US Joint Chiefs chairman terms Afghanistan withdrawal a 'strategic failure'

While explaining his stand over the tumultuous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley has termed the recent development a "strategic failure" for both the US government and Army.

In his first congressional testimony, the top US military officer said the government should have kept thousands of US soldiers in Afghanistan in order to keep track of the real-time movement of the Talibani group. Milley, however, refused to answer a question on what advice he had given US President Joe Biden regarding the withdrawal of all troops from the war-torn country. When asked about his personal opinion about keeping the American soldiers in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at least 2,500 soldiers were needed to safeguard the country from the extremist group. 

"Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

"Lessons need to be learned, including whether the US military made the Afghans overly dependent on American technology in a mistaken effort to make the Afghan army look like the American army," added Milley. 

Apart from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of Central Command agreed with him and asserted a few thousand soldiers should have been kept in the war-torn country.

Further, General Frank McKenzi sidelined the peace agreement that was brokered by former President Donald Trump in 2020. "I suggested that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also advised early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,” McKenzie said. "I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government."

US military failed to apprehend the real-time condition of the Afghan forces: Milley

When asked about the failure of Afghan forces in dealing with the extremist group, Milley acknowledged the US military failed to apprehend the real-time condition of the Afghan forces after both the countries removed their military advisors some years ago. 

Also, the top military officer warned the Senate about the collaboration of al-Qaida and the Taliban leaders. He reiterated the Sunni Islamist multi-national terrorist organisation could be a threat for the US army in the next 12-36 months.

A series of incidents unfolded after the Taliban captured the national capital, Kabul on 15 August, leaving the country in chaos including a bomb attack. On 26 August, five days before the United States pulled out its soldiers from Afghanistan, two suicide bombers killed over 200 Afghans and other nationals who flocked the Kabul airport to flee the war-torn country.

(With inputs from AP, Image: AP)