U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley pointed to an Afghan military that numbers more than 300,000 and “has been leading the fight for quite a few years now” as a crucial element in determining the future of the country as the final US withdrawal officially commences.
“On the one hand you get some really dramatic, bad possible outcomes, and on the other hand you get a military that stays together and a government that stays together,” Gen. Milley said.
“Which one of these options becomes reality at the end of the day, we frankly don’t know yet and we have to wait and see how things develop over the summer. There’s a lot of variables to this, and it’s not 100% predictable.”
Speaking to a small group of reporters, including from CNN, during a return trip from Hawaii Saturday, Mr. Milley said the U.S. provides “some limited intelligence and some limited air strike support,” but the Afghan security forces have operated with increasing independence, even if they still rely heavily on U.S. contractors for support, maintenance, and more
On Saturday, the United States began turning a base over to the Afghan military in the southern Helmand province of Afghanistan, the site of some of the fiercest fighting against Taliban forces in previous years.
This is one of a series of military facilities set to be turned over to Afghan security forces as part of the withdrawal that President Joe Biden announced last month.
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