Senior military officials within the US have linked the collapse of the Afghan government and its security forces in August to former President Donald Trump’s effect on the Taliban in 2020 promising an entire withdrawal of folks troops.
General Frank McKenzie, the top of Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday that when the US troop presence was pushed below 2,500 as a part of Washington’s bid to finish a complete withdrawal by the top of August, the unraveling of the US-backed Afghan government accelerated.
“The signing of the Doha agreement had a very pernicious effect on the govt of Afghanistan and on its military – psychological quite anything, but we set a date – certain for once we were getting to leave and once they could expect all assistance to finish,” McKenzie said.
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He was pertaining to a leap day, 2020, agreement that the Trump administration signed with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, during which the US promised to completely withdraw its troops by May 2021 and therefore the Taliban committed to many conditions, including stopping attacks on US and coalition forces.
The stated objective was to market a peace negotiation between the Taliban and therefore the Afghan government, but that diplomatic effort had did not gain traction before former US President Donald Trump was replaced by President Joe Biden in January.
The new US president pushed ahead with the plan for the troop withdrawal but extended the deadline to August 31.
McKenzie said he also had believed “for quite a while” that if the US reduced the number of its military advisers in Afghanistan below 2,500, the collapse of the govt in Kabul would be inevitable “and that the military would follow”.
He said additionally to the morale-depleting effects of the Doha agreement, the troop reduction ordered by Biden in April was ”the other nail within the coffin” for the 20-year war effort because it blinded the US military to conditions inside the Afghan army, “because our advisers were not down there with those units”.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, testifying alongside McKenzie, said he agreed with McKenzie’s analysis.
He added that the Doha agreement also committed the US to end air attacks against the Taliban, “so the Taliban got stronger, they increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces, and therefore the Afghans were losing tons of individuals on a weekly basis”.
‘Strategic failure’
Wednesday’s House hearing is a component of what’s likely to be an extended congressional review of the US failures in Afghanistan, after years of limited congressional oversight of the war, which has cost billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had said each day earlier during a similar hearing within the Senate that the war in Afghanistan was a “strategic failure,” and he repeated that at the House hearing.
Milley listed a variety of things liable for the US defeat going back to a missed opportunity to capture or kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
He also cited the 2003 decision to invade Iraq, which shifted US troops far away from Afghanistan, “not effectively handling Pakistan as a (Taliban) sanctuary,” and pulling advisers out of Afghanistan a couple of years ago.
Biden has faced the most important crisis of his presidency over the war in Afghanistan, which he argued needed to be delivered to an in-depth after 20 years of stalemated fighting that had cost American lives, drained resources, and distracted from greater strategic priorities.
Republicans have accused Biden of lying about the military commanders’ recommendations to stay 2,500 troops within the country, playing down warnings of the risks of a Taliban victory, and exaggerating the US’s ability to stop Afghanistan from again becoming a secure haven for armed groups like al-Qaeda.
“I fear the president could also be delusional,” said Mike Rogers, the highest Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, calling the withdrawal an “unmitigated disaster”.
“It will go down in history together of the best failures of yank leadership,” Rogers said.
Shouting matches
Wednesday’s hearing was politically charged, descending repeatedly into shouting matches, as representatives argued over what Democrats characterized as partisan Republican attacks on Biden, particularly over an August television interview during which the president denied his commanders had recommended keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
He said then: “No. nobody said that to me that I can recall.”
One member, Republican Representative Mike Johnson, used the time he had been allotted for inquiries to read the interview transcript aloud.
Republican Joe Wilson said Biden should resign.
Democrats faulted Republicans for blaming Biden – who has been president since late January – for everything that went wrong during the 20 years US troops are in Afghanistan.
Representative Smith, the committee’s Democratic chairman, said he agreed with Biden’s decision to withdraw from Afghanistan.
“Our larger mission to assist build a government in Afghanistan that would govern effectively and defeat the Taliban had failed,” Smith said.
“President Biden had the courage to finally make the choice to mention no, we aren’t succeeding during this mission.”
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