Thread by @JerryDunleavy

Jack Reed & Jim Inhofe say submitted witness testimony is generally supposed to be sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee 48 hours before a hearing, but Milley / McKenzie / Austin only submitted their testimony late last evening.

Jim Inhofe says he understands that Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl has also agreed to testify in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.

Lloyd Austin: "The reason our troops were able to get there [Kabul] so quickly is that we planned for just such a contingency."

Lloyd Austin says that "we planned to execute between 70,000 & 80,000" then corrects himself to say "we planned to evacuate between 70,000 & 80,000 people"

Lloyd Austin says that retaining Bagram would've taken as many as 5,000 troops and that "staying at Bagram even for counterterrorism purposes meant staying at war in Afghanistan" which Biden didn't want to do

Lloyd Austin says that over the horizon operations are "difficult but not impossible"

Lloyd Austin says that "staying beyond August would've greatly imperiled our people and our mission" because the Taliban made it clear their cooperation would end on September 1st & claims that staying longer wouldn't have significantly changed how many people would be evacuated

Austin claims "we didn't anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement & that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers."

This would confirm a DOD intel failure.

Mark Milley acknowledges to Jack Reed & Jim Inhoffe that his submitted witness testimony "got to you late."

Milley: "There were 7 conditions applicable to the Taliban & 8 conditions applicable to U.S. While Taliban did not attack U.S. forces, which was 1 of the conditions, it failed to fully honor any any other condition under Doha agreement." He notes Taliban never renounced al-Qaeda.

Milley says on November 11, 2020 he received an unclassified signed order directing U.S. military to remove all forces no later than January 15, 2021. He says that was rescinded and on November 17, 2020 he received order to reduce levels to 2,500 no later than January 15, 2021.

Mark Milley: "The Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization, and they still have not broken ties with al-Qaeda."

Mark Milley: "A reconstituted al-Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility, and those conditions, to include activity in ungoverned spaces, could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months."

Mark Milley speaks of "the unprecedented rapid collapse of the Afghan military in only 11 days in August." (The Afghan military was collapsing well before August)

Milley: "The specific purpose of the October and January calls were generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe that the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States. I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not attack the Chinese."

Milley says "it did affect the morale of the Afghan security forces" when asked about Doha agreement. McKenzie says it "did negatively affect the performance of the Afghan forces." But Austin **just** testified "we didn't anticipate" the "demoralizing" impact Doha agreement had!

McKenzie says "I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan... I also have a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and, eventually, the Afghan government." Milley says he agrees with that.