No One Foresaw Swift Collapse Of Afghani Army – Top US General

The Pentagon’s top general defended on Wednesday the US military’s response to the Taliban’s breakneck seizure of power in Afghanistan, saying no one foresaw the collapse of US-trained Afghan forces that fast.

“There was nothing that I, or anyone else, saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley said.

“The Afghan security forces had the capacity, and by that I mean they had the training, the size, the capability, to defend their country. This comes down to an issue of will and leadership,” he added.

The US military and the administration of President Joe Biden are under political attack domestically over the Taliban’s defeat of the Afghan forces with little fight and the collapse of president Ashraf Ghani’s US-backed government last weekend.

The speed appeared to catch the US government off guard and it launched a rapid evacuation operation for US citizens and Afghans granted special visas for their work for US forces.