On Sunday (May 2), several U.S. media reports indicated that Gen. Mark Milley, the top U.S. military official and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Afghan government forces are facing an uncertain future as the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces accelerates in the coming weeks, and that in a worst-case scenario, the Afghan government could have some “bad results.”
The interview with Mark Milley comes hours after the withdrawal was officially launched. on Saturday, May 1, the first day of the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces, the Taliban overran military bases in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, killing 17 Afghan government servicemen and capturing 25 others. Also on the first day, the Taliban were accused of attacking the U.S. military base airfield in Kandahar (Kandahar), Afghanistan, with rockets; the attack caused no damage to U.S. personnel.
Asked whether Afghan forces could hold out under greater pressure after the withdrawal of U.S. and coalition forces, Milley said, “I think there’s a range of scenarios here, a range of outcomes, a range of possibilities.”
“On the one hand, you get some pretty dramatically bad results. On the other hand, people could see a military that stays together and a government that stays together.” As for which scenario will become a reality, Milley said, “Frankly, we don’t know yet. We’ll have to wait and see how things play out over the summer.”
“It’s a long route because we are interested in transferring functions and responsibilities to the Afghan security forces,” Milley said. “This has been going on for some time now. Now it’s just the final phase.”
Milley stressed that with only four and a half months at most before the withdrawal is complete, the U.S. remains focused on finding a way to negotiate an end to the fighting.
“We, the U.S. government, are still pursuing a negotiated outcome, and that’s what should be done. It’s not in the interests of the Afghan people, the current Afghan government or the Taliban to get into this massive civil war, and that (civil war) is one of the outcomes that people are talking about. But it’s not in anybody’s interest,” Milley said.
“The best, the best way to end the conflict in Afghanistan responsibly is through a negotiated outcome, and that remains one of the efforts of the U.S. government, which is to try to mediate between the warring parties,” he asserted.
After the withdrawal ends, the U.S. will provide an unspecified “boost” to Afghan forces from elsewhere, Milley said. He did not elaborate on this point, but other officials are concerned that these long-term arrangements to support the Afghan army have not been consolidated.
Milley said the U.S. side is likely to complete its withdrawal by the Sept. 11 target date. That date reflects the maximum estimated time needed to move all U.S. and coalition forces and equipment out of the country, he said, but there is no exact timeline.
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