DM Monitoring
WASHINGTON: US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Tuesday that the Afghan army’s sudden collapse caught the Pentagon off-guard as he acknowledged miscalculations in America’s longest war including corruption and damaged morale in Afghan ranks.
“The fact that the Afghan army simply melted away in many cases without firing a shot took us all by surprise,” Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”
Austin was speaking at the start of two days of what is expected to be some of the most contentious hearings in memory over the chaotic end to the war in Afghanistan, which cost the lives of US troops and civilians and left the Taliban back in power.
The Senate and House committees overseeing the US military are holding hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, where Republicans are hoping to zero in on what they see as mistakes that President Joe Biden’s administration made towards the end of the two-decade-old war.
It follows similar questioning two weeks ago that saw US Secretary of State Antony Blinken staunchly defending the administration, even as he faced calls for his resignation.
