Top generals in charge of chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal under Biden slam State Department for evacuation order that came ‘too late’ and call Kabul’s rapid collapse a ‘strategic failure
Two former top generals responsible for the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that killed 13 service members said orders to evacuate from Biden came too late to prevent disaster.
During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing reviewing the Afghanistan withdrawal Tuesday, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and former U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie testified about the details surrounding the withdrawal.
The hearing serves as a platform for the now-retired military leaders to weigh in on the withdrawal, which has been decried as a failure by some Democrats and almost all Republicans.
In his opening statement, Milley summarized the withdrawal, noting that the State Department order to evacuate the Americans did not come quickly enough.
“On August 14, the decision to evacuate noncombatants was made by the State Department and the U.S. military was alerted, mobilized and rapidly deployed more quickly than any military in the world ever would,” Milley said.
“I believe that decision came too late.”
Former Gens. Mark Milley (L) and Kenneth McKenzie (R) testified that the State Department acted too slowly in ordering the evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan
Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley was the highest-ranking military official at the time of the 2021 withdrawal
A helicopter with a Taliban flag flies above Taliban supporters who have gathered to celebrate the US withdrawal of all its troops from Afghanistan
McKenzie agreed, saying he too believes the events of August 2021 were the result of delayed decisions that were the responsibility of the State Department.
“My view remains that if there is any culpability in this attack, it lies in policy decisions that created the environment.”
‘CThe responsibility and responsibility does not lie with the troops on the ground,” he added.
Milley even admitted that he did not know how many Americans were in Afghanistan at the time of the withdrawal.
‘I will be honest; I don’t know exactly how many Americans stayed behind, because the starting number was never clear.’
The Biden administration, meanwhile, quickly fired back at the generals.
“Shameless for the Republican Party to use Afghanistan to play politics,” White House spokesman Ian Sams wrote on X during the hearing. “They want to distract from their own current failures.”
The top generals also took time to recognize the Gold Star families who attended the hearing, including Steve Nikoui, who was recently arrested for shouting “Remember Abbey Gate” at Biden during his State of the Union address.
“I personally volunteer here today to help the families of the fallen, the 13 fallen at Abbey Gate,” Milley said.
“We owe them answers and I am committed to helping in the effort to get them answers.”
Steve Nikoui, the Gold Star father of slain Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who died in the Abbey Gate bombing, told DailyMail.com last week that the hearing is crucial.
“Joe Biden is personally the reason for that fiasco,” he told DailyMail.com, “100%.”
“I’m angry at Milley and Mackenzie because I think they should have been bold, taken a stand and resigned. Maybe it would have changed the course of history.”
Christy Shamblin and Alicia Lopez, who also lost family members in the Abbey Gate attack, were also in attendance.
Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, opened the hearing blaming Biden for the disaster before reading the names of 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing as the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
However, Democrats quickly changed their tune by blaming the disastrous mission on former President Donald Trump, who “did not have a comprehensive plan to withdraw from Afghanistan,” said Greg Meeks, D-N.Y.
A suicide bombing during the withdrawal claimed the lives of 13 American soldiers
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said the blame for the withdrawal lies with policymakers, not the troops
Milley previously called the withdrawal a “logistical success but a strategic failure” and said he has “great regrets” about the operation.
“It didn’t end the way I wanted it to,” Milley said in an interview with ABC news in September before his retirement. “In a broader sense, the war was lost.”
McKenzie also expressed his regret about the operation in an interview NPRsaying ‘that’s something that haunts me to this day.’
Tuesday’s hearing is just one of many congressional sessions this year devoted to the 2021 military withdrawal.
In January, the committee held a hearing on the Taliban’s reprisal killings of key U.S. Afghan allies.
In February, the committee held a hearing on the Biden administration’s failure to uphold the Doha agreement that brokered peace between the US and the Taliban.
“As a result of the Biden administration’s inability to plan, the U.S. military was forced to conduct this emergency evacuation surrounded by tens of thousands of Taliban terrorists,” said House Speaker Michael McCaul, R-Texas , during a hearing in February.
“Simply put, President Biden and Secretary Blinken have endangered thousands of American lives through their incompetence and willful blindness.”
Videos and images of the 2021 withdrawal show US military aircraft evacuating the country as desperate residents cling to the outside of the plane in an attempt to escape Taliban rule
The withdrawal culminated in an attempt by tens of thousands of Afghans to evacuate the country with US military transports.
McCaul also threatened to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress last month for failing to turn over the Department’s After-Action Review (ARR) notes on the Afghanistan operation.
The Texans claim the notes contain potentially damning first-hand accounts of the recording.
However, the Biden administration has largely blamed the Trump administration for the operation.
“President Biden was committed to ending the war in Afghanistan, but when he came to power he was confronted with the difficult reality the Trump administration left him,” the White House wrote in a report announcing the withdrawal described.