WASHINGTON — Afghanistan could see al-Qaeda or ISIS rebuild in a matter of months, top military officials told lawmakers on Wednesday.“Al-Qaeda has been degraded over time. Now terrorist organizations seek ungoverned spaces so that they can train and equip and thrive,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, adding: “There is clearly a possibility that that can happen here, going forward.”
Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that it is a “real possibility” that Afghanistan could see the reconstitution of al-Qaeda or ISIS in the “not too distant future,” providing a timeframe of six to 36 months.
Both did contend that the terrorist threat from Afghanistan is lesser now than it was prior to 9/11.
Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, lawmakers questioned Austin, Milley and Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, about the August withdrawal, focusing in particular on whether the U.S. prematurely left Bagram Air Base and whether sufficient planning had gone into the rushed evacuation.
The three officials, who testified on Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, also reiterated that they had initially supported keeping 2,500 troops as a ground force in Afghanistan — a figure McKenzie pointed toward as the minimum number required to retain Bagram. However, the decision to reduce the troop presence to the 650 that assisted with the Kabul airport evacuation was made in a “consultative process by the highest levels” of the government, according to Milley.
“Both President Trump and Biden made decisions to withdraw completely and almost immediately. The Doha Agreement clearly set the Afghanistan government on the road to collapse. The only surprise was that it happened so quickly,” McKenzie said.
McKenzie added that going below 2,500 troops was the “nail in the coffin.”
Throughout the hearing, lawmakers descended into partisan quarrels, with Democratic Chairman Adam Smith and Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican ranking member, providing contrasting perspectives of the withdrawal process. Smith later interrupted the flow of questioning midway through the hearing to counter President Biden’s critics for having unfair expectations.
Several Republican representatives also questioned Milley about the two calls he made to his Chinese counterpart toward the end of Trump’s term and for talking about the calls with reporters. Milley said during Tuesday’s Senate hearing that he provided interviews to several journalists, including Bob Woodward.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., accused Milley of having “spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban” while waving a copy of Woodward and Robert Costa’s new book “Peril.”
Gaetz was also critical of the evacuation overall, reading an 18-month-old quote from Milley that claimed the Taliban was not going to defeat the government of Afghanistan militarily.
“You really blew that call, didn’t you?” Gaetz contended.
Milley started to answer, describing the situation as a “strategic stalemate,” but Gaetz interrupted before the general finished speaking.