Posted on 08/18/2021 9:22:02 PM PDT by Fractal Trader
Chris Miller now says talk of a full withdrawal was a “play” to convince a Taliban-led government to keep U.S. counterterrorism forces.
President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to new statements by Chris Miller, Trump’s last acting defense secretary.
Miller said the president’s public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a “play” that masked the Trump administration’s true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for counterrorism missions.
In a conversation this week with Defense One, Miller revealed that while serving as the top counterterrorism official on the National Security Council in 2019, he commissioned a wargame that determined that the United States could continue to conduct counterterrorism in Afghanistan with just 800 American military personnel on the ground. And by the end of 2020, when he was acting defense secretary, Miller asserted, many Trump administration officials expected that the United States would be able to broker a new shared government in Afghanistan composed primarily of Taliban officials. The new government would then permit U.S. forces to remain in country to support the Afghan military and fight terrorist elements.
That plan never happened, in part because Trump lost his reelection bid in November. And at least one other former senior Trump administration official questioned Miller’s retelling.[SNIP] Miller alleged that despite Trump’s frequent public pledges to end the Afghanistan war and bring home all U.S. troops, many senior national security officials in his administration believed a total withdrawal was not inevitable.
(Excerpt) Read more at defenseone.com ...
He should prove it.
I don’t trust anyone like him. And I don’t trust him. His word means nothing. If he can back it up, I’ll accept it. If it is just him saying it, he is a deep stater IMO.
I couldn’t do that to a goat.
I’d sooner tar/feather this graphic on the backs of every registered democrat and progressive RINO in my area.
And they know where his kids are.
Of course! And they came up with the idea while touring an obscure laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Smells like BS to me.
Put a picture of Jen Psaki on your goat and she’ll be pregnant by the end of the night! The GOAT, not Psaki!
Did anybody bother to explain this to the Biden Administration?
Did they not care/refuse to listen?
Power sharing with the enemy while fighting the enemy is planning for failure. The Taliban high up in the new government would not let the U.S. conduct anti-terrorist operations bombing Taliban terrorists unopposed.
This reminds me of when Zbigniew Brzezinski convinced Carter to try to use Islamic extremism to oppose the USSR. He forgot that Islamic extremism has its own agenda opposed to the west, and forged their own allies and alliances without the U.S.
The Taliban have their own goals, know the U.S. has opposing goals, and is not going to lose by our book, no matter what some War College exercise says.
Art of the Deal starts with an untenable/highly unlikely position.
Power sharing with the enemy while fighting the enemy is planning for failure. The Taliban high up in the new government would not let the U.S. conduct anti-terrorist operations bombing Taliban terrorists unopposed.
++++++
Exactly. Trump is a smart negotiator. But his goal was simply unachievable. If Trump had continued as President we would be in Afghanistan indefinitely.
There are only two possible outcomes: Taliban Rule or Americans in Afghanistan forever.
Trump was a patriot, and loved America
enough, not to leave 40,000 Americans
to fend for themselves, behind enemy
lines. Biden is beholden to China. They
called in the marker. Biden complied.
Since 2014, most of the fighting was by the Afghan military with U.S. intel and air support. They were already doing most of the fighting and taking the bulk of the causalities. Other than airstrikes U.S. forces were done fighting there years ago.
More than plausible. President Trump maintained stability with only 2,500 soldiers.
A political solution with a counterterrorism force of 800 was doable.
Re: 14 - Thanks for making these points.
Didn’t he already reduce the number of troops there from over 20,000 to 2,000?
1. I don’t trust Defense One. I looked at their team. They are essentially a bunch of Libs with decades shilling for the deep state.
2. If Miller actually said what Defense One says he said, then Trump and his advisers were crazy, crazy to think the Taliban would make the deal Miller refers to.
“More than plausible. President Trump maintained stability with only 2,500 soldiers.”
No. It was 2,500 U.S. soldiers providing air power, air cover and intelligence for an Afghan military of nearly 190,000. We had the technical know how, superior air forces and all the intelligence effort we could muster. The Afghans had the majority of the “boots on the ground.
The total collapse followed our abandoning Bagram Air Base in the dead of the night and what that meant to the air cover, air attacks and smart munitions backing up the Afghan ground forces - gone.
He should just shut up.
He's gossiping like a 14-year old girl.
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