we help build a state mr. chairman but cannot forge a nation. the fact that the afghan army we and our partners train simply melted away in many cases without firing a shot took us all by surprise. in the end, we couldn t provide them with the will to win, at least not all of them and as a veteran of that war, i am personally reckoning with all of that. that was secretary of defense lloyd austin. delivering some painful truths about this country s 20-ar endeavor in afanistan. he testified today along with the commander of u.s. central command and the chaian of the joint chief of staff mark milley. republicans spent their time hammering talking points attempting to blame joe biden for ending a forever war that republicans favorite president vowed to end, too.
erratic and maybe mad in his last ditch effort to stay in power. i wanto play for you, this is an exchange tt mark milley, a question thate described with speaker pelosi the risk of a nuclear launch. i sought to assure her that nuclea launcs governed by a ve specic andeliberate press. she was concerned and made various psonal referens char characterizg the president. i explained the president doesn t wan them alone. i am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the united states. does that, the fact that that happened frighten you as much as it does me? well, i think it was quite evident for quite sometime that donald trump was reckless and was trying to do everything possible to stay in office.
before? i do want to note that my family and i were in cambodia until the very end. i m an american. i was born in thailand but my father worked for the united nations and to answer my colleague s question, my father chose to stay as long as people to help the cambodiaen people as long as people and he left after american troops left. mike dr. today s hearing was the first time general milley responded to the reporting from bob woodward and robert costa the steps he took to ward off an attack strike. reacting to intelligence showing the chinese believed the u.s. was plotting to secretly attack him,illey spoke twi in an effort to cool tensio. i kn, i am ctain that presiden trump did n intd to aack t cnese and i is directed responsibility and it was myirecte respsibility by the secretary
that backdrop demanding something that s absolutely silly and asking general milley why he dsn t resign because he had a different of opinion with the white house. i can only conclude tha your advice about staying in afghantan was rejected. ifhis istrue, general milley why hav t you resigned? it would be an incredible a offiance to resign because m advice isn t taken. th country doesn t want generals figuring out what orders we ll accept and do or not. that s not our job from a peonal stanoint, my dad didn t get a chance to resign and those kids at abby gate don t get a chance to resign. i m not going to turn my back on them. in your views as somebody that had a very senior position in national security. what kind of country would it be if every time a general said we should stay in the military theater and the commander in chief didn t do as he said, that
just the military ones, but the american people s sentiments and other factors, once that decision was made, general milley and others did what u.s. military has done for decades and centuries, which is to sole lewd and carry out the order to the best of their ability. because the person in charge is the president of the united states. no president is required, am i correct, to take advice unaltered of generals inside of his military, inside of the military in which he s commander in chief. that s why it s called advice and the president has to take in advice of the military officials and senior civilian officials and up to the president of the united states to make the best decision on behalf of the people of the united states. and i sincerely believe that joe biden did exactly what he thought was in the best interest. i might not agree with everything that was done or decided but i have no doubt that joe biden was trying to do what he thought was important for the