Top general: Afghan war a ‘strategic failure’
The nation’s top general testified Tuesday that the American war in Afghanistan ended in “strategic failure,” a grim conclusion that acknowledged a long series of mistakes and miscalculations by the Pentagon’s leaders.
“The enemy is in charge in Kabul,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “There’s no other way to describe that.”
The hearing, which also featured Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., who oversaw operations in Afghanistan, peeled back layer after layer of misconceptions during the longest war in American history:
U.S. military officials trained Afghan forces to be too dependent on advanced technology, they did not appreciate the extent of corruption among local leaders, and they didn’t anticipate how badly the Afghan government would be demoralized by the U.S. withdrawal. Taken together, the Pentagon’s leaders testified, such errors enabled the Taliban to swoop back into power far faster than U.S. officials had anticipated.
Intelligence reports suggesting the Afghan forces could hold off for longer were “a swing and a miss,” Milley said.
The decision to pull out was originally made by President Trump, whose administration reached an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. troops by May 1, a little more than three months after he left office.
President Biden decided to move forward with a withdrawal, believing that it was no longer worthwhile to prop up the Afghan government, but he pushed back the deadline to Aug. 31.
Some of the testimony on Tuesday undermined Biden’s claims that military leaders did not recommend leaving some troops in Afghanistan. McKenzie said he supported keeping 2,500 service members in Afghanistan, a recommendation that was made by Army Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, who commanded U.S. forces there until July.
“I was present when that discussion occurred, and I am confident that the president heard all the recommendations and listened to them very thoughtfully,” he said.
McKenzie also said it was his belief that pulling out all U.S. troops “would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.”
It was an unusually public airing of divisions between the president and military leaders — one that will probably reverberate through Washington as Biden continues to face political fallout over the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Milley also delivered a vehement defense of two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart, saying he was responding to a “significant degree of intelligence” that China was worried about a U.S. attack.
“I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese. … And it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese,” Milley told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “My task at that time was to de-escalate. My message again was consistent: Stay calm, steady, and deescalate. We are not going to attack you.”