Afghan the rapid collapse of the army ASV was a surprise, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in the United States Senate on Tuesday.
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“We helped build the country, but we could not build a nation,” the minister said at a meeting of the Senate Armed Forces Commission on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
“The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained will simply disappear, sometimes without even firing a single shot, was a surprise to us,” he admitted. “It would not be fair to say otherwise.”
The United States provided the Afghan armed forces with “equipment and aircraft, and skills to use them.”
“Over the years, they often fought bravely,” Austin said. “Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police lost their lives. But in the end, we couldn’t give them the will to win. At least not for everyone.”
The United States “did not fully understand the depth of corruption and mismanagement at the highest level,” he added.
General Mark Milly, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recalled that the Taliban “are still a terrorist organization and have still not broken ties with”Al Qaeda“”.
“I have no illusions about who they do business with,” the general admitted.
“It will still be seen if the Taliban will be able to consolidate power or not, and whether the country will not be divided into further civil war,” he said.
“Renewed Al Qaeda or”Islamic State“With a desire to attack the United States, there is a very real probability,” Million said.
Following the withdrawal of the US and other foreign military contingents from Afghanistan, the Taliban launched a general offensive operation in August and briefly seized almost the entire territory of the country, but on August 15 the capital was also in their hands. Kabul.
The only province in Afghanistan that had not come under Taliban control until recently was Punjab, but the Taliban leadership announced on September 6 that the Islamist movement had also taken over the province.
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