milley
WASHINGTON (AP/77WABC) – In his first congressional testimony on the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, refused to say exactly what he said to President Joe Biden regarding leaving behind some US troops in Afghanistan. Officials say the President carefully weighed the military’s input but was determined to bring America’s longest-running war to an end by Sept. 11 – the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The top U.S. military officer called the 20-year war in Afghanistan a “strategic failure” and told Congress on Tuesday that he believes the U.S. should have kept several thousand troops in the country to prevent the unexpectedly rapid takeover by the Taliban.
However, Milley added, that it was his personal opinion that at least 2,500 troops were needed to guard against a collapse of the Kabul government and a return to Taliban rule.
Gen. Frank McKenzie said he agreed with Milley that a few thousand troops should have been kept in Afghanistan.
“I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,” McKenzie said. “I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., asked Milley why he did not choose to resign after his advice was rejected. “The president doesn’t have to agree with that advice,” Milley said. “He doesn’t have to make those decisions just because we are generals. And it would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to resign just because my advice was not taken.”
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