Pentagon officials face more grilling
Milley goes on defense, Austin backs Afghan exit
WASHINGTON — After delivering eye-popping testimonies before senators on Tuesday, the country’s top military brass headed to the House of Representatives for further grilling by lawmakers over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, competition with China and the chain of command.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth “Frank” Mckenzie testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and faced the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
House lawmakers scrutinized the records of each of the military leaders and asked whether there should be punishment levied by President Joe Biden on his top national security advisers.
Milley defended himself against Republican attacks for dealing with the media, saying he thought it was important to speak with journalists.
“I believe that part of my job is to communicate to the media,” Milley told Rep. Jim Banks, R-ind.
Milley stressed that he was not a political figure.
“I’ve done my best to remain personally apolitical, and I tried to keep the military out of actual domestic politics. And I made a point of that from the time I became the chairman, and especially beginning last summer,” he said.
Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz harangued Milley for speaking with Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward for the book “Peril.”
“You spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban, didn’t you?” Gaetz said.
“Not even close,” Milley replied. During further questioning with Banks, Milley said he did not regret speaking with Woodward.
“I’m concerned that there’s mischaracterizations
of me becoming very politicized as an individual and that it’s my willingness to become politicized, which is not true,” he said.
Milley pushed back on reports that he agreed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s depiction of former President Donald Trump as “crazy.”
“In fact, I know what I said, which was, Madam Speaker, I am not qualified to determine the mental health or assess the mental health of this president or any president,” Milley said.
“I’m not agreeing with her assessment of the president,” he also said.
Gaetz called for the three Pentagon leaders to resign, despite their testimony Tuesday in the Senate that they had not offered their resignations.
“I believe that you guys probably won’t resign. You seem to be very happy failing up over there,” Gaetz said. “But if we didn’t have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired, because that is what you deserve.”
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-LA., pressed the officials on whether they or Biden were lying about leaving troops in Afghanistan.
Mckenzie and Milley declined to share their personal conversations with the president, but they did reiterate they wanted 2,500 troops to remain behind.
“I cannot share advice I give the president, and I will not do that,” Mckenzie said.
Austin backed Biden’s decision. “First of all, you heard me say earlier, congressman, that I support the president’s decision. You also heard me say that I don’t view this choice as a no cost, no risk choice,” Austin said.
When further pressed by Johnson on whether Biden was being untruthful, Austin said, “I view that as an inappropriate question.”
None of the officials responded to Johnson when he asked again who was to blame for the disastrous withdrawal.
“I’ll let the silence speak for itself,”
Johnson said.
Milley resisted when pressed about whether Biden was at fault for U.S. failures in Afghanistan, calling it “the job of the American people” and Congress to judge the president.
“This is a 20-year war,” Milley said, arguing that the outcome was the result of “a cumulative effect to a series of strategic decisions that go way back ... There’s a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years.”
Milley further defended himself from accusations that he usurped the chain of command under former President Donald Trump.
“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command. But I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president was fully informed on military affairs,” he said when pressed by lawmakers about his calls with Chinese military leaders in the fall of 2020.