Top takeaways from the Milley and Austin hearing on Afghanistan

But their testimony ultimately shed little light on some of the biggest mistakes that cost U.S. and Afghan lives in the final days of the evacuation from Kabul, which the military leaders continued to describe as a historic success.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the hearing.

BIDEN’S RECOMMENDATIONS

To deflect criticism of his decision to remove all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of August, President Joe Biden has portrayed his Pentagon brass as unanimously supporting him.

However, Milley and McKenzie both suggested during their testimony that they advised Biden to leave a small but significant contingent of forces in Afghanistan to keep the country stable.

“I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan,” McKenzie said.

“My assessment was, back in the fall of ‘20 and remained consistent throughout, that we should keep a steady state of 2,500 [troops] — and it could bounce up to 3,500, maybe, something like that — in order to move toward a negotiated solution,” Milley said.

Their testimony contradicts Biden’s claim that he made during an interview last month with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, suggesting none of his advisers told him keeping troops in Afghanistan was a good idea.

“No one told you — 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’?” Stephanopoulos asked at the time.

“No,” Biden replied. “No one said that to me that I can recall.”

Biden has repeatedly cited the “unanimous recommendation” of his military leaders in defense of the swift and complete troop withdrawal.

INTELLIGENCE FAILURES 

Biden administration officials have failed for weeks to provide a clear picture of what intelligence assessments indicated about the likelihood that the Taliban would sweep across the country and seize control.

Milley on Tuesday continued to deny that intelligence suggested Kabul would fall in less than two weeks, an assertion he first made in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban takeover.

But he hinted the assessments did suggest the country was at significant risk of collapse after U.S. troops departed, which contradicts the rosier outlook Biden and other top officials provided to the public over the summer.

“I think, senator, we absolutely missed the rapid 11-day collapse of the Afghan military and the collapse of their government,” Milley said in response to questioning from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat. “I think there was a lot of intelligence that clearly indicated that after we withdrew, that it was a likely outcome, of a collapse of the military and a collapse of the government. Most of those intelligence assessments indicated that that would occur late fall, perhaps early winter.”

Milley noted that “the assessments were pretty consistent that we’d see a general collapse of the government and the military.”

However, as late as July, Biden defended the ability of the Afghan military and government to maintain control — not just during the withdrawal process but after as well.

“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said on July 8.

The following week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the idea that intelligence suggested the Taliban would ascend to power after the United States withdrew.

“There has been no intelligence assessment that has said it is inevitable,” Psaki said on July 16.

Milley’s claim that “pretty consistent” intelligence assessments pointed to a Taliban resurgence in the weeks before the collapse does not square with the optimism from other administration officials over the summer that such an event would not occur.

AMERICANS LEFT BEHIND

Since the height of the evacuation effort in Kabul, the Biden administration has struggled to offer a definitive number of Americans still looking to escape Afghanistan.

That avoidance continued during Tuesday’s hearing when military leaders initially attempted to defer questions about stranded Americans to the State Department.

State Department officials have estimated roughly 100 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan.

While Austin said the administration has worked on facilitating evacuations for those who remain, the number has remained virtually unchanged since the last U.S. troops left the country on Aug. 31.

Addressing the nation that day, Biden said roughly 100 Americans were left behind in Afghanistan. The day before, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the number was “closer to 100” and vowed to help any who wanted to leave with their evacuations.

It is unclear why the number of stranded Americans remains virtually the same nearly a month after the withdrawal if the evacuation effort has been as robust as administration officials say.

VETTING PROBLEMS?

Republicans have expressed concerns in recent days about the vetting procedures for Afghans evacuated by the U.S. military — thousands of whom are set to come into the country as refugees.

Republican lawmakers have questioned how the administration can maintain its security protocols when the volume of applicants to its visa program has exploded and the timeline for completion of the process has shrunk considerably.

Austin appeared to acknowledge the speed and scale of the evacuation effort has led to vetting problems, despite assurances from other Biden administration officials that the process remains sufficient.

“It was the largest airlift conducted in U.S. history, and it was executed in 17 days. Was it perfect? Of course not,” he testified. “We moved so many people so quickly out of Kabul that we ran into capacity and screening problems at intermediate staging bases outside Afghanistan.”

MILLEY CONFRONTS REPORTS

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has weathered intense scrutiny in recent weeks over reports he secretly phoned the Chinese to offer a heads-up if then-President Donald Trump decided to launch an attack on China.

Milley essentially confirmed the reports, which emerged from a forthcoming book, when he defended his phone calls as necessary efforts to de-escalate tensions.

“The specific purpose of the October and January calls were generated by concerning intelligence which caused us to believe that the Chinese were worried about an attack on them by the United States,” Milley testified. “I know — I am certain — that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese.”

Milley admitted to speaking to one of the book’s authors, Bob Woodward, bolstering speculation from his critics that he leaked details from his time serving in the Trump administration to paint his involvement in a flattering light.

Previously, Milley had stayed silent on the allegations, defending them only through a written statement issued by his spokesman.

COUNTERTERRORISM STRUGGLES

Top Biden officials have dismissed concerns about the erosion of counterterrorism efforts caused by the withdrawal from Afghanistan by touting their “over-the-horizon” capabilities, or their methods for gathering intelligence about terrorist activities in Afghanistan without boots in the country.

Biden has also falsely claimed al Qaeda no longer operates in Afghanistan in an attempt to portray the remaining threat as minimal — an assertion that members of his administration later corrected.

The military leaders testified Tuesday the terror threat in Afghanistan is still significant and acknowledged counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan had been hindered by the withdrawal.

Speaking about the intelligence failure that led to a botched drone strike on Aug. 28, McKenzie noted that “it’s going to get a lot harder” to collect intelligence leading to accurate strikes in the future.

Milley testified that terror groups in Afghanistan could consolidate power and plot attacks against the U.S. in the absence of American forces.

“A reconstituted al Qaeda or ISIS with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility,” he said.