Senators grill top Pentagon leaders over Biden's Afghanistan exit, Woodward revelations

[Stevicus]

Senators grill top Pentagon leaders over Biden's Afghanistan exit, Woodward revelations (yahoo.com)

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joints Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, are testifying publicly this week for the first time since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The latest: Austin said in his opening statement that military leaders began planning for a non-combatant evacuation of Kabul as early as the spring, and that this is the only reason U.S. troops were able to start the operation so quickly. "Was it perfect? Of course not," Austin acknowledged.

Why it matters: The Pentagon's top leaders have come under intense scrutiny over the series of disasters that followed the U.S. exit, including the Taliban's seizure of Kabul, the ISIS-K terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghans in August, and a retaliatory U.S. drone strike that killed 10 civilians.

• Austin, Milley and McKenzie are testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday and the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
  
  
• The hearings, which come after Secretary of State Tony Blinken became the first senior Biden official to testify on Afghanistan earlier this month, are only the beginning — bipartisan congressional leaders have vowed to conduct thorough investigations into the failures of the 20-year war.
  

What to watch: Republicans have been highly critical of the Biden administration's withdrawal, demanding to know how the U.S. will prevent terrorist groups from reconstituting now that it no longer has troops or a reliable local partner in Afghanistan.

• President Biden has repeatedly touted new "over the horizon" capabilities that will allow the U.S. to neutralize terrorist threats from outside Afghanistan, but the tragic drone strike that mistakenly targeted an Afghan aid worker and his family has underscored the intelligence challenges posed by this strategy.
  
  
• Senators are also expected to grill the witnesses on intelligence assessments that claimed the Afghan security forces could survive for months after the U.S. withdrawal, as well as how much U.S. military equipment is now in the hands of the Taliban.
  

Between the lines: Milley, especially, is expected to face some of the most hostile questioning of his career — not over Afghanistan, but over his starring role in a series of recent books about former President Trump.

• In excerpts from "Peril," a new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley is reported to have reassured his Chinese counterpart in the final months of Trump's presidency that the U.S. would not launch a surprise attack against China.
  
  
• Milley told reporters in the wake of the erupting controversy that the calls were "perfectly within the duties and responsibilities" of his job, and that he would fully address the matter during his testimony.
  

Not sure what will come out of these hearings, but the article suggests that this is only the beginning, as it mentioned that "bipartisan congressional leaders have vowed to conduct thorough investigations into the failures of the 20-year war."

It also suggests that Milley will take a lot of hostile questioning over Woodward's book. Who knows? If he turns in a good performance, he could be the next Ollie North.

 

[Revoltingest]

It's as informative & exciting as watching paint dry.
No....drying paint is actually more interesting.

 

[We Never Know]

It's as informative & exciting as watching paint dry.
No....drying paint is actually more interesting.

The paint will accomplish something.

 

[We Never Know]

Senators grill top Pentagon leaders over Biden's Afghanistan exit, Woodward revelations (yahoo.com)





Not sure what will come out of these hearings, but the article suggests that this is only the beginning, as it mentioned that "bipartisan congressional leaders have vowed to conduct thorough investigations into the failures of the 20-year war."

It also suggests that Milley will take a lot of hostile questioning over Woodward's book. Who knows? If he turns in a good performance, he could be the next Ollie North.

20 years of them profiting off of the war and now its gone. They want answers.

 

[Kooky]

This reminds me of the Carthaginian practice to crucify unsuccessful generals after a failed military campaign, based on the reasoning that they must have done something traitorous or sacrilegious, or else the gods would have smiled upon them.

I predict similar levels of introspection into the role the US Congress and US domestic politics played in how the war went about (and how it even started).

 

[Laika]

This reminds me of the Carthaginian practice to crucify unsuccessful generals after a failed military campaign, based on the reasoning that they must have done something traitorous or sacrilegious, or else the gods would have smiled upon them.

I predict similar levels of introspection into the role the US Congress and US domestic politics played in how the war went about (and how it even started).

No doubt Congressmen will be consulting Astrologers to see if the planets are in alignment to secure victory. Perhaps Mars is at it's zenith. Clearly we don't want any unexpected comets foretelling doom for American defence policy.

edit: It's sad but I'm not sure I'm even joking anymore given the Qanon Caucus in the GOP. Astrology might be a more established and scientifically based discipline compared to what they might use.

 

[F1fan]

Sometimes mistakes just happen. We can't know everything, but the public still wants what it wants. We wanted out, we are out. Still people want to *****.