Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said he will not resign after President Biden ignored his recommendation to keep a presence of at least 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, saying to do so would be an “incredible act of political defiance.”
Milley testified Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, saying his personal opinion was to maintain troops in Afghanistan.
Milley said that while he would not share his “personal” recommendations he made to the president, his assessment was, “back in the fall of 2020, and remained consistent throughout, that we should keep a steady state of 2,500 and it could bounce up to 3,500, maybe, something like that, in order to move toward a negotiated solution.”
Biden and White House officials have said repeatedly that no military leaders advised him to leave a small military presence behind, with the president, himself, telling ABC News in August that “no one” recommended a 2,500 troop presence that he could “recall.”
Milley also testified that he was not contacted for his military assessment on whether to maintain a troop presence in Kabul beyond Aug. 31 until Aug. 25 – a time in which he and other military officials came to the “unanimous” conclusion to complete the full withdrawal.
