‘I WOULD NEVER TIP OFF ANY ENEMY’: In his second day of congressional testimony, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley faced withering criticism of calls with his Chinese counterpart, along with demands from Republicans that he resign.
Milley testified he hasn’t read Bob Woodward’s book Peril, in which he’s quoted as telling Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng, “If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time.” But he insisted the context of the conversation is being misconstrued.
“I would never tip off any enemy to any kind of surprise thing that we were going to do. That’s a different context than that conversation,” Milley testified before the House Armed Services Committee. “They were concerned that we, President Trump, was going to launch an attack. He was not going to launch an attack. I knew he wasn’t going to launch an attack. At the direction of the secretary of defense, I engaged the Chinese.”
FORMER TRUMP OFFICIALS DISPUTE MILLEY’S VERSION OF EVENTS ON CHINA CALL
‘DID YOU OR DID YOU NOT?’: “I just want to say, did you or did you not tell him that if we were going to attack, you would let him know?” asked Republican Rep. Vicki Hartzler of Missouri.
“As part of that conversation, I said, ‘General Li, there is not going to be a war, there’s not going to be an attack between great powers. And if there was, the tensions would build up, there would be calls going back and forth from all kinds of senior officials.’ I said, ‘Hell, General, I’ll probably give you a call, but we’re not going to attack you, trust me, we’re not going to attack you,” Milly replied.
“I understand your intent,” Hartzler replied. “ But I think you articulating that, that you would tell him you would give him a call, I think is worthy of your resignation.”
Later in the hearing, after a long harangue, when Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked point-blank if Milley would resign, the four-star general replied simply, “I serve at the pleasure of the president.”
GAETZ SLAMS MILLEY FOR SPENDING MORE TIME TALKING TO REPORTERS THAN PLANNING AFGHAN WITHDRAWAL
REHASHING BIDEN’S ABC INTERVIEW: Republicans on the committee continued to argue that President Joe Biden misled the country in an Aug. 18 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on which Biden said his military advisers never told him to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.
Like theologians debating the meaning of biblical text, the two sides went back and forth over which part of Biden’s answer was the key part. Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson read the transcript (which you can read in yesterday’s Daily on Defense) into the record, focusing on this exchange:
STEPHANOPOULOS: So, no one told — your military advisers did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that”?
BIDEN: No. No one said that to me that I can recall.
Both Milley and U.S. Central Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie testified they favored keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan and indirectly confirmed that was their advice to the president. The debate was over which part of the question Biden was responding in the negative.
Was Biden saying, “No. No one told him to leave 2,500 troops”? Or was Biden saying, “No. No one told him that 2,500 would maintain a stable situation.”
“People are saying that the president said nobody offered, no one said that we should keep 2,500 there,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith of Washington. “But what the president actually said was, there was no option on the table to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in a stable environment.”
“The president, in fact, made it clear earlier in that same interview that, yes, some of his military leaders had said that we should keep 2,500 troops there,” Smith said. “What he said was, none of them said that we could do it in a stable, peaceful environment. And that is the key point.”
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HAPPENING TODAY: The House of Representatives meets at noon to vote on a Senate measure that would avert a government shutdown at midnight. The bill, which has been stripped of a provision that would have raised the debt ceiling, would fund the federal government, including the Pentagon, into early December.
ALSO TODAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee hears from outside experts on the failures in Afghanistan and the way ahead. Testifying are Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and senior editor of The Long War Journal; and Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East studies and international affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
PREDICTION: AL QAEDA WILL BE BACK: At yesterday’s House hearing, Milley, in response to a question about whether the U.S. is safer now, said it is but may not be for long.
“It’s a real possibility in the not too distant future, six, 12, 18, 24, 36 months, that kind of time frame, for reconstitution of al Qaeda or ISIS,” Milley testified. “We must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization, and they still have not broken with al Qaeda. I have no illusions about who we are dealing with.”
“We must continue to protect the United States of America and its people from terrorist attacks from Afghanistan; a reconstituted al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility, and those conditions to include activity and ungoverned spaces could present themselves in the next 12 to 36 months,” Milley said
BAGRAM DEBATE: Gen. Frank McKenzie testified that he would have preferred to hold on to the sprawling Bagram Air Base but that once he was given orders to withdraw all U.S. troops except for a small force to protect the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, he lost the ability to hold and defend the base.
“This is important; the Bagram option went away when we were ordered to reduce our presence to the 650 personnel in Kabul,” McKenzie said. “The guidance I received in April was to conduct the complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces and plan for a diplomatic security force of absolutely no more than 650 service members. It was not feasible to preserve the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, hold and defend Hamid Karzai International Airport, the Embassy’s key link to the outside world, and also defend Bagram Airfield with 650 soldiers and Marines.”
HOLDING BAGRAM AIR BASE REQUIRED MORE TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN, PENTAGON OFFICIALS SAY
$83 BILLION OF EQUIPMENT NOT LEFT BEHIND: Over the past two days, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has attempted to correct the record about how much and what kind of U.S. military weaponry and equipment was left for the Afghan military and subsequently fell into the hands of the Taliban.
