Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said he objected to a pullout of US forces, but was overruled by the president.
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.
That analysis proved accurate when the Taliban overran all of Afghanistan, prompting the Biden administration to hurriedly launch the tragic evacuation mission, for which committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said it had failed to properly plan and prepare.
