Biden misled: the generals dismantle the White House bales on the withdrawal from Afghanistan
In a fiery hearing in the US Senate, urged on by Republican senators, yesterday the military leaders in fact dumped President Biden, blatantly contradicting the White House version on at least two key issues and therefore placing him entirely responsible for the choices that led to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley and CentCom Commander Kenneth McKenzie said they recommended 2,500-3,500 troops stay in Afghanistan and warned him that complete and unconditional withdrawal would result in the collapse of the Afghan army and eventually of the Kabul government. But without success: as is well known, Biden decided to withdraw the entire contingent and abandon the Bagram base (including prisoners) before having even begun to evacuate civilian personnel, American and Afghan. A risky move that put the security of the soldiers and civilians involved in the evacuation operations at Kabul airport completely in the hands of the Taliban and the Haqqani Network – that is, in the hands of terrorists.
Biden and White House officials have repeatedly claimed that no military leader had suggested leaving a small contingent in the country, and the president himself, in an interview with ABC , denied ever having received any such suggestions: "No, they didn ' t ” , he scanned.
Yesterday, however, during the hearings in the Senate he was denied by his own secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, who had to admit that in reality "their contribution was received and certainly considered by the president".
General Milley explained that the intelligence had indeed foreseen the breakup of the Afghan army after the US withdrawal, but that it "failed to understand" how fast it would be and therefore to predict that Kabul would fall into the hands in such a short time. of the Taliban.
But also another narrative that the White House has tried to sell in recent weeks to domestic and international public opinion, with the help of the usual compliant media (also here in Italy) – and which we immediately opposed on Atlantico Quotidiano. – was contradicted yesterday in the Senate by Generals Milley and McKenzie. The narrative that al-Qaeda has now been defeated, its presence in Afghanistan eradicated, the return of the Taliban to power does not mean the return of al-Qaeda as well, because they have changed, they are no longer what they used to be, now they are pragmatic and they can be trusted, even as a partner in the war on terrorism, as ISIS is a "common enemy".
Well, yesterday this narrative was torn apart by the US generals who had partly contributed to crediting it. On the contrary, in fact, "al-Qaeda is still in Afghanistan," admitted Milley. If we cannot speak of "return" it is because in reality it had never left. If nothing else, because it is not possible to draw a clear dividing line between the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and al-Qaeda, as Milley himself explained yesterday: "We must remember that the Taliban were and remain a terrorist organization and have not yet broken ties with al-Qaeda ”. The Taliban, he added, have violated every one of the seven conditions set by the agreement with the US, except that of not attacking American troops – unless they or the Haqqani Network, as we suppose , are behind the attack that cost their lives. to 13 Marines and about 200 Afghan civilians.
Other than defeat, al-Qaeda is so alive and well that there is a very real possibility, according to the US Joint Chief of Staff, that in the next 12-36 months it will be in a position to attack America and American interests again. .
In short, President Biden had been warned by his commanders that the Taliban would take over if all troops were withdrawn unconditionally, but he ignored their assessments and lied, even denying having received them.
Not that the military leaders have come out well. They have failed to take seriously the signals and warnings of the sudden collapse of the Afghan armed forces and institutions and to plan the necessary countermeasures. Yesterday they defended the evacuation operation, calling it a "logistical success", but they could not deny that the withdrawal was a "strategic failure". "Our credibility has been damaged by the withdrawal from Afghanistan," Milley acknowledged. Biden's comes out in pieces …
The post Biden misled: the generals dismantle the White House bales on the withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/biden-sbugiardato-i-generali-smontano-le-balle-della-casa-bianca-sul-ritiro-dallafghanistan/ on Wed, 29 Sep 2021 03:50:00 +0000.