Biden slammed as ‘delusional’ over Afghanistan withdrawal during Milley hearing
The ranking member of the House Armed Services committee slammed President Biden on Wednesday for the “extraordinary disaster” of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in which 13 service members were killed, saying the president is “delusional” in his assessment of the event.
In his opening statement prior to hearing the testimony of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) accused Biden of misleading the American people after vowing to stay in Afghanistan until all Americans were out, adding that the withdrawal operation “will go down in history” as a fiasco.
“I fear the president may be delusional,” Rogers said.
“This wasn’t an extraordinary success, it was an extraordinary disaster. It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership.”
Milley appeared before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday for a second day to review the 20-year Afghanistan war and the botched withdrawal that ultimately led to the deaths of 13 US service members.
He testified alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of Central Command who oversaw US troops in Afghanistan.
During his opening statement Tuesday, Austin repeated his acknowledgment that the withdrawal went awry, listing several reasons for the various failures.
Austin said the US “did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership” in the Afghan government, as well as the “damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations” by Afghan President Ghani’s command.
“We did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that the Taliban commander struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement,” he said, pointing to the “demoralizing effect” that had on Afghan soldiers.
Austin added that the US “failed to fully grasp” the limitations of the Afghan army.
“We provided the Afghan military with the equipment and aircraft and the skills to use it, and over the years they often fought bravely. Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers died. But in the end, we couldn’t provide them with the will to win, at least not all of them. And as a veteran of that war, I am personally reckoning with it.”
The secretary later added that corruption was central to the fall of the Afghan government, as well as its weak leadership — while insisting the US could not have foreseen the outcome that unfolded.
It comes just one day after Milley, the top US military officer, acknowledged during a tense, six-hour Senate hearing that Biden had been advised to leave at least 2,500 troops behind to prevent a rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan — advice he ignored.
Republicans on the committee pointed to Milley’s testimony as evidence Biden had lied in an ABC interview last month when he denied that military advisers wanted troops to remain, telling George Stephanopoulos, “No one said that to me that I can recall.”
“Your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline,” Stephanopoulos said to Biden on Aug. 18. “They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops.”
“No they didn’t,” Biden shot back. “It was split. Tha — that wasn’t true. That wasn’t true.”
“They didn’t tell you that they wanted troops to stay?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
The president denied it again, saying, “Not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. They didn’t argue against that.”
The “Good Morning America” co-host pushed Biden further, asking one more time if any of his military advisers told them the US should keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
“No,” Biden said. “No one said that to me that I can recall.”
When pressed on Biden’s comments to Stephanopoulos on Wednesday, McKenzie declined to comment.
Milley refused to reveal exactly what he told Biden, but said it was his personal opinion that at least 2,500 troops were needed to prevent the Taliban from overrunning the Afghan army.
“I am required, and the military commanders are required, to give our best military advice, but the decision-makers are not required to follow that advice,” Milley said.
McKenzie, the head of Central Command, testified that he shared Milley’s view that keeping a residual force there could have kept the Kabul government intact.
“I won’t share my personal recommendation to the president, but I will give you my honest opinion and my honest opinion and view shaped my recommendation. And I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan,” McKenzie said.
Austin would not divulge his advice to Biden.
Throughout both hearings, McKenzie took “full responsibility” for the retaliatory drone strike that inadvertently killed 10 civilians, seven of whom were children. He did not say he will resign in the aftermath of the strike.
“We acted based on the intelligence read that we saw on the ground. We acted several times on intelligence that we saw, and we were successful on other occasions in preventing attacks,” McKenzie said Tuesday. “This time, tragically, we were wrong.”
“I take full responsibility for that strike,” he said Wednesday, calling it a mistake.
After back-and-forth with Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.), Austin admitted that he knew “several hours” after the strike that civilians were killed. The strike occurred on Aug. 29 and the Biden administration revealed civilians were killed on Sept. 17.
Milley defended the drone strike three days after it occurred, saying, “the procedures were correctly followed and it was a righteous strike.”
In both hearings, Milley labeled the end of the mission in Afghanistan a “strategic failure.”
Given the contradiction with Biden’s previous statements, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) asked Milley if the president’s decisions led to that failure.
“I’m not going to judge a president, that’s the job of the American people,” Milley said, adding that there was a “cumulative effect to a series of strategic decisions” over the 20-year war that led to the chaos.
On Tuesday, Milley was challenged over damning reports in a new book that he went behind then-President Donald Trump’s back to deal with China — assuring Beijing officials he would warn them of any planned military actions his commander-in-chief planned.
Milley defended his calls to his Chinese counterpart, calling the military communications critical “to the security of the United States in order to deconflict military actions, manage crisis, and prevent war between great powers.”
“My loyalty, this nation, its people, and the Constitution hasn’t changed, and will never change,” Milley added — avoiding addressing the allegation that he concealed the communication from Trump.
On Wednesday, Milley further defended the calls and insisted that at no time was he “attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, [or] insert myself into the chain of command.”
When asked on if he would have called and essentially warn his Chinese counterpart if the US did plan to attack China, Milley further emphasized the purpose of the calls was to de-escalate tensions. However, the general did reveal that he would have been willing to give that warning call to the People’s Liberation Army.
“As part of that conversation, I said, generally, there’s not going to be a war,” he said, adding that if there was going to be one, tensions would be built up “going back and forth from all kinds of senior officials.”
“I said, hell, I’ll probably give you a call, but we’re not going to attack you. Trust me, we’re not going to attack you.”
Milley later walked that back, saying, “I would never give up [to] any enemy, any kind of surprise thing that we’re going to do. That’s a different context than that conversation.”
The general was also asked to answer for his previous comments that the Taliban would not be able to defeat the Afghan military.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) slammed Milley, accusing him of spending “more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was gonna fall immediately to the Taliban, didn’t you?”
“Not even close,” Milley fired back.
“Oh really?” Gaetz pushed. “‘Cause you said right after Kabul fell, that no one could have anticipated the immediate fall of the Ghani government. When did you become aware that Joe Biden tried to get Ghani to lie about the conditions in Afghanistan? He did that in July. Did you know that right away?”
“I’m not aware of —” Milley began.
“You’re not aware of the phone call that Biden had with Ghani where he said, whether it is true or not, we want you to go out there and paint a rosy picture of what’s going on in Afghanistan? You’re the chief military adviser of the president,” the Florida congressman said.
Later, Gaetz slammed all three witnesses, saying he doesn’t believe any of them will resign.
“You seem to be very happy failing up over there,” he said. “But if we didn’t have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired because that is what you deserve. You have let down the people who wear the uniform in my district and all around this country. And you’re far more interested in what your perception is and how people think about you, and insider Washington books, than you care about winning.”
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) also slammed Milley on Wednesday, saying the US would not have seen 13 US service members and hundreds of Afghans killed if he had been more focused on his duty rather than “defending and pandering to the Biden administration’s woke social experiment with the United States military, doing book interviews and colluding with Chinese military officials.”
“I submit to you, sir, that you should resign because of your dereliction of duty to this country,” Jackson added.
