Gen. Austin Miller, the Commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan from 2018 through July of this year, reportedly warned Democrat President Joe Biden against withdrawing all forces from Afghanistan, and he strongly pushed back against intelligence reports that said the Afghan military could hold off the Taliban for 1-3 years, indicating that they would collapse significantly faster.
Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich said that Miller made the remarks during a classified Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, according to multiple sources who were present in the hearing.
“According to two members present for the hearing, Gen Miller passed his recommendations through the chain of command — that the US should keep a level of troops on the ground (2500 was the number at the time) in order to maintain stability given the Taliban threat assessment,” Heinrich wrote. “Miller’s view was troops should maintain holding pattern – potentially supplemented by add’l forces from allied nations – given the threat. Miller shared no recommendation on how long forces should have stayed, making clear he didn’t know what the end timeline would be.”
“Miller also said that he strongly dissented with the intel assessment that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban between 1-3 years, saying he thought it would go much, much faster,” Heinrich continued. “Miller also said once his recommendation was turned down, it became his job to execute on the withdrawal order – and eventually, decisions like abandoning Bagram were made because of constraints and troop caps imposed by the President’s orders.”
It’s not like they droned an aid worker and his family bringing water to thirsty kids. C’ mon man.