U.S. Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Milley tells @MarthaRaddatz the evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021 was a "strategic failure": "It didn't end the way I wanted it. It didn't end the way any of us wanted it [to]." See interview SUNDAY on @thisweekabc. https://t.co/g4N3hDjymq pic.twitter.com/XukJskyV7l
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) September 13, 2023
During a portion of an interview with ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz set to air on Sunday’s edition of “This Week,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley stated that he agrees with former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie (Ret.) that it was a massive mistake to not evacuate American citizens and at-risk Afghans sooner.
Raddatz asked, “Gen. McKenzie said it was a serious mistake not to begin to evacuate our embassy personnel, our American citizens, and at-risk Afghans earlier. Do you agree with that?”
Milley answered, “Yeah, I agree with that, sure.”
Raddatz then asked, “So, that was a mistake in the withdrawal?”
Milley responded, “I think as you look back on it, I think that some decisions with respect to moving the embassy and Department of State could have been made a little earlier, sure.”
In another part of the interview, Milley said that “taking 124,000 people out is an amazing logistical feat, that’s true. And it exceeds that which came out of Vietnam during Operation Whirlwind, and those people are free today because of the courage and the bravery of all of those that were on the ground at the airport.”
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