WASHINGTON (AP) – In his first congressional testimony on the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is defending the military’s execution of a frantic airlift from Kabul. He also asserted on Tuesday that it will be “difficult but absolutely possible” to contain extremist threats in Afghanistan without troops on the ground.
Meantime, in answer to the much-publicized phone call that Army Gen. Mark Milley is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress he knew former President Donald Trump wasn’t planning to attack China and it was his job to reassure the Chinese of that fact in phone calls that have triggered outrage from some lawmakers.
Milley delivered a full-throated defense of two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart, saying he was responding to “concerning intelligence” China was worried about a U.S. attack. He says his task was “to de-escalate.” Details of Milley’s calls were first aired in excerpts from the book “Peril” by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
Also testifying, General Kenneth McKenzie who, along with General Mark Milley told the panel that he advised President Biden to leave a small contingent of troops in Afghanistan.
Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in August that “no one” that he “can recall” advised him to keep a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
(Copyright 2021 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News. This report contains material from The Associated Press.)
