Rapid Collapse of Afghan Forces Wasn’t Foreseen, Milley Says

(Bloomberg) -- American intelligence reports didn’t foresee such a rapid collapse of the Afghan military and the U.S. now has a limited ability to aid Afghan allies stuck in Kabul, the Pentagon’s top leaders said.

“I can tell you that there are not reports that I am aware of that predicted a security force of 300,000 would evaporate in 11 days from 6 August to 16 August with the capture of 34 provinces and the capital city of Kabul,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday at a news conference alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Pressed on what the U.S. could do to help thousands of Afghan allies seeking to evacuate but unable to get to the airport because of Taliban checkpoints and threats, Austin signaled that the U.S. is largely dependent on convincing the militant group to let people through their checkpoints.

“We are going to do everything that we can to continue to try to de-conflict and create passageways for them to get to the airfield,” Austin said. “I don’t have a capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul. We do not have the capability to go out and collect large numbers of people.” 

“We will continue to coordinate, deconflict with the Taliban and make sure that those people that need to get to the airfield have the right credentials to ensure passage and the Taliban has been checking those credentials and if they have them they have allowed them to pass,” he added.

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Milley said the situation in Kabul, where about 4,500 U.S. troops are at the airport, remains dangerous and fluid, and Austin said the focus of American forces are on security of the airfield.  

Lawmakers from both parties have said the Biden administration should have been better prepared for a collapse of the Afghan military, which the U.S. spent more than $80 billion building up over the past two decades. 

Milley said it’s not the time for second-guessing or post-mortems on the Afghan defense force’s collapse as Taliban militants swept across the country in recent weeks. 

“Right now there are troops at-risk,” Milley said. “We are the United States military, and we will successfully evacuate all American citizens who want to get out of Afghanistan.”

Milley added that the U.S. intends to evacuate as many of the Afghan allies who helped the U.S. “as possible.”

His comments come after the administration has insisted that it will stick to a deadline to get U.S. citizens and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31 even as lawmakers of both parties are pressuring the administration to extend the effort. 

There are still 11,000 “self-identified” U.S. citizens in Afghanistan, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki. There are several times more applicants for the Special Immigrant Visa program and other refugee programs, according to human rights groups.

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