0 during this process, the views of all of the joint chiefs of staff, all of us, the centcom commander, general mckenzie, general miller, and myself were all given serious consideration by the administration. we provided a broad range of options and our assessment of their potential outcomes. we couched that in cost, benefit, risk-to-force, risk-to-mission. all of that was evaluated against the national security objectives of the united states. on 14 april, the president of the united states, president biden, announced his decision, and the u.s. military received a change of mission, to retrograde all u.s. military forces, maintain a small contingency force of 6 to 700 to protect the embassy in kabul, until the department of state could coordinate contractor security support, and also to assist turkey to maintain the hamid karzai international airport and to transition the u.s. mission to over the horizon counterterrorism sport and security force systems. it is clear, it is obvious to
troops to afghanistan in the event that our intelligence estimates proved true in our homeland security is in fact threatened? currently issue the president s decision, senator, as you know, we ve left iraq excuse me, afghanistan, and so we ve not been tasked to construct any plans to go back into afghanistan. no such plans in place? no. general milley, of the conditions that were required of the taliban in the agreement, only one was met, is that correct? that is correct, the condition was the one that was met, most important one, don t attack us or coalition forces and they didn t. so the president trump made a recommendation, gave order that we leave 15 january. correct.
security council conducted rigorous interagency review of the situation in afghanistan, february, march and april, in which news of leadership given serious consideration by the administration, you also testified that you received order november 2020, all forces from afghanistan by january 15th, 2021. was that november order similarly informed by review? no. so that was basically esper submitted recommendation in written format on 9th, day he was relieved and 48 hours later received written order to go to zero by 15 january. i think in general mckenzie, again, your advice maintaining 2500 troops has been reiterated
i received an unclassified signed order directing the united states military to withdrawal forces from afghanistan no later than 15 january, 2021. after further discussions regarding the risks associated with such a withdrawal, the order was rescinded. on 17 november we received a new order to reduce levels to 2500 plus enabling forces no later than 15 january. when president biden was inaugurated there were approximately 3500 u.s. troops, 5400 nato troops and 6300 contractors in afghanistan with a specified task of train, advise, and assist. along with a small contingent of counter terrorism forces. the strategic situation at inauguration was stalemate. the biden administration through the national security council process conducted a rigorous interagency review of
directing the united states military to withdrawal all forces from afghanistan, no later than 15 january 2021. after further discussions regarding the risks associated with such a withdrawal, the order was rescinded. on 17 november, we received a new order, to reduce levels to 2,500, plus enabling forces, no later than 15 january. when president biden was inaugurated, there were approximately 3,500 u.s. troops, 5,400 nato troops, and 6300 contractors in afghanistan, with a specified task of train, advise, and assist, along with a small contingent of counterterrorism forces. the strategic situation at inauguration was stalemate. the biden administration through the national security council process conducted a rigorous interagency review of the situation in afghanistan in february, march, and april.