On Tuesday, Austin said the $83 to $84 billion figure was misleading. “That’s the number that we invested in Afghan security forces over a 20 year period of time, and less than 20% of that was dedicated toward Afghan equipment,” Austin said. “Most of that money was focused on sustainment and salaries and those types of things.”
That would put the total value of equipment left behind at somewhere around $16 billion, still a substantial sum. Austin says all high-end, high-tech equipment used by U.S. forces was successfully “retrograded” out of the country before the fall of Kabul.
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The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Holding Bagram Air Base required more troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon officials say
Washington Examiner: Austin says it was State Department’s ‘call’ not to evacuate US citizens from Afghanistan sooner
Washington Examiner: GOP lawmaker confronts Milley on China call
Washington Examiner: Former Trump officials dispute Milley’s version of events on China call
Washington Examiner: Democrats warn Biden not to use Russian bases to counter Afghanistan terror threats
Washington Examiner: Gaetz slams Milley for spending more time talking to reporters than planning Afghan withdrawal
Washington Examiner: Military leaders warn of al Qaeda reemergence
Washington Examiner: ‘Let us meet in the sky’: China boasts US Air Force should fear new arsenal
AP: North Korea’s Kim seeks better ties with South, but slams US
Wall Street Journal: Kim Sees Biden Policy as Unchanged
AP: Military units track guns with tech that could aid foes
Bloomberg: Austin Says Trump Pentagon Team Left No Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan
South China Morning Post: U.S., Chinese Militaries Hold 2 Days Of Talks, Stress The Need For More
Breaking Defense: ‘Global Strike From Space;’ Did Kendall Reveal Chinese Threat?
Defense News: China Preps Rollout Of A New Carrier-Based Fighter Jet
Asia Times: U.S. Marines Are Bringing A Ship Killer To The Pacific
Reuters: Philippines Defence Chief Says Was Urged By China To Drop Review Of U.S. Pact
New York Times: Amid Tensions With U.S., Erdogan Meets With Putin to Talk Military Deals
Air Force Magazine: Nearly 94 Percent of Airmen, Guardians Now Vaccinated Against COVID
USNI News: Huntington Ingalls Says All Employees Must Be ‘Fully Vaccinated’ For COVID-19 By December
Military Times: Down To 2 Marines Still Hospitalized After Afghanistan Suicide Bombing
Air Force Magazine: Senate Panel Wants the Services to Manage F-35 Sustainment, Not the JPO
Defense News: Boeing Gets Nod To Start Building Germany’s P-8 Anti-Submarine Aircraft
Air Force Magazine: Does AI Present a New Attack Surface for Adversaries?
Washington Post: Afghans bury paintings and hide books out of fear of Taliban crackdown on arts and culture
Washington Post: How an Instagram star’s $7 million mission to rescue Afghan civilians struggled to get off the ground
Stars and Stripes: ‘Crapshoot’ Sentencing By Court-Martial Juries Likely To End, Advocates For New Legislation Say
19fortyfive.com: North Korea’s New Hypersonic Missile: Just a Bunch of Hype?
19fortyfive.com: The U.S. Navy Has A New Master Plan To Kill Russian Submarines
19fortyfive.com: M2 .50 Caliber Machine Gun: Massive and Old (But Irreplaceable?)
Calendar
THURSDAY | SEPTEMBER 30
9:30 a.m. G50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to receive testimony on Afghanistan, with Thomas Joscelyn, senior fellow, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies senior editor, The Long War Journal, and Vali Nasr, professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and former senior advisor to U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
11 a.m. Pentagon Briefing Rm., 2D972 — Army Maj. Gen. Clement Coward, acting executive director, Office of Force Resiliency for the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness; and Defense Suicide Prevention Office Director Karin Orvis, provide an on-the-record, off-camera briefing on the 2020 Annual Suicide Report.
1 p.m. Pentagon Briefing Rm., 2D972 — Media briefing by Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander, U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command and John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary. https://www.defense.gov/News/Live-Events/
11 a.m. — International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War virtual discussion: “Eliminating the Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons.” Undersecretary-General and UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu; Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross; Shekhar Mehta, president of Rotary International; and Ruth Mitchell, board chair of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Register at https://www.ippnw.org/eliminating-the-threat
2 p.m. — House Homeland Security Oversight, Management and Accountability Subcommittee hearing: “20 Years After 9/11: Transforming DHS to Meet the Homeland Security Mission,” with Chris Currie, director of the Government Accountability Office’s Homeland Security and Justice Team; Randolph “Tex” Alles, acting Homeland Security undersecretary for management; and Angela Bailey, chief human capital officer in the Homeland Security Department. https://homeland.house.gov/activities/hearings
FRIDAY | OCTOBER 1
10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual event, “ A Conversation with Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen H. Hicks,” with Nina Easton, CSIS senior associate; and Beverly Kirk, fellow and director for outreach, International Security Program, and director, CSIS Smart Women, Smart Power Initiative. https://www.csis.org/events/conversation
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“For any American to question your loyalty to our nation, to question your understanding of our Constitution, your loyalty to our Constitution, your recognition and understanding of the civilian chain of command, is despicable.”
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney of apologizing to Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley for his treatment by her fellow Republicans at Wednesday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing.
