an american citizen left behind in afghanistan, the military is going to stay until we get them out. general milley, was that statement did that statement turn out to be true or untrue by the president? i think that was the intent but we gave him a recommendation on the 25th of august to terminate the mission. bill: the at the same time was untrue. let me ask another question. the president around the same time said al qaeda was gone from afghanistan. told the american people that. was that true or not true? was al qaeda gone from afghanistan in mid august? true or not true? al qaeda is still in afghanistan. they were there in mid august. they have been severely disrupted over many years. they are not so it wasn t true. general mckenzie. al qaeda was present in afghanistan. let me make one final one. the president called this operation an extraordinary success.
first strike and push the tough guy image and once threatened to have union bosses beat me up. if we find more we ll strike them. this was after he said the isis-k leaders we will hunt you down. he talks tough, go get them. i also notice he has been equally silent taking no responsibility for the strike on innocent civilians including children that was in part caused by in my view his insecure need to appear tough. he just let you take the blame, general mckenzie. what i really worry about is the air crews who were pressured to pull the trigger that terrible day. the north dakota air national guard operates reapers around the world and i know what kind of pressure those air crews are under and the level of responsibility they feel to accomplish their missions properly. i m worried that whoever was operating the aircraft involved
in the tragic 29th august strike was set up to fail by an administration that wanted a political victory more than they wanted an american victory. have you reached out to the air crew to make sure they understand it is not their fault that there were seven children killed? i have not. as you probably know, i have directed a three-star review of this incident. general mckenzie did an initial investigation. i have directed a three star review. i won t make any comments. you know, there certainly seem to be a lot of indications that a terrorist event was likely if not imminent leading up to isis-k bombing on the 26th. why were our military members still exposed after that threat was known, general mckenzie? the purpose of our force at the airfield was to bring american citizens and afghans at risk out. in order to do that you had to
they sent pictures of the slit throats of people we were working with. they killed this pregnant woman and this police officer and they are killing countless other people that we should have gotten out. secretary austin, i think we do owe a debt of gratitude to the people who got 124,000 people out. it was a logistical success but a strategic failure. general mckenzie, general miller said 2500. i heard you and general milley also say you agreed with the idea. you personally agreed. not necessarily recommended the 2500 to the president. i understand from general miller there was a broader context within that recommendation. there were 2500 fighters, u.s. fighters. but i understand almost 5,000 nato allies or 5,000 others that were willing to remain on
general milley, in questioning from senator cotton you talked about your military advice about leaving on august 31st versus staying to try to help additional americans leave. was it the unanimous recommendation of the joint chiefs that the august 31st date should be observed and if so, why was that the military advice? it was of the joint chiefs plus general mckenzie, admiral vaizly and general donahue. the reason is risk to force, mission and american citizens. on the first of september we were going to go to war again with taliban. there was no doubt. we were already in conflict with isis. at that point in time, if we stayed past the 31st, which militarily is feasible but it would have required additional commitment of more forces, 15,000, 25,000 troop. reseize bagram.