The top US general warned that a rapid withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan would pose an increased risk to the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and would contribute to the rise of violent extremist organizations, according to General Mark Milley’s written testimony as obtained by CNN on Wednesday.
Milley did not deliver the comments on camera.
Milley said his analysis in the fall of 2020 was that an unconditional withdrawal would endanger the gains made in Afghanistan and damage US credibility abroad, as well as increase the likelihood of a rapid collapse of the Afghan government and military.
This was his analysis in his role as advisor to the President, the defense secretary, and the National Security Council, he added, and it did not change between the Trump administration and the Biden administration.
A rapid withdrawal would also increase the potential for a “humanitarian catastrophe.”
After the signing of the Doha agreement in 2020, which led to a sense of inevitable victory for the Taliban and a failure of morale for the Afghan military, the Tailban increased their level of violence.
“For the entirety of the 2020 fighting season, the Taliban maintained a consistently higher than average level of violence throughout the country,” Milley said. Those attacks didn’t target US forces, per the Doha agreement, but they carried out between 80 and 120 attacks against Afghan military each day on average.
“In 2020, Taliban violence against women, human rights defenders, journalists, and government officials continued, with almost 1,000 targeted killings attributed to the Taliban, up from 780 in 2019.”
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