Gen. Milley: "nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated the collapse of...this government"

[ansible]

Link to tweet

Is he really this dense?

[BeyondGeography]

1. No worries, you can keep the ribbons, the fancy title and all the perks

Lifetime tenure is a wonderful thing.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

47. Just because your a General don't mean you know anything....

oh wait it's your job to know, idiot !


A put this on my what could happen in Afghanistan if we left, how did he miss it ????

[HubertHeaver]

2. Yes.

[Calista241]

3. He's covering his ass. Someone is going to take the fall for this.

And Milley is making sure it's not the military. What he said was probably true, and the intelligence agencies were incorrect in guessing the pace of the collapse.

[BlueLucy]

40. It's not the military. It's just not.

[AkFemDem]

4. Trump fired his generals and cabinet members every other week

Maybe that’s one practice Biden should consider copying.

[Dream Girl]

5. I wonder if there isn't more to the story...was TFG and minions somehow behind this?

[Cha]

19. trump was Definitely behind this from

the beginning..

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=15755318

[Ohio Joe]

6. I don't recall anyone thinking it would happen that fast...

Nor does a search pull anything up

[Irish_Dem]

8. 20 years boots on the ground, you think they would know something.

Pathetic news conference.

[Ohio Joe]

13. Know... What exactly?

Again... I can't find anyone who thought this would happen in such a short period or even had a hint of it.

[Irish_Dem]

16. DOD/CIA in Afghanistan for 20 yrs and spent $Trillions.

My aunt Fannie knows more than they do just reading the local newspaper.

If the DOD/CIA knew nothing about what would happen, they are either lying or seriously incompetent.
Only so many ways to slice it.

Sgt Joe Army in the Kabul motor pool probably knew more than the pathetic DOD officials we just saw in this press conference.

[Ohio Joe]

17. Really? Got a link?

Which local paper predicted this?

[BlueLucy]

41. That's exactly right.

I went back and read news reports from 2018-2020... It was there. The writing was on the wall.

[BeyondGeography]

23. He should have at least known as much as the NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/13/world/asia/afghanistan-rapid-military-collapse.html?searchResultPosition=4

How the Afghan military came to disintegrate first became apparent not last week but months ago in an accumulation of losses that started even before President Biden’s announcement that the United States would withdraw by Sept. 11.

It began with individual outposts in rural areas where starving and ammunition-depleted soldiers and police units were surrounded by Taliban fighters and promised safe passage if they surrendered and left behind their equipment, slowly giving the insurgents more and more control of roads, then entire districts. As positions collapsed, the complaint was almost always the same: There was no air support or they had run out of supplies and food.

But even before that, the systemic weaknesses of the Afghan security forces — which on paper numbered somewhere around 300,000 people, but in recent days have totaled around just one-sixth of that, according to U.S. officials — were apparent. These shortfalls can be traced to numerous issues that sprung from the West’s insistence on building a fully modern military with all the logistical and supply complexities one requires, and which has proved unsustainable without the United States and its NATO allies.

Soldiers and police officers have expressed ever-deeper resentment of the Afghan leadership. Officials often turned a blind eye to what was happening, knowing full well that the Afghan forces’ real manpower count was far lower than what was on the books, skewed by corruption and secrecy that they quietly accepted…

[Ohio Joe]

24. Analysis after the fact...

I think that would justify Milley saying weeks or months for it to fall... And he did... but I'm still not seeing anyone predicting it to occur in days, before it happened.

[BeyondGeography]

27. You sure are a soft touch

Try reading the whole article. Problems had been apparent for months. There’s no way our President should have been touting a meaningless manpower advantage on July 8.

[Ohio Joe]

29. It's behind a paywall...

But... Still not a single person claiming it would fall in days before it did?

[Kaleva]

32. An example would be the Iraqi army running from ISIS

Despite billions spent by the US on training and equipping the Iraqi Army, it fled. Leaving behind large quantities of US supplied arms and equipment. If the US and other western nations hadn't intervened, it's highly possible ISIS would have taken the whole country. At on point, they were just 50 miles from Baghdad.

[Ohio Joe]

37. I seem to recall that taking a bit more then a few days...

Did that happen in days?

[Kaleva]

42. The point is, though better equipped and having more men, the Iraqis fled.

Even though one may not have thought that the Taliban would have won in a matter of days, it should have been considered that without considerable direct US support, the Afghan govt and military would very likely have collapsed in time.

[Ohio Joe]

45. And I agree with that... So did Milley

So did many, many others. In fact Milley says exactly that right at the start of the video in the OP. My questioning goes to the OP calling Milley "dense" because he did not know the collapse would happen in days. I see many in this thread find Milley at fault for somehow not knowing it would be days. There are many things to fault many people for this 20 year debacle... I just don't see this as one of them.

[Kaleva]

48. I don't think Gen. Milley is dense. Far from it.

I do think there ought to be an internal review to determine why our intel was so wrong and take corrective action if needed.

