command. let me see if i get one question in here, having taken two minutes to mention a very important objection. general milley, in the fall of 2020, you said an accelerated withdrawal would risk substantial gains and damage u.s. credibility. i want to ask our witnesses about u.s. credibility. on july 8th, president biden said, the likelihood there s going to be taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. we now know he was advised, actually, this might happen. turns out, it was completely untrue, that state on july 8th. later in july, the president united states, president biden says, i trust the capacity of the afghan military, better trained, better equipped, and more competent in terms of conducting the war. president biden was wrong on that.
hearing. so today is really just a start. so in conclusion, i would just like to say this. president biden made a strategic decision to leave afghanistan, which resulted in the death of 13 u.s. service members, the deaths of hundreds of afghan civilians including women and children, that s what terrorists do. and left american citizens surrounded by the very terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and they are still there. thank you, mr. chairman. thank you very much, senator inhoff. secretary austin and chairman millie, the dohar agreement excuse me. we want to give you an opportunity to have opening statements as i ve been reminded.
president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn t launch them alone. and that i am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the united states. there are processes, protocols and procedures in place and i repeatedly assured her that there was no chance of an illegal, unauthorized or accidental launch. by presidential directive and secretary of defense directives, the chairman is part of the process to insure the president is fully informed when determining the use of the world s deadliest weapons. by law i am not in the chain of command and i know that. however, by presidential directive and d.o.d. instruction i am in the chain of communication to fulfill my legal statutory role as the president s primary military advisor. after the speaker pelosi call i convened a short meeting in my office with key members of my staff to refresh all of us on
our strike assets to fly out of for the over the horizon counter terrorism missions. is that true? senator, this is an issue that i believe came up during a conversation that the president had with president putin where president putin offered to provide assistance. but have you reached out to the russians asking specifically to use bases? general milley recently had a conversation with his russian counterpart. so the reports are true that have been coming out today? i can assure you that, you know, we are not seeking russia s permission to do anything but i believe and joe milley can speak for himself i believe he asked for clarification on what that offer was. i have a number of questions which i ll need to get to with
the procedures which we practice daily at the action officer level. additionally i immediately informed acting secretary of defense miller of speaker pelosi s phone call. at no time was i attempting to change or influence the process. , usurp authority or insert myself in the chain of command. but i am expected, i am required, to give my advice and insure that the president is fully informed on military matters. i am submitting for the record a more declared and unclassified memoranda you have, although late. i welcome a walk threw on every event and i would be happy to talk about the intelligence that drove these calls. i am happy to make available any email, phone logs, memoranda, witnesses or anything else you need to understand these events. my oath is to support the constitution of the united states of america against all