Most senior leadership in charge of the war in afghanistan today facing tough questions from a senate committee. we certainly did not plan against a collapse of a government in 11 days. reporter: questions about the chaotic evacuation. the decision to withdraw. troop levels and how the afghan army and government imploded so quickly. the fact the afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away in many cases without firing a shot took many of us by surprise. it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. i think there was a lot of intelligence that clearly indicated that after we withdrew, that it was a likely outcome of a collapse of the military and collapse of the government. there s no intel assessment that says the government is going to collapse and the military is going to collapse in 11 days that i m aware of. reporter: general mark milley also in the hot seat over a series of revelations from the new book by bob woodward and robert costa called peril. the
And as you know, we face grave and growing threats from isis-k. staying longer that we did would have made it even more dangerous for our people. it would not have significantly changed the number of evacuees we could get out. as we consider these tactical issues today, we must also ask ourselves some equally tough questions about the wider war itself. and pause to think about the lessons that we have 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 institutions, an army, an air force, a police force, and government ministries? we helped build a stage, mr. chairman, but we could not forge a nation. the fact that the afghan army that we and our partners train simply melted away in many cases without firing a shot took us all by surprise. and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. we feed to consider some
We apprehended and maybe another million in the country. if another 18 years in 18 years if every one has two or three children you re talking about millions and millions and minneapolis of new voters. who do you think they re voting for? so this is this is trying to take over our country without firing a shot. i mean, that s that s really downright violent rhetoric, honestly when you say taking over the country without firing a shot, the implication is that you would be justified, essentially, in restore li resorting to some sort of force to defend yourself from them? and we ve seen this talk, rhetoric lead to violence. we remember what happened in 2019 in el paso at the wal-mart, in atlanta last year. and there is a danger to this kind of rhetoric taking hold in mainstream politics in the country and for it to happen in texas is crazy talk. a few weeks ago when the census
Effective counterinsurgency campaign requires, quote, a level of local knowledge that i don t have about my own ho hometown. not about his own hometown, let alone about afghan villages nestled in the hindu kush. we would breach a compound and someone would run out with an ak-47, and as our rules of engagement allowed, we would salute shoot and kill them. almost every compound had an ak-47. if someone came in your living room right now and you had an ak-47, you might go to defend your family. so i think we killed a lot of people who were defending hearth and home. i think we created a tremendous amount of ill will and fear in the afghan people. most of the time we got the individual that we were conducting the raid without firing a shot. most of the time. but when you run that many raids, eventually some of them are going to go bad, and there
Individual we were kuconducting the raid without firing a shot. but if you run that many raids, something is going to go bad. there were some horrible mistakes. mistakes meaning innocent civilians, wounded or killed. brown university watson institute for international public affairs mestimates more than 48,000 civilians lost their lives. 47,000, no matter what stories we told ourselves about why those mistakes happen, it s that number, not the battles the u.s. won or in schools that the u.s. built. that number may have ultimultimately mattered. i will never forget this one. the united states bombed a wedding party and i said okay, i