Three Pentagon officials testified in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on two major topics Tuesday: America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and two controversial phone calls with a defense official in China. The video above shows clips from the testimony.
The three officials were Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and head of the Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie.
Gen. Milley was the one at the center of the China call, in which he assured Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army that the United States was not suddenly going to go to war with or attack China.
“The specific purpose of the October and January calls were to generate…were generated by concerning intelligence, which caused us to believe the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States,” Milley said. “I know, I am certain that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility, and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary to convey that intent to the Chinese.”
Some U.S. lawmakers have said Milley overstepped his authority, and they have called for President Joe Biden to fire him.
Milley, as well as the other Pentagon officials, were asked about the war in Afghanistan. Milley called it a “strategic failure”.
“The enemy is in charge in Kabul,” he said. “There’s no way else to describe that.”
Gen. McKenzie said he agreed with Milley’s assessment. Both Pentagon officials refused to say what advice they gave President Joe Biden regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, Milley said it was his personal opinion that at least 2,500 were needed to guard against a collapse of the Kabul government and a return to Taliban rule.
“The president doesn’t have to agree with that advice,” Milley said. “He doesn’t have to make those decisions just because we are generals.”
Meanwhile, Austin questioned decisions made over the 20-year course of the war, saying the American government may have put too much faith in its ability to build a viable Afghan government.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,” Austin said. “The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise. It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”