Aghans try to climb aboard a USAF C-17A cargo plane in Kabul<\/p>\n
Retired Gen. Austin Miller, the former top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, warned the Biden administration that Afghanistan would get \u201cvery bad, very fast\u201d when American troops began to withdraw.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s warnings, which went largely unheeded by the White House, were revealed to House investigators last month when the former top U.S. general testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee as part of a GOP-led investigation into the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. The chaotic withdrawal \u2013 begun in February 2020 and completed in August of that year \u2013 contributed to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in a terror attack outside of Kabul\u2019s Hamid Karzai International Airport.<\/p>\n
Miller played a part in organizing and executing the withdrawal, though his term ended in July 2021 before the pullout was completed. The retired general told committee investigators last month that he was bothered by the White House\u2019s \u201clack of understanding of the risk\u201d that he attempted to impart, according to The Washington Post<\/a>, which obtained a transcript of his testimony.<\/p>\n The retired general warned a Marine Corps commander in charge of contingency planning to prepare for \u201creally adverse conditions\u201d if an evacuation became necessary. President Joe Biden declared an evacuation on August 14 in the final weeks of the withdrawal as a Taliban blitz recaptured nearly the entire country.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not foresee a good future for Afghanistan as I was departing,\u201d Miller said. He added that he regretted not being more assertive in making Washington take his views and concerns seriously.<\/p>\n The U.S. was largely restricted to Kabul\u2019s airport in the final weeks of the withdrawal after a hurried pullout from the rest of the country left billions of <\/a>dollars worth\u00a0of equipment behind, many Afghans who worked with the U.S. during its two-decade occupation and fight against terror groups, and hundreds of American citizens.<\/p>\n On August 26, 2021, days before the withdrawal ended, an ISIS-K terrorist blew himself up near Hamid Karzai International Airport\u2019s Abbey Gate. The blast killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans. The terrorist was previously an inmate at Bagram Airfield, which the U.S. abandoned during the withdrawal and the Taliban later took control of. The terrorist was released<\/a> from the Bagram prison by the Taliban.<\/p>\n The Biden administration continues to stand by its decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, calling<\/a> the pullout the right \u201ccorrect policy choice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the evidence is coming back. Do you remember what I said about Afghanistan?\u201d Biden told reporters last year. \u201cI said al Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn\u2019t be there. I said we\u2019d get help from the Taliban. What\u2019s happening now? What\u2019s going on? Read your press. I was right.\u201d<\/p>\n