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Ex-general recounts opposition to disastrous Afghanistan pullout, laments Biden ‘strategic failure’

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mystery-ak:
 Ex-general recounts opposition to disastrous Afghanistan pullout, laments Biden ‘strategic failure’ in Hill testimony
By Social Links for Caitlin Doornbos
Published March 19, 2024, 2:29 p.m. ET


WASHINGTON — Two former top military commanders told lawmakers Tuesday that President Biden ordered the chaotic and deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan despite warnings that it would precipitate the collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, ex-leader of US Central Command, appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a bid to shed new light on the tragic pullout, which both men oversaw.

While Milley and McKenzie have testified multiple times before Congress about the withdrawal, Tuesday’s voluntary appearances marked the first time they had done so since their retirements — leading lawmakers to believe they would speak more freely about what happened in the days and weeks before the Afghanistan calamity.

“My personal analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal would likely lead to the general collapse of the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government, resulting in a large-scale civil war reminiscent of the 1990s or a complete Taliban takeover,” Milley told the panel.

more
https://nypost.com/2024/03/19/us-news/ex-general-recounts-opposition-to-disastrous-afghanistan-pullout-laments-biden-strategic-failure-in-hill-testimony/

mystery-ak:
Milley and McKenzie testimony exposes rift between Defense and State departments over Afghanistan
By
Mike Brest
March 19, 2024 3:57 pm

Two former top military officials involved with the United States’s withdrawal from Afghanistan blamed the State Department for the chaos that played out due to what they said was a delay in ordering an evacuation.

Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, testified in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday afternoon regarding the August 2021 withdrawal.

“On 14 August, the noncombatant evacuation operation decision was made by the Department of State and the U.S. military alerted, marshaled, mobilized, and rapidly deployed faster than any military in the world could ever do,” Milley said. “It is my assessment that that decision came too late.”

The State Department is responsible for ordering a noncombatant evacuation operation, or NEO, to be carried out by the military. The two former leaders indicated that the department made that call much too late in the case of Afghanistan. It did not order the evacuation effort until Aug. 14, one day before the Taliban overtook Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and only about 2 1/2 weeks before the military’s departure at the end of the month.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense/2928191/milley-mckenzie-testimony-rift-defense-state-departments-afghanistan/

berdie:
I still carry deep anger over this. And who do you believe? These Generals that seem to be saying...Not Us!!! Or the sorry State Department.

But I guess it really doesn't matter. It was a horrendous screw-up. All carry guilt.

mystery-ak:
Dem Rep. Meeks: ‘We Did a Lot Right’ in Afghanistan Withdrawal, Trump Was ‘Foundation’ of End, Shouldn’t Be Partisan

Ian Hanchett 19 Mar 2024

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) pointed to testimony at the Afghanistan hearing “that the Doha Agreement was the foundation of everything that followed, including the end,” and also argued that the only way to get answers is “in a bipartisan way, not in an overtly political way.” Meeks also argued that “we did a lot right. Because the generals also said the mission was successful, talked about the historic [nature] of getting 124,000 individuals out in the shortest period of time.”

Meeks stated that Gen. Mark Milley “also said that the Doha Agreement was the foundation of everything that followed, including the end, which says that you can’t just make a judgment of — and give the transparency and give the Gold Star families what they need without looking at the entire picture. And I hope, because I want them to have the answers too, but the only way that we can do that is in a bipartisan way, not in an overtly political way. The sole focus of this hearing was just trying to discredit Joe Biden. Well, without looking at the Doha Agreement and Donald Trump or any other president — we want, I want, I won’t stop until we figure out what went wrong, what went right, and we did a lot right. Because the generals also said the mission was successful, talked about the historic [nature] of getting 124,000 individuals out in the shortest period of time. So, we’ve got to work together, not play politics, a lot of the questions that they were asking — the Republicans were asking, I think [were] all based upon, oh, Biden this, Biden that. Whereas, when you look at the Democratic questions that they were asking, it was trying to get to the meat of the matter of how we can best be transparent with the American people, find out what was right, find out what was wrong, and put the politics behind us.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/03/19/dem-rep-meeks-we-did-a-lot-right-in-afghanistan-withdrawal-trump-was-foundation-of-end-shouldnt-be-partisan/

mystery-ak:
Milley confirms he got piece of paper ordering full withdrawal from Afghanistan during final Trump days
By
Mike Brest
March 19, 2024 4:48 pm

Shortly after former President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid in November 2020, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley was given a piece of paper that called for the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Somalia and Afghanistan.

Milley, who has since retired as a general in the Army, told lawmakers that he received the note days after Trump fired then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in the aftermath of the election. The piece of paper, he told lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, had the president’s signature on it and called for the complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Somalia by Dec. 15, 2020, and from Afghanistan by Jan. 15, 2021.

“Acting Secretary of Defense [Christopher] Miller and I and others went over to the White House to confirm that order because we had not been consulted on that,” Milley explained. “So we did, and that order was then subsequently rescinded.”

Roughly a week later, he received a new order from then-national security adviser Robert O’Brien, which called for the U.S. military to reduce its troop presence to 2,500.

News of the note emerged last November via a book by ABC News’s Jonathan Karl, who reported that it was not in fact written by Trump but by John McEntee, who was serving as director of the Presidential Personnel Office. Milley did not reveal in his testimony who gave him the note or who wrote it.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense/2928575/milley-paper-order-withdrawal-afghanistan-final-trump-days/

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