The D Brief: Austin, Milley testify on Afghanistan; Syrian threats; Pentagon’s wildfire aid; Watch State of the USAF; And a bit more...
By Bradley Peniston and Jennifer Hlad
September 28, 2021 11:14 AM ET
The D Brief
Afghanistan
Austin, Milley: No one foresaw Afghanistan’s quick fall. Incorrect U.S. military and intelligence assumptions about Kabul’s governance and military structures led to the country’s fall—but the failures that occurred during the largest evacuation airlift in U.S. history were not the military’s fault, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told Congress on Tuesday. Defense One’s Tara Copp reports, here.
“We did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks,” Austin said in his opening remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement, that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers, and that we failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which—and for whom—many of the Afghan forces would fight.”
Members of Congress from both parties have expressed doubt that the Taliban’s swift victory was unforeseeable, particularly since years of reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction have warned about hollow and easily corrupted elements of the Afghan National Army and its leadership ranks. Military Times’ Meghann Myers has a very short tour of those reports and their drumbeats of doom.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/09/d-brief-austin-milley-testify-afghanistan-syrian-threats-pentagons-wildfire-aid-watch-state-usaf-and-bit-more/185670/