During WWII, Gen Eisenhower choose not to believe the intel that the Germans were planning an attack late 1944. As a result, thousands of American soldiers died or were wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. The intel was there. Ike did not believe it. I don't know if that's the case with Afghanistan but it's possible.

[bluedevil4]

7. This must be why

they say "God Bless America". I must be overly involved. This is unhealthy for anyone to try and understand. Is anyone else appalled? Is it me overreacting!?

[Irish_Dem]

9. I was appalled.

[vanlassie]

10. Have you listened to Lawrence O'Donnell from last night?

[Ninga]

12. SO, SO,SO IMPORTANT! ODonnell gave a clinic on the US Military not knowing how to exit a lost war.

A MUST watch!

[bluedevil4]

15. I watched the fall of Saigon

and I remember the Vietnam conflict very well. I was very young but it hit everybody’s family back then. Seems we all new somebody’s son, brother cousin who died
I know there are similarities and definite embarrassment. I don’t recall it being as tense and long as this. Could it have be my black and white TV with rabbit ears, could it have been the lack of cell phones/ communication back then or my young age? Maybe someone else can help us understand

[vanlassie]

43. Lawrence can help you understand. Find the podcast.

[RockRaven]

11. So... Fool or liar?

It's got to be one or the other.

[GoCubsGo]

14. No, there's a third option.

Like Biden, he was probably rat-fucked by Trump's and Pompeo's secret dealings with the Taliban. There was a lot of stuff Biden was not informed about during the transition, so it's not surprising he was caught off guard. And, Milley was probably also left out of the loop, being on Trump's shit list. There are still a number of Trump toadies in positions where they can cause problems. Don't be surprised if we find out that some of their grubby fingers were involved in this, too

[crickets]

35. Exactly. trump conducted a hollowing out of the Pentagon before he left.

trump fired a lot of the staff and replaced it with toadies back in Nov/Dec 2020. There's no telling how much has fallen through the cracks because people who knew what they were doing were fired. Even if the more obvious sycophants are gone, it's likely that at least some of those replacements are left around to conduct quiet sabotage.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/pentagon-biden-transition-intelligence/index.html

Trump appointed [Kash] Patel and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the acting under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, to their posts as part of a slew of major changes at the Pentagon, where he has jettisoned much of the civilian leadership in recent weeks, replacing them with political loyalists as his administration winds to a close.

Cohen-Watnick gained notoriety in March 2017 for his alleged involvement in providing intelligence materials to then-House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican who went on to claim that US intelligence officials improperly surveilled Trump associates.

Since firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper by tweet November 9, the President has ousted at least three other top officials and replaced them with perceived loyalists. Trump has also replaced the members on two advisory boards, installing his former campaign manager on one of them.

[samsingh]

18. really? I saw it? 911 - saw that too. Iraq - saw it. Covid - saw it

who are all these morons that never seem to see anything

[Thomas Hurt]

20. was no one in the military and intelligence community aware of the POS Doha agreement...

and could not foresee possible consequences of it? This is why I am scratching my head. Everyone knew Trump was incompetent at the very least.

[moondust]

21. "the intelligence"

on the ground may not have been adequately updated after TFG's deal. I would guess that the Afghan troops and population learned that the U.S. and likely other NATO forces were leaving while the Taliban was sticking around. The Afghans chose the path of least resistance and danger who spoke their language and were making friendly overtures to them --> Taliban.

[Hoyt]

22. Well, that ought to make us feel safe. Is our military that stupid? Never mind.

[LakeArenal]

25. Hmmmm. Did he listen? Chants to Hang Pence

Chants to find Pelosi and kill her.

🐵🙉🙈🙊

[PortTack]

26. Listening to veterans on TikTok and other various sites, they are all pretty much in agreement

If you weren’t there you don’t know what you’re talking about so STFU!!

I agree with the vets..it’s not up to us the uninformed to hash this over this way...NOR THE MSM!!

[jalan48]

28. Our taxes are paying for this bullshit.

[Thrill]

30. I don't think they thought they would basically give up

In a few days. Maybe a few months but damn, they didn’t even fight a week. Crazy

[PortTack]

31. Not only did they not fight, they welcomed them!!

[Igel]

34. Some did.

But even early last week there were reports of fairly pitched battles in some towns, and some precincts shifted hands from Taliban-controlled to government-controlled.

Meaning, in other words, that some didn't. There is no unified "they".

[Kaleva]

36. Somewhat like the Iraqi army when they faced ISIS

[Kingofalldems]

33. Wow. All day long.

[Klaralven]

38. So US intelligence is being run by Bahgdad Bob?

[Raine]

39. Hmmm well he should've asked me. 🙄

[Skittles]

44. there is no fucking WAY they did not know

absolutely NONE

[UTUSN]

46. Must be just me seeing lots of Wingnuttiness going on.