Of the war in afghanistan. we certainly did not plan against the collapse of a government in 11 days. lawmakers pressing u.s. military leadership on just that, facing questions on how the afghan army and government fell to the taliban so quickly. the fact that the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise. and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise president joe biden ordered the full withdrawal. but the top generals are telling the senate armed services committee they personally supported keeping 2,500 troops in afghanistan. i recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in afghanistan. 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. my assessment was back in the fall of 20, and it remained consistent throughout, we should keep a steady state of 2,500, and it could bounce up to 3
About ten minutes or so. now i want to take you back to the united states because for the first time since the fall of afghanistan, top american leaders are publicly testifying before congress about what went so terribly wrong. in the coming hours they ll address u.s. house on services committee. they gave the senators their take on what the government collapsed so spectacularly and why the taliban remain a serious threat. we helped build the state, mr. chairman, but we could not forge a nation. the fact that the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise. and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. we must remember that the taliban was and remains a terrorist organization, and they still have not broken ties with al qaeda. i have no illusions who we are dealing with. it remains to be seen whether or not the taliban can consolidate
Ourselves tough questions about the wider war itself and pause to think about the lessons that we ve learned over the past 20 years. did we have the right strategy? did we have too many strategies? did we put too much faith in our ability to build effective afghan steetion, an army, an air force, a police force and government ministries? we helped build a state but we could not forge a nation. the fact that the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away in many cases without firing a shot took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. we need to consider some uncomfortable truths. that we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks. the we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by president ghani of his commanders. that we did not anticipate the
Us military authorities in washington have acknowledged the chaotic pull out from afghanistan has damaged the us s credibility. general mark milley told a senate committee he had not anticipated the speed of the taliban takeover and warned that al-qaeda could pose a renewed threat to us interests. he was testifying alongside lloyd austin. we helped build a state but we could not help forge a nation. the fact the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. as we built that army and all of its components i think that one error we may have made over time is we make them too dependent on technology, too dependent on our capabilities. we didn t take in the cultural
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