The top US general said Wednesday that it was not possible to predict Afghanistan's fate after the US troop withdrawal, warning of the "worst-case" outcome of a collapse of the government to the Taliban.

"Tough situation, no good answers to any of it," Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley told the Sedona Forum when asked about the future of Afghanistan.

He said that the Pentagon would withdraw its last 2,500-plus forces by September under the decision announced two weeks ago by President Joe Biden, to end the two-decade US military involvement there.

"What comes after that, I think there's a... range of outcomes, some of which are quite bad, some which are not quite bad," Milley said.

"On the worst-case analysis, you have a potential collapse of the government, a potential collapse of the military. You have a civil war and all the humanitarian catastrophe that goes with it," he said.

That could include the revival of Al-Qaeda, the jihadist group behind the 9/11 attacks that was the target of the original US-led invasion of the country in 2001.

"On the other hand, you do have an army, that's a 350,000-strong army and police forces and the Afghan security forces; you do have a government today," Milley said.

"They have been engaged in counterinsurgency operations for quite some time against the Taliban. So it's not a foregone conclusion that there'll be an automatic fall of Kabul, so to speak."

Milley said the best outcome would be a negotiated deal between the Kabul government and the Taliban rebels, but he declined to guess which of the possible paths the country would take after US troops leave.

He said that even after the US troop departure, they will still be able to monitor and pursue Al-Qaeda if the group seeks to expand its influence.

"We have a lot of capabilities... in order to track and then target enemies of our country," Milley said.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the only places that have these terrorist threats. So we're capable of monitoring, we're capable of striking if the need arises."

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

US sees genocides against Uyghurs and Armenians but consistency elusive
Washington (AFP) April 27, 2021
In 1994, as 800,000 mostly Tutsi people were beaten, hacked to death or shot dead in a 100-day bloodbath in Rwanda, the United States hesitated to call it genocide, eventually using the watered-down phrase "acts of genocide." This year, in a matter of months, the United States has unreservedly made two such declarations - first accusing China of genocide against the Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic people, and last week, defying years of pressure from Turkey, recognizing the Ottoman Empire's ... read more