The US army lost the war in Afghanistan due to a number of wrong decisions, although it managed to fulfill some of the tasks it faced. The corresponding statement at the Senate hearing was made by the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milli, writes the Washington Post on September 30.
According to Milli, the wrong decisions were made by four previous presidential administrations.
"He [Afghanistan] has not been lost in the last 20 days, or even in 20 months. The cumulative effect of a number of strategic decisions made a long time ago," Milley told the House Armed Services Committee during the hearing. He added that among the tasks performed by the United States is protection from the terrorist organization al-Qaeda (banned in the Russian Federation). However, the final results were very different from the planned ones, Milli stressed.
Milli testified the day after he and another key figure in the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, the commander of the US Central Command, General Kenneth F. Mackenzie, told the Senate panel that the war was a "strategic failure." Biden acted within the limits of his powers, they noted.
During Wednesday's hearing, Republicans and Democrats argued about whether America's leaders, especially Biden, were honest with the public in their predictions about Afghanistan. At some point, the meeting turned into a dispute over who was to blame for the disorderly ending of the war, during which 13 American servicemen were killed in suicide attacks near Kabul airport.
Millie and Mackenzie told lawmakers that they advised Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, to keep at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, stressing that reducing them below this number would accelerate the final collapse of the government and the Armed Forces of Afghanistan. In the end, the administration decided to leave about 650 troops to ensure the security of the US Embassy in Kabul and Hamid Karzai International Airport.
As McKenzie emphasized, the collapse of the Afghan government occurred much faster than the Pentagon predicted.
Member of the House of Representatives Mike D. Rogers (Alabama), the committee's top Republican, accused the White House of allowing the State Department to determine the US military position in Afghanistan.
On September 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the withdrawal of US troops and their allies from Afghanistan could be compared to flight. According to him, after the aggravation of the situation in Afghanistan, a common and coordinated line of risks is needed.
As the Russian leader pointed out on September 9, the "authors of the experiments" in Afghanistan have retreated, and the consequences have to be eliminated by the entire world community. The crisis in the country is the result of an irresponsible policy of imposing other people's values from the outside.
He also noted that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan led to a new crisis in the country and turned into a humanitarian catastrophe. Putin stressed that the forcible imposition of democratic values on any people is unacceptable.
The situation in Afghanistan escalated in May 2021 after the start of the withdrawal of American troops who had been in the country since 2001. Militants of the radical Taliban movement (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) launched an offensive against major cities of the country and entered Kabul on August 15, announcing the end of the war. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left the country on the same day.