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 "strategic failure" in which 2461 Americans lost their lives. He said about the Taliban's capture of the Afghan capital on August 15, "Kabul is under enemy rule." He also said that perhaps America's biggest failure was that Afghanistan's forces were placed too much on American troops and technology.
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. Senator Tom Cotton asked Milley why he did not resign when his advice was not heeded, Milley said, "It is not necessary that the President agrees with that advice." It is also not necessary that he should decide because we have advised him as a general. And resigning as an army officer just because my advice was not followed would be an unbelievable act of political disobedience."
Defense Minister Lloyd Austin has also given a statement before the committee. He defended the campaign to evacuate people by planes by the army. He said that it will be difficult to deal with future threats from Afghanistan but it is completely possible. He told the committee, "We helped create a state, but we could not create a nation." Weapons laid. It took us all by surprise."
Austin acknowledged shortcomings in the evacuation operation that began on August 14 at Hamid Karzai International Airport. However, he said that the evacuation by air service was a historic achievement, which has evacuated 124,000 people under Taliban rule. "We have all seen pictures of Afghan civilians running out of fear on the runway and behind our planes," he said. We all remember the confusion outside the airport. But within 48 hours, our troops had restored order." Members of the Republican Party have intensified their attacks on President Joe Biden's decision to pull all troops out of Afghanistan by August 30. They are demanding more information about the suicide bombing in Kabul that killed 13 American soldiers in the final days of their withdrawal.
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