Escalating violence puts the country at risk of falling into a civil war, Gen. Austin S. Miller told reporters.
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S.’s top general in Afghanistan on Tuesday gave a sobering assessment of the country’s deteriorating security situation as America winds down its so-called “forever war.” Gen. Austin S. Miller said the rapid loss of districts around the country to the Taliban – several with significant strategic value – is worrisome. He also cautioned that the militias deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces could lead the country into civil war. Miller told a small group of reporters in the Afghan capital that for now he has the weapons and the capability to aid Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces. “What I don’t want to do is speculate what that (support) looks like in the future,” he said. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in meetings at the White House last week with President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah – the Afghan official tasked with making peace with the Taliban – President Biden said the U.S. was committed to humanitarian and security assistance to Afghanistan. But the president also said that keeping U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan defied a peace deal the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban and that wasn’t a risk he was prepared to take. “Given the timeline set by the prior administration, that if we did not withdraw our troops, U.S. men and women would be facing fire from on the ground and that was not something as the commander in chief, that he felt was acceptable,” Psaki said. Washington signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020. It laid out the promise of a U.S. withdrawal and commitments by the Taliban to ensure Afghanistan does not harbor militants that can attack the United States.
