again, something like 75,000 taliban. it is not inevitable. but the likelihood there s going to be the taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. it happened less than a month later. kabul fell. so, yes, it is important to question claims and intelligence. the other exchange yesterday over a reporter just doing their job, asking about the raid in syria that killed the leader of isis. npr reporter questioned white house press expect jen psaki on board air force one. i know the u.s. has put out a statement that the, you know, they ve detonated the bomb themselves. but will the u.s. provide any evidence? because there may be people skeptical of the events that took place in what happened to the civilians. skeptical of the u.s. military s assessment when they went out and took out an isis
the overwhelming consensus is it will pop up a bit and go down. the jury is still out, but the likelihood that there s going to be the taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. covid, inflation and afghanistan. astead, how badly was he hurt by those predictions? i think he was. this was a white house that had trained its energy on getting the pandemic done first, would then move on to the other things. you can think of afghanistan on the foreign policy front as something they would think they would wrap up first, kind of notch an accomplishment, a thing that fits within biden s ideology and move on to the bigger challenges. the problem is on all of those fronts, the initial hurdle has been much larger than the white house has anticipated. i mean, i remember back on the campaign trail when the critique of joe biden, the candidate, particularly by other democrats running in that prooiimary was t he was offering himself as not
question in here, having taken two minutes to mention a very important ox. general milley, fall of 2020 you said a withdrawal would damage u.s. credibility. on july 8 president biden said the likelihood there will be taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. we now know he was advised this might happen. it was completely untrue, that statement on july 8. later in july, president biden said i trust the capacity of the afghan military, better trained, better e equipmented and more competent in running the war.
command. let me see if i get one question in here, having taken two minutes to mention a very important objection. general milley, in the fall of 2020, you said an accelerated withdrawal would risk substantial gains and damage u.s. credibility. i want to ask our witnesses about u.s. credibility. on july 8th, president biden said, the likelihood there s going to be taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely. we now know he was advised, actually, this might happen. turns out, it was completely untrue, that state on july 8th. later in july, the president united states, president biden says, i trust the capacity of the afghan military, better trained, better equipped, and more competent in terms of conducting the war. president biden was wrong on 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