US would have gone to war again with Taliban if military stayed – General Milley says.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified to Senators on Thursday, September 30th that U.S. military officials did not give President Biden a “unanimous” recommendation to leave Afghanistan until 10 days after the fall of its capital, Kabul.
Speaking at a high-profile Senate hearing, Milley and General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the U.S. Central Command, admitted to previously advising Biden not to withdraw all American troops ahead of the August evacuation. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was also present and answered his share of tough questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. The three testified in public for five and half hours before going into a closed-door session with committee members.
Milley says the Taliban had 6,000 troops in Kabul and that the United States would have incurred “significant” casualties if it had extended its withdrawal deadline past.
“If we’d stayed another week or two or three, then it’s likely there would have been another attack that killed American service members. Is that what you’re saying?” asked Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
“I would say that that is a near certainty,” Milley replied. Milley said such a risk, including to American citizens who remained in Afghanistan, was “unacceptable.”
Milley later stated: “On the first of September, we were going to go to war again with the Taliban. Of that, there was no doubt, and we were already…in conflict with ISIS”.
Austin praised the U.S. military’s evacuation efforts – around 124,000 people departed via the Hamid Karzai International Airport during the 17-day saga.
Source: The Washington Post
