The Afghanistan Debacle

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

fall (2)	staff (2)	consequence
joint	chief (2)	assessment
remain	consistent	throughout
steady	mistake	reconciliation
sign (3)	viewpoint	secretary (2)
council	evidence	under oath
logistic	command	commitment
aim (2)	legitimate	break/broke/broken (2)
press	violence	settlement (2)
agree	range (2)	agreement (2)
effect	under (2)	pernicious
peace	obligation	see/saw/seen (2)
cease	chairman	meet/met/met
multi-	attribute	strong/stronger/strongest
against	drawdown	administration
security	confession	evacuation
blame	broadcast	combatant
mess	caught up	catch/caught/caught
flaw	bear (2)	withdrawal
hasty	colossal	evacuation
series	strike (2)	quote-unquote
haunt	split (2)	come back (2)
regard	demand	find/found/found
session	brass (2)	hold responsible
expect	assistance	condition (2)
honor	applicable	cut/cut/cut (2)
army	prisoner	operation (2)
grill (2)	offensive	lose/lost/lost
confess	testimony	come out (2)
oath	collapse	recommend
favor	maintain	assessment
view	inevitable	prime-time
prime	red-faced	retrograde
advise	revelation	conduct (3)
analyze	testimony	blame game
release

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff:” My assessment was uh back in the fall of 20 and it remained consistent throughout that we should keep a steady state of 2,500.

Journalist: “Our military advisors warned against what’s drawing on this timeline they wanted you to keep about 2500 troops.”

Joe Biden, US President: “No they didn’t! It was split. That wasn’t true. That wasn’t true.”
Jen Psaki, White House Press Secretary: “There was a range of viewpoints as was evidenced by their testimony today that were presented.

Mike Pompeo, Former Secretary of State: “We now have commitments from the Taliban to break with al Aaeda. This is historic.”

Abdullah Abdullah, High Council for Reconciliation: “The legitimate demand of our people and the aim of peace is to end the war and violence through a political settlement.”

General Kenneth McKenzie, Central Command Commander: “I think the Doha Agreement in the signing of the Doha Agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military.”

Hanif Atmar, Foreign Minister, Afghanistan: “The international community will unfortunately see for itself that the Taliban will not have met any of their obligations under the Doha Peace Agreement.”

Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense: “As a part of that agreement, we agreed to cease conducting air operations against the Taliban, so the Taliban got stronger.”

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff: “This has been a 10-year, multi-administration drawdown; not a 19-month retrograde or 17-day non-combatant evacuation operation.”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 
Lies, mistakes, failures and a blame game. America is caught up in a colossal mess of its own making with the flawed Doha Agreement, with the release of Taliban prisoners, a hasty military withdrawal from Afghanistan, a messy evacuation, and a quote-unquote “mistaken air strike”.

The series of unfortunate events have come back to haunt America and its leaders.

The top three American military commanders — Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, and the leader of the US Central Command General Frank McKenzie — sat down for a public televised, long grilling session with the lawmakers trying to find a name to blame.

Which president is to be held responsible: Donald Trump, Joe Biden or Ashraf Ahani. All these three names came up, and specifically the two American presidents.

Towards the end of the two days senate hearing, the military leaders narrowed down on the botched up Doha Agreement after being grilled with over a hundred questions regarding logistics, strategy and taking orders, the top US military brass had one last thing to say.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

General Kenneth McKenzie, Central Command Commander: “I think the Doha Agreement and the signing of the Doha Agreement had a really pernicious effect on the government of Afghanistan and on its military, psychological more than anything else.

But we set a date certain for when we were going to leave and when they could expect all assistance to end.

So for the first time, there was something out there in front of them.”

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff: “This has been a 10-year multi-administration drawdown, not a 19-month retrograde or 17-day non-combatant evacuation operation.

Under the Doha Agreement the united states will begin to withdraw its forces contingent upon the Taliban meeting certain conditions, which would lead to a political agreement between the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan.

There were seven conditions applicable to the Taliban and eight to the United States while the Taliban did not attack the United States forces which was one of the conditions, it failed to fully honor any other condition under the Doha Agreement.”

On the 29th of February 2020, the Doha Peace Agreement was signed where the US agreed to withdraw forces within 14 months.

The Taliban agreed to cut ties with the Al-Qaeda, and to not attack US forces in Afghanistan.

There were more than two conditions to this legal contract: the release of Taliban prisoners — as many as 5000 were released over months — and the American military has attributed this to the growth of the Taliban army.

Lloyd Austin, Secretary of Defense: “As a part of that agreement, we agreed to cease conducting air operations against the Taliban, so the Taliban got stronger. They increased their offensive operations against the Afghan security forces and the afghans were losing a lot of people on a weekly basis.

In addition to that we we caused them to release 5,000 prisoners and many of those prisoners went back to to fill the ranks of the Taliban.

So they got a lot stronger; they continued their attacks. We got smaller.”

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

Not just Donald Trump but the mistake of Joe Biden has also come out in the open. The two top generals have confessed — under oath — that they had advised president Joe Biden to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan.

General Mark Milley had proposed keeping at least 2,500 troops in the country. The CENTCOM commander was also in favor of maintaining military presence.

General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff: “Yes, my assessment was uh back in the fall of 20 and it remained consistent throughout, that we should keep a steady state of 2,500 and it could bounce up to 3,500 maybe something like that, in order to move toward a negotiated gated solution.

General Kenneth McKenzie, Central Command Commander: “I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. And I also recommended earlier in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time. Those are my personal views.

I also have a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.”

And the White House was caught red-faced after president Joe Biden’s confession of not being advised on his claim. On a famous American news network during a prime time interview.

Listen in.

Journalist: “Our military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops . . .”
Joe Biden, US President: “No, they didn’t . . . It was split . . . That wasn’t true.”

Although the white house tried to minimize the impact of the congressional testimony, the confessions, the revelations and the testimonies were broadcast live for the world to analyze the great American power and judgment, especially for the people of Afghanistan who are bearing the consequences of this unending series of American mistakes.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

Questions

Private, Recruit, Conscript. Only one person, the US President, could explain and analyze the War in Afghanistan. True or false?

Corporal. For the United States and its partners, everything in Afghanistan went smoothly and according to plan. Is this right or wrong?

Sargent. Was the purpose of the Congressional inquiry to plan a military counter offensive against the Taliban of Afghanistan?

Lieutenant. Does General McKenzie fully support the Doha Agreement? What were his arguments against the agreement?

Captain. Was the Doha Agreement favorable or unfavorable for the US? Was it favorable or unfavorable for the Taliban?

Major. There were inconsistencies in accounts. Is this correct or incorrect? What was the main inconsistency?

Lieutenant Colonel. “The revelations and the testimonies were broadcast live for the world to analyze the great American power and judgment.” How would the world analyze this hearing?
 
 
 
Colonel. Have troops from your country been assigned to Afghanistan or other parts of the world? Have contractors, volunteers, NGOs, aid workers been sent to Afghanistan or other parts of the world?

General, Admiral. Is the military well equipped and trained?

Commander in Chief. In hindsight, what could or should the US and foreign forces have done in Afghanistan?

Air Force. Is military service popular among (young) men?

Navy. Is it very important to study history or is it a waste of time?

Army. What might happen in the future?

Marines. Do people love watching action (violent) movies?