"The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise, and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin tells Senators.
Gen. Milley: "A reconstituted Al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility. And those conditions...could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months. That mission will be much harder now but not impossible."
Milley says with respect to the Chinese calls, "The calls on 30 October and 8 January were coordinated before and after with [then-Defense Secretary] Esper and acting Secretary Miller's staffs and the interagency."
"I am certain that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my direct responsibility and it was my direct responsibility to convey that intent to the Chinese. My task at that time was to de-escalate," Milley says.
On January 8, Milley says, "speaker of the house Pelosi called me to inquire about the president's ability to launch nuclear weapons. I sought to assure her that nuclear launch is governed by a very specific and deliberate process."
"I explained to her that the president is the sole nuclear launch authority and he doesn't launch them alone, and that I am not qualified to determine the mental health of the president of the United States."
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