certain number of them beyond the august 31st deadline? no, senator. this is the joint chiefs of staff. this is myself included, general mckenzie, major general donahue, the ground tactical commander of the 82nd airborne division. there s no political pressure. there s no expectation of consensus. every one of us evaluated the military conditions at the time and we made unanimous recommendation that we end the military mission and transition to a diplomatic mission. while you testified that you may have had the personal recommendation i think in your case general mckenzie in the fall of 2020, that by the time we re evacuating everyone, that was not a recommendation that you personally held? no.
joint chiefs of staff, this is myself included, general mckenzie, major general donahue, the ground tactical commander, 82nd airborne division, and the admiral. every sing of us were in a tank. i brought them up. secretary austin did not show up. there s no political pressure, no expectation of consensus. every one of us evaluated the military conditions at the time on the 25th, and we made a unanimous recommendation that we end the military mission in transition to a diplomatic mission. thank you. while you temped that you may have had the personal recommendation and i think in your case, general mckenzie, in the fall of 2020 or it might have been general milley, that by the time we re evacuating everyone, that was not a recommendation that you personally held. absolutely not. at that point on the 25th of august, no. thank you. the 25th of august we recommended the mission end on the 31st. thank you for that
0 there s no doubt in my mind that our efforts prevented an attack on the homeland from afghanistan which was our core original mission. and everyone who served in that war should be proud. your service mattered. beginning in 2011, we steadily drew down our troop numbers, consolidated and closed bases and retrograded equipment from afghanistan. at the peak in 2011, we had 97,000 u.s. troops alongside 41,000 nato troops in afghanistan. ten years later, when the ambassador signed the doha agreement lton 29 february 2020 the united states had 12,600 troops with 8,000 nato and 10,500 contractors. this has been a ten-year multi-administration drawdown, not a 19-month or 19-day one. under the doha agreement, the u.s. would begin to withdraw forces contingent upon taliban meeting certain conditions, which would lead to a political agreement between the taliban and the government of afghanistan. there were seven conditions applicable to the taliban and eight conditions applicable to the united
0 there s no doubt in my mind that our efforts prevented an attack on the homeland from afghanistan, which was our core original mission. and everyone who has served in that war has been proud. your service mattered. beginning in 2011, we steadily drew down our troop numbers, consolidated and closed bases and retrograded equipment from afghanistan. at the peak in 2011, we had 97,000 u.s. troops alongside 41,000 nato troops in afghanistan. ten years later, when ambassador calisade signed the agreement on 29, february, 2020, the united states had 12,600 u.s. troops with 8,000 nato and 10,500 contractors. this has been a ten-year multi-administration drawdown. not a 19-month or 19-day ne-yo. under the doha agreement, the u.s. would begin to withdraw its forces, contingent upon the taliban meeting certain conditions, which would lead to a political agreement between the taliban and the government of afghanistan. there were seven conditions applicable to the taliban and eight conditions app
and she asked him about the idea of retaking the bagram air base where the firepower was centered. here is out exchange. you looking 15 - 20000 additional forces and most importantly you would reinitiate a war with the taliban but that s what would happen the isis in the taliban and all the casualties, et cetera. i know a lot of people are talking about it but i wonder if the support would ve been there if that had been done i personally think the military did not want that. the military conditions wanted what we did but we had only a couple of thousand troops on the ground in afghanistan these last months and there had been no casualties and the taliban -controlled 0 of the country until they started their rampage in may.