Pentagon Chief Defends Execution Of Kabul Airlift

Austin asserts the evacuation was a historic accomplishment that rescued 124,000 people from Taliban rule, adds Afghan army collapse ‘took us all by surprise’

WASHINGTON

In his first congressional testimony on the tumultuous US withdrawal from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday defended the military’s execution of a frantic airlift from Kabul and asserted it will be “difficult but absolutely possible” to contain future threats from Afghanistan without troops on the ground.

Speaking alongside General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Austin also questioned decisions made over the 20-year course of the US war in Afghanistan.

In retrospect, he said, the American government may have put too much faith in its ability to build a viable Afghan government.

“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,” he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Austin said that the Afghan army’s sudden collapse caught the Pentagon off-guard.