Photo: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images
By: EFE
Monday, September 30
The White House declined to confirm whether Biden received a warning from two generals not to leave Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON – The White House declined Tuesday to confirm whether President Joe Biden received advice to leave a quota of about 2, 500 soldiers in Afghanistan , as stated by two of the highest ranking generals in the United States, Mark Milley and Kenneth McKenzie, during a hearing in Congress.
At a press conference, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended Biden’s decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan , although he said military leaders presented the president with “a range of options.”
“Lastly, regardless of the advice, it was his decision,” defended Psaki.
In addition, the spokeswoman defended that, if Biden had left 2, 800 soldiers in Afghanistan , now the US would be at “war” with the Taliban.
At the same time, he defended that this figure of 2, 500 was not “sustainable”, since it would have ended up increasing as it has happened during the last 20 years.
This Tuesday, Milley , the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and McKenzie, Leader of the Central Command (CENTCOM), appeared together with the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, before the Senate Armed Services Committee for give explanations on the chaotic withdrawal and evacuation of Afghanistan .
During his speech under oath, McKenzie noted that he recommended at the beginning of this year for the US to maintain 2, 500 troops in Afghanistan and q eu early fall of 2020 advised 4 stay, 500 Soldiers, responding to a question from Republican Senator Jim Inhofe for Oklahoma.
McKenzie declined to reveal exactly what his recommendation was to Biden, although he stressed that his “personal opinion”, which, he recalled, shapes the advice he offers to the president, is that “the withdrawal of those forces would inevitably lead to collapse the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government. ”
Then, Inhofe turned to Milley to ask if he was okay with it. in accordance with the recommendation to leave 2, 500 effective, to which the general The highest ranking in the US replied that he shared that vision.
In his press conference, Psaki defended that the statements of the two generals do not contradict the words of the president himself Biden , who has repeatedly insisted that he decided to go ahead with the withdrawal of Af ganistan after all his military advisers recommended it to him.
Even in an interview in the past 12 August with ABC News channel in the middle of the exit operation of Afghanistan , Biden assured that no one he remembered had recommended leaving a contingent of about 2, 500 military in that country.
In this regard, Psaki considered that Biden’s words in that interview have not been correctly interpreted by some media, which point to a contradiction; and stated that the debate on leaving troops was “divided”, but the “consensus” was that the soldiers should withdraw for Afghanistan.
USA was forced to accelerate evacuations in mid-August and advance the final deadline for the total withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan to the 31 of that month due to the rapid advance of the Taliban, who took control of the country, and the collapse of the Government of President Ashraf Ghani.