Thread by @JacquiHeinrich

🚨NEW, THREAD with reporting from me and @JenGriffinFNC : Gen. Austin Miller, former Commander of US forces-Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a classified hearing yesterday he advised against the Afghanistan withdrawal, two sources confirm to me.

According to two members present for the hearing, Gen Miller passed his recommendations through the chain of command -- that the US should keep a level of troops on the ground (2500 was the number at the time) in order to maintain stability given the Taliban threat assessment.

Miller's view was troops should maintain holding pattern – potentially supplemented by add'l forces from allied nations – given the threat. Miller shared no recommendation on how long forces should have stayed, making clear he didn’t know what the end timeline would be.

Miller also said that he strongly dissented with the intel assessment that Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban between 1-3 years, saying he thought it would go much, much faster.

Miller also said once his recommendation was turned down, it became his job to execute on the withdrawal order – and eventually, decisions like abandoning Bagram were made because of constraints and troop caps imposed by the President’s orders.

For example, the 1k soldiers at Bagram were essentially forced out because they had no life support, and none was coming – because of President’s withdrawal timeline and troop cap.

CONTEXT HERE: Gen. Milley said the same thing to @JenGriffinFNC in her exclusive interview. The President’s troop cap, which has not been reported much, was a limit of about 500 to guard the Embassy and 500 to help NATO ally Turks guard the airport in Kabul...

... Troops at Bagram in the end were not troops designed to hold and defend an airfield -- that would have required 5-6000 troops to be inserted – which was not possible given the orders to withdraw on the WH timeline. @JenGriffinFNC

Overall this jives w/ prior reports: in March, Milley made impassioned case to keep troops in Afghanistan. His view was shared by Miller, and SecDef Austin - though somewhat lesser.
It further makes case POTUS rebuffed commanders, pressed on w/ full withdrawal against advice.

Also - @JenGriffinFNC is told Gen Miller had the ability to present his views to Biden on drawdown as well as his rec to keep troops in Afghanistan -- several times before drawdown. His assessments were included in Chairman of Joint Chiefs presentations ...

to NSC during the Afghan review before POTUS made his decision. Gen Miller also met with POTUS after he returned from Kabul. @JenGriffinFNC