Top military leaders – including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin – appeared before Senators on Tuesday and encountered sharp questions on America’s frenzied withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lawmakers also pressed Milley on his extraordinary efforts to thwart Donald Trump’s military instincts during the final months of his presidency.

Milley on End of Afghanistan War:

  • “It is clear — it is obvious — the war in Afghanistan did not end on the terms we wanted with the Taliban now in power in Kabul,” said Milley.
  • He explained that U.S. intelligence assessments indicated that the Afghan army would be able to hold off a Taliban advance while the U.S. removed personnel from the country, but the “vast majority” of Afghan forces “put weapons down and melted away,” before the U.S. was able to achieve that objective.
  • “We absolutely missed the rapid 11-day collapse of the Afghan military and the collapse of their government,” Milley said in response to a question from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire. “Most of [the] intelligence assessments indicated that would occur late fall, perhaps early winter, Kabul might hold till next spring,” Milley continued.
  • Milley agreed with CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie’s assessment that the Doha Agreement between the US and Taliban inked under the Trump administration negatively affected “the morale of the Afghan security forces,” a factor in their quick capitulation.
  • Milley called the frenzied evacuation effort at the end of August, a “logistical success, but a strategic failure

Austin on End of Afghanistan War:

  • “Was it perfect? Of course not. We moved so many people so quickly out of Kabul that we ran into capacity and screening problems at intermediate staging bases outside Afghanistan,” the secretary of defense said.
  • Austin added “We’re still working to get Americans out who wish to leave.” He said 21 American citizens were evacuated today, along with their family members.
  • Austin said the rapid collapse of the Afghan army “took us all by surprise,” and admitted “we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks.”
  • Austin noted that the evacuation effort at the end of the war, was “the largest airlift conducted in US history, and it was executed in 17 days.”
  • “We planned to evacuate between 70,000-80,000 people. They evacuated more than 124,000,” he said. “We planned to move between 5,000-9,000 people per day. On average, they moved slightly more than 7,000 per day.”
  • The secretary of defense noted “As I engage my counterparts, I think our credibility remains solid.”
  • Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, asked Austin about a botched drone strike that killed ten Afghan civilians. Austin responded: “I’ve directed a three-star review of this incident, Gen. Mckenzie did an initial investigation, and I directed a three-star review and so I won’t make any comments.”
  • “We acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on ground. We acted several times on intelligence that we saw, and we were successful in other occasions in preventing attacks,” McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, later added. He continued, “This time, tragically, we were wrong.”

Milley on Efforts to Restrain Trump:

  • Amid reports that Milley secretly reached out to his Chinese counterpart twice in the final months of the Trump administration to assure him that the U.S. would not initiate a war, Milley explained “I know, I am certain that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility, and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary, to convey that intent to the Chinese.”
  • He added, “The calls on 30 October and 8 January were coordinated before and after with Secretary Esper and acting Secretary Miller’s staffs and the interagency. The specific purpose of the October and January calls were generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States.”
  • Milley continued, “My loyalty to this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed and will never change as long as I have a breath to give. I firmly believe in civilian control of the military as a bedrock principle essential to this republic and I am committed to ensuring the military stays clear of domestic politics.”
  • Milley also addressed reporting that he spoke with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and agreed with her assessment that Trump was mentally unstable and couldn’t be trusted with the nuclear codes. “On 8 January, Speaker of the House Pelosi called me to inquire about the president’s ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process. She was concerned and made various personal references characterizing the president. I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority, and he doesn’t launch them alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States.”
  • Milley admitted that we was a source for several recent books penned by journalists. GOP Senator Marsha Blackburn, from Tennessee, asked Milley if the books “accurately represented” him. Milley said he hadn’t read them but indicated that he would.

Milley on Disagreeing with Trump & Biden:

  • Milley insisted that he warned both Trump and Biden that the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan too soon.
  • “In the fall of 2020, my analysis was that an accelerated withdrawal without meeting specific and necessary conditions risks losing the substantial gains made in Afghanistan, damaging US worldwide credibility, and could precipitate a general collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in a complete Taliban takeover or general civil war,” Milley told lawmakers.
  • Milley said he advised Biden not to withdraw all troops, but “Decision makers are not required in any manner or form to follow that advice.”
  • Axios points out “Biden denied last month that his top military advisers wanted troops to remain in Afghanistan, telling ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “No one said that to me that I can recall.”
  • Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, asked Milley why he hadn’t resigned if Biden ignored his advice. Milley responded, “Resigning is a really serious thing, and it’s a political act if I’m resigning in protest. My job is to … provide legal advice or best military advice to the president. And that’s my legal requirement. That’s what the law is. The president doesn’t have to agree with that advice. He doesn’t have to make those decisions just because we’re generals.”