General Mark Milley, a senior Army official, told the Congress that the United States war in Afghanistan was a “strategic failure” and added that, in his opinion, several thousand troops should have been left back in Afghanistan.

However, General Milley, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, did not disclose any details about the suggestions he made to United States President Joe Biden, who was reportedly considering retaining some troops in Afghanistan.

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The top US Army official offered to share his opinion on the Afghanistan pullout and potential prevention of the Taliban takeover at the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. He said that at least 2,500 troops were needed in Afghanistan to make sure the Ashraf Ghani-led government would not collapse. 

He said on Tuesday, “Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years”, according to reports from Associated Press.

General Frank McKenzie, who was also present at the Congressional meeting along with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, backed the suggestions made by his colleague and said troops should have been kept in Afghanistan, despite the former US President Donald Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban in 2020 that all US troops would leave by May 2021.

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He said, “I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views”, according to reports from Associated Press.

He added, “I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.”