Mark Milli, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated at a similar hearing in the Senate one day ago that the war in Afghanistan was a “Strategic failure” He reiterated this in a hearing in the House of Representatives.
Milli listed many factors that led to the United States’ failure, which can be traced back to the missed opportunity to capture or kill Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora shortly after the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001.
He also cited the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, the decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, “not effectively treating Pakistan as a (Taliban) refuge”, and withdrawing consultants from Afghanistan a few years ago.
Biden faced the biggest crisis of his presidency in the war in Afghanistan. He believes that this war needs to end after a 20-year stalemate. This war has killed Americans, depleted resources, and distracted the greater strategic focus. Attention.
Republicans accused Biden of lying to the military commander’s proposal to keep 2,500 soldiers in the country, downplaying warnings about the Taliban’s risk of victory, and exaggerating the ability of the United States to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for armed groups like al. -Al Qaeda.
“I worry that the president may be paranoid,” said Mike Rogers, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, calling the withdrawal a “complete disaster.”
“This will be one of the greatest failures of American leadership and will go down in history,” Rogers said.
Shout game
Wednesday’s hearing was full of political overtones and repeated yelling, as delegates debated the Democratic Party’s so-called Republican attack on Biden, especially in an August television interview in which the president denied his command. The officer recommended keeping 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan.
Then he said, “No. No one told me anything I can remember.”
One committee member, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson, used the time allotted to him to read the interview transcript aloud.
Republican Joe Wilson said Biden should resign.
Democrats accused Republicans of blaming Biden, who has been president since late January, to all the mistakes made by the U.S. military in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.
Representative Adam Smith, the Democratic chairman of the committee, said he agreed with Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
“Our greater mission to help Afghanistan build a government that can effectively govern and defeat the Taliban has failed,” Smith said.
“President Biden had the courage to finally make the decision to refuse. We did not succeed in completing this task.”
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