United States: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff calls the war in Afghanistan a “strategic failure”-News

The senior US military officer called Afghanistan’s 20-year war a “strategic failure” and admitted to Congress that he was in favor of retaining thousands of soldiers in the country to prevent the collapse of the US-backed Kabul government and the rapid takeover by Afghanistan. Taliban.

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee pointed out that the testimony of General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Tuesday proved that President Joe Biden said in a television interview last month that the military did not lie. Urge him to keep the army in Afghanistan.

Last spring, when Biden was considering whether to comply with an agreement reached by the Trump administration and the Taliban to reduce the number of U.S. troops to zero by May 2021, Milly refused to disclose his advice to Biden to end the beginning. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who testified with Milley in the October 2001 American War, also refused to disclose his advice to Biden.

When pressed for questioning, Milli told the committee that he personally believed that at least 2,500 US troops were needed to prevent the collapse of the Kabul government and return to Taliban rule.

The Afghan government and the well-trained U.S. military disregarded U.S. intelligence assessments and collapsed in mid-August, allowing the Taliban, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, to occupy Kabul together with the hundreds of motorcyclists Mili said. Not fired a shot. This triggered a frantic effort by the United States to evacuate American civilians, Afghan allies and others from Kabul Airport.

General Frank Mackenzie, the head of the Central Command responsible for overseeing US forces in Afghanistan, said he agreed with Millai’s view that keeping a surplus force there would keep the Kabul government intact.

“I suggest that we keep 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, and I also suggest that we keep 4,500 in the early fall of 2020. This is my personal opinion,” McKenzie said. “I also believe that the withdrawal of these forces will inevitably lead to the collapse of the Afghan army and the Afghan government.”

The six-hour Senate hearing marks the beginning of a possible extended review by Congress of the United States’ defeat in Afghanistan. The length and depth of the hearings are in stark contrast to Congress’s limited oversight of the war over the years and the hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds it has consumed.

“The sudden interest of Republicans in Afghanistan is a simple old politics,” said Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts, who supported Biden’s decision to end U.S. involvement there.

Austin and Millie are scheduled to attend the House Armed Services Committee to review the war on Wednesday.

The hearing was sometimes controversial because Republicans tried to describe Biden as ignoring the officer’s advice and incorrectly described the military options he made last spring and summer.

Several Republicans tried to attract Millie, MacKenzie, and Austin to comment on the authenticity of Biden’s statement to ABC News on August 18, three days after the Taliban controlled Kabul, but they were unsuccessful. It was being discussed during the first few months of Biden’s tenure.

In that interview, when asked whether the military adviser recommended keeping 2,500 soldiers in Afghanistan, Biden replied: “No. No one has told me anything I can remember.” He also stated that these suggestions ” There are differences”.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Biden was referring to receiving a series of suggestions.

“Regardless of the suggestion, it is his decision, he is the commander-in-chief,” she said.

In a straightforward assessment of the war that killed 2,461 Americans, Milly said that the result was after years of brewing.

“The result of a war like this, the result of a strategic failure-the enemy is in Kabul and there is no other way to describe it-is the cumulative effect of 20 years,” he said, adding that lessons need to be learned including whether the U.S. military will let Afghanistan People rely too much on American technology and mistakenly make the Afghan army look like the American army.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas asked Milly why he did not choose to resign after his proposal was rejected.

Milly was appointed by President Donald Trump as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retained by Biden. He said he had a responsibility to provide the commander-in-chief with the best advice.

“The president does not have to agree to this proposal,” Milly said. “He doesn’t have to make these decisions just because we are a general. An officer resigns because he didn’t follow my advice. This would be an incredible act of political resistance.”

Austin defended the military’s crazy airlift from Kabul in August and claimed that it would be “difficult but absolutely possible” to contain future threats from Afghanistan without ground troops.

Milli pointed out that Al Qaeda or the Afghan branch of Da’esh is “very likely” to reorganize in Afghanistan under the Taliban and pose a terrorist threat to the United States in the next 12 to 36 months.

On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda used Afghanistan as a base to plan and execute an attack on the United States, which led to the United States invading Afghanistan a month later.

“We must remember that the Taliban were and are a terrorist organization, and they still have not severed ties with Al Qaeda,” Milli said. “I have no illusions about the people we are dealing with. It remains to be seen whether the Taliban can consolidate power or whether the country will fall further into civil war.”

Austin questioned the decisions made by the United States during the 20 years of the war in Afghanistan. He said that in retrospect, the U.S. government may have placed too much confidence in its ability to establish a viable Afghan government.

“We helped build a country, but we couldn’t build a country,” he told the Senate committee. “The fact that the Afghan army trained by us and our partners just disappeared-in many cases without a shot-surprised all of us. Otherwise, the claim is dishonest.”

When asked why the United States did not foresee the rapid collapse of the Afghan army, Milli said that in his view, the US military had lost the ability to see and understand the real situation of the Afghan army after it ended the practice of having consultants a few years ago. Fight side by side with the Afghans on the battlefield.

“You can’t measure the human heart with a machine, you must be there,” Milly said.