The Gen. Mark Milley Interview That Should Infuriate All Americans

Nice strawman steve!!!!

Milley was asked;
“Is the U.S. safer today since it has withdrawn from Afghanistan?” Milley said this was something he thought a lot about, that he thought the situation was likely to develop into a “civil war.” He said he didn’t know if the Taliban was going to be able to establish “governments.” He said that civil war could lead to a “reconstitution of al Qaeda or growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups.”

“The short answer to your question is we don’t know yet,” Milley said. “But the conditions are very likely, in my opinion…you could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that region within 12, 24, 36 months.”

Milley admitted the pull-out left a vacuum for which terrorism to regain a strong hold in Afghanistan. Milley knew this for quit a while. But he didn’t have enough moral fiber to say anything to prevent this debacle. We’re going to have to pay for this mistake in the future. I'm not advocating for forever wars. However in Afghanistan, we paint ourselves into a corner, that we couldn't just walk across the paint to get out of.

LTC Joe Anderson is there any possible path to withdraw from Afghanistan that didn’t end up exactly where we are?

SFC Thomas Foreman - Yes. Unfortunately we missed our opportunity to withdraw having met military objectives, while also crippling the Taliban and other terrorist organizations in Afghanistan. Remember in 2001 the Taliban along with Al-Qaeda were both considered terrorist organizations. In in the fall of 04 we still had the troop strength on the ground to go into the mountains and route out the Taliban. But we stopped short when the body counts started to go up. Rumsfeld didn't want the focus to be taken off of Iraq (Remember what major battles we were fighting in Iraq in 04 and 05?) and knew the Taliban wouldn't fight in the winter. So we let the Taliban hide in the mountains almost predominantly engaging the Taliban with SOF. SOF are excellent forces but cannot hold ground long-term or route out a stronghold the size the Taliban held. They require the support of conventional infantry to hold taken ground. Something we train on at NTC and JRTC.

Then again during the serge in 2011 we had well OVER 100k "Boots on the Ground." But rather than route out the Taliban, our leadership decided to use those forces for; "Nation Building," a renewed emphasis on training the Afghan Army, protecting women and girls in schools and in positions of leadership (A very honorable and noble cause. But not sure the Afghan people as a whole we're ready to embrace it. Current events show that they still aren't.), and other Civil Military Operations. SOF continued to engage the Taliban during this time period. But primarily as advisors to the Afghan Army (An Army that rarely fared well against the Taliban). Unfortunately after that the US public perceptions, will, and sentiment was not strong enough to do what was/is necessary to defeat the Taliban. Americans would not have approved of another serge and loss of lives due to large formation fighting the Taliban in their strongholds. The mountains were to the Taliban as Iwo Jima was to the Japanese.

After 2011 we basically painting ourselves into a corner. A corner with no way out other than leaving a number of troops behind to keep the peace for several generations. Once you begin "Nation Building" you can't leave for quite a while. I'm not a fan of "Nation Building" because it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 generations to change perceptions and wills. In a country like Afghanistan with hundreds of years of Tribalism after most of the rest of the world has moved away from it. It takes even longer to change the perceptions, will, and mindset of younger generations. Additionally since the older generations run the country you have to wait for those generations to die out before you see long-term change. We missed our opportunity to leave with mission success. Having missed our opportunity to leave having met military objectives. We were stuck there with no option to leave successfully. The best we could hope for during a pull out post 2011/12, was not to make it a debacle. I don't blame this administration or the last for Afghanistan. I lay most of the blame on Rumsfeld. Then on the Obama administration for not using troop strength and the serge properly. I don't think our leadership at any level understands the commitment it takes to "Nationbuild." Any Presidents trying to pull out after 2014 was in for a challenge. But to do it Is in this manner expecting the Afghan Army to cover our withdraw and the Afghan Government and Army to prevail was ludicrous. Not having a good primary or secondary courses of action was an embarrassment on an International scale. We gave the country back to the exact same people we took it from. Additionally we left the Northern Alliance on their own (The people who helped use establish a foothold in 2001). It will take years to repair some of the damage we've incurred with our International Allies particularly the Europeans.

This is just a very short analogy of how we missed our opportunity to leave Afghanistan successfully and; why we were doomed to fail by withdrawing from Afghanistan now. There are so many more details. However, they are too many to list and discuss on this forum. I suspect Military Science Majors and others will make their thesis and earn Graduate Degrees on this subject.

Pardon the typos and grammatical errors. I'm responding via my phone. I'll edit from time to time. It seems I have to say this, because certain members and unverified parties would much rather attack the syntact of an argument than the content.

Well said; its too bad we can’t have extend dialogue but this isn’t really a place to expand on your excellent points. I’ve got perceptions and experiences similar to yours I believe that coincide with yours but drift into other avenues that would worth the time to converse about. You and i don’t live in academia however. We have and do live in the real world. Again, well said

CENTCOM recieves orders and executes. JCS gives orders and advises POTUS. Tell me how that is wrong? It's even clear in the CENTCOM mission statement.

SPC Erich Guenther JCS has no command authority. It’s an advisory/administrative role only. Orders come down from the President to the SecDef to the combatant commanders. Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986.

SFC Thomas Foreman - It sure seemed like JCS Colin Powell was issuing a lot of commands direct to General Schwartzkopf during the first Gulf War including for him to lower his profile.

SPC Erich Guenther Powell can tell him to lower his profile. That’s an administrative task. Powell could not legally direct troop movements. Look up the law.