Collapse of the Afghan army took the United States “by surprise”, admits the chief of the Pentagon

The main defense hierarchies of USA acknowledged Tuesday that the Taliban’s rapid takeover in Afghanistan It took them “by surprise” and expressed their concern that the Islamic regime continues to be linked to the jihadist network Al Qaeda.

“We helped build a state, but we couldn’t build a nation,” said the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, in a hearing before the Senate Armed Forces Committee on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the evacuation of civilians.

“The fact that the Afghan army, which we and our partners train, has simply vanished, in many cases without a single shot, took us all by surprise,” he said. “It would be dishonest to say otherwise.”

The defense secretary also said that the United States provided the Afghan army with “equipment and aircraft and the training to use them,” but “did not fully understand the depth of corruption and poor leadership in its high ranks.”

“Over the years, many times they fought bravely,” Austin noted. “Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police were killed. But in the end we couldn’t give them the will to win. At least not all of them ”.

For his part, General Mark Milley, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the United States did not have a “complete assessment of the morale and will of the leadership” of the Afghan armed forces.

“We can count all the planes, trucks, vehicles and guns and everything else,” Milley said. “But you can’t measure the human heart with a machine.”

The senior US general also said that the Taliban “were and continue to be a terrorist organization and that they have not yet severed ties with Al Qaida.”

“I have no illusions about who we are dealing with,” he said.

“It remains to be seen whether or not the Taliban can consolidate power or whether the country will fracture in a new civil war,” Milley said. “But we must continue to protect the American people from terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan,” he said.

“An Al Qaeda network or a reconstituted Islamic State group with aspirations to attack the United States is a very real possibility,” he warned senators.

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