{"id":823698,"date":"2021-09-28T11:44:15","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=823698"},"modified":"2021-09-28T11:44:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T15:44:17","slug":"centcom-gen-mckenzie-i-warned-joe-biden-about-possible-afghan-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/centcom-gen-mckenzie-i-warned-joe-biden-about-possible-afghan-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"CENTCOM Gen. McKenzie: I Warned Joe Biden About Possible Afghan Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcentcom-gen-mckenzie-i-warned-joe-biden-about-possible-afghan-collapse%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=823698&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1343556923.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>United States military Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Congress Tuesday that he warned President Joe Biden that Afghanistan could collapse and recommended leaving a small force of 2,500 peacekeeping troops in-country, contradicting President Biden\u2019s claims that he was never informed Kabul could fall quickly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy July, many intelligence reports grew more pessimistic, questioning whether any Afghan security forces would muster serious resistance and whether the government could hold on in Kabul, the capital. President Biden said on July 8 that the Afghan government was unlikely to fall and that there would be no chaotic evacuations of Americans similar to the end of the Vietnam War,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/17\/us\/politics\/afghanistan-biden-administration.html\">the New York Times reported<\/a> in August, shortly before the Kabul evacuations descended into abject chaos.<\/p>\n<p>Biden has repeatedly insisted that the collapse was unpredictable and that he \u201cwas committed to ending the U.S. military role in the country,\u201d per the Wall Street Journal. He also said, in speeches during the military\u2019s exit, that America\u2019s only options were complete withdrawal or a full, drawn-out conflict.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, in his testimony in front of the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. McKenzie and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, both noted that they had recommended to Biden that a peacekeeping force of around 2,500 troops so that the Afghan government could have a chance at remaining stable after an official coalition withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI won\u2019t share my personal recommendation to the president, but I will give you my honest opinion and my honest opinion and view shaped my recommendation. And I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan,\u201d Milley told a House panel.<\/p>\n<p>Gen. McKenzie went one step further, confirming earlier reporting but adding that he had warned Biden of a coming Afghan collapse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> Gen. McKenzie acknowledges reporting that he initially recommended to <\/span><span class=\"r-18u37iz\"><a class=\"css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1n1174f r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\" dir=\"ltr\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/POTUS\">@POTUS <\/a><\/span>that he maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. His advise (sic)&nbsp;was that withdrawal would lead inevitably to collapse of Afghan forces and ultimately the Afghan government,\u201d Politico\u2019s Lara Seligman reported.<\/p>\n<p>Seligman\u2019s reporting was confirmed by the Washington Post opinion writer, Josh Rogin, who has followed the Afghan withdrawal closely.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI recommended we keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan,\u201d Rogin quoted Gen. McKenzie as saying. \u201cAlso says he predicted withdrawing them would cause the Afghan army to collapse and the Taliban taking over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rogin added that \u201cGen. Milley agrees\u201d with McKenzie\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/live-news\/afghanistan-withdrawal-milley-austin\">Fox News noted specifically<\/a> that the \u201ccomments appeared to contradict what the president told ABC News\u2019s George Stephanopoulos last month, saying he couldn\u2019t \u2018recall\u2019 any such recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gens. McKenzie and Milley are testifying on Tuesday in front of the House Armed Service Committee on the Afghan withdrawal specifically, though Milley is also expected to address reports, which originated in a book by reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, that he spoke with Chinese officials, telling them he would warn them ahead of time if then-President Donald Trump decided to launch an attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>United States military Central Command (CENTCOM) commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told Congress Tuesday that he warned President Joe Biden that Afghanistan could collapse and recommended leaving a small force of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}