Tipsheet

The Pentagon's Afghanistan Presser Was an Absolute Trainwreck

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  August 18, 2021 4:00 PM

Finally breaking their silence after days out of the public eye as chaos reigned in Kabul, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley spoke in a joint press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Among the most pressing questions on the minds of Americans: Will the Biden administration leave Americans behind in Afghanistan and what went so wrong that allowed the events of the last week to transpire? 

The Pentagon officials resisted any accountability or review of how things got to their current chaotic level — at least for now — while reinforcing earlier messages that suggest the ability of the United States to airlift Americans and Afghan allies out of Kabul will rely upon Taliban concessions.

Austin explained his three "key concerns" the Pentagon is prioritizing amid the second-largest Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) conducted by the United States: the safety and security of Americans, maintaining security at the Kabul airport, and increasing the pace of the U.S. airlift.

"We remain laser-focused right now on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and in doing everything that we can to continue evacuating Americans, allies, Afghans who have worked alongside us, and also other courageous Afghans at special risk," Austin said. 

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He also reiterated that the "lines of communication with Taliban commanders remain open as they should be," a statement that seemingly contradicts a U.S. Embassy warning that the U.S. government "cannot ensure safe passage" to the airport in Kabul. "The forces that we have are focused on security of the airfield," Austin said. "We have to make sure that we can secure the airfield but defend it as well because there are a number of threats still in the environment." 

"I know that these are difficult days for those who lost loved ones in Afghanistan and those who carry the wounds of war," Austin acknowledged. "Especially now we mourn those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan... the US military stands as one to honor those we've lost."

Chairman Milley, apparently seeking to clear the air after briefings by Biden administration officials in which spokespersons were unwilling or unable to promise that U.S. citizens would not be left behind in Afghanistan, said that the Biden administration would "evacuate all American citizens from Afghanistan who desire to leave this country."

The State Department is "working with the Taliban" to allow safe passage to the airport, Milley reiterated, again conflicting with the State Department guidance being issued from those in the ground in Kabul. The Pentagon brass did admit they "have the capability to do other things" to get Americans trapped behind Taliban lines out of the country but "that would be a policy decision" carried out by the military "if we're directed." If the Pentagon does in fact have some "capability to do other things," it sounds like the decision to employ those things is up to one man — President Biden — who isn't even addressing the situation in Afghanistan today.

Amid questions over what the Pentagon and larger Biden administration knew about the Taliban threat — and when they knew it — Milley pushed back on accountability saying "there will be plenty of time to do [after action reports] but right now's not that time."

"I have previously said from this podium and in sworn testimony," Milley explained, that the Pentagon was aware "multiple scenarios were possible" during a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan but that "there was nothing that I or anyone else saw" suggesting a collapse like the one we saw last weekend.

Earlier on Wednesday, Senator Josh Hawley called the current administration's handling of Afghanistan "the worst foreign policy debacle since Vietnam" and demanded "Biden's entire defense and foreign policy team must resign, and there must be a full congressional inquiry."