Top US military official calls Afghan war a 'strategic failure'
General Frank Mackenzie, the head of Central Command and overseeing the final months of the US war, said he agreed with Milley's assessment. He also declined to say what advice he had given to Biden. In the first testimony in Congress (Parliament) on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the top US military official called the 20-year war a "strategic failure" and said that he believes that the US needs to stop the Taliban occupation of Afghanistan. A few thousand soldiers should have been stationed there. The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, declined to say what advice he had given to President Joe Biden when he was considering whether or not to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee that it was his personal opinion that at least 2,500 troops were needed to be stationed in Afghanistan to prevent the fall of the government in Kabul and the return of the Taliban regime. Milley described the war as a ...