Military expert argues Milley is ‘not accepting any responsibility’ for Afghanistan withdrawal

Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, a U.S. military veteran and a senior fellow at think tank Defense Priorities, said Thursday that Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley demonstrated in testimony before House lawmakers this week that he is resisting accepting responsibility over the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

In an interview on Hill.TV’s “Rising,” Davis reflected on the caveat mentioned by Milley and other military leaders this week that they believed the Afghan government would survive following a troop withdrawal, so long as the U.S. continued propping up the regime. 

However, Davis argued that this contradicted previous statements from Milley and other administration officials that the Afghanistan government could continue functioning on its own, as well as the top military general’s statement last month that intelligence had not predicted the rapid Taliban takeover. 

“So many people saw this coming,” Davis asserted. “For him to continually say that he didn’t see this and to make statements like he has and then try to blame the State Department as he did in other testimony, smacks to me of someone who is not accepting any responsibility for his actions and wants others to be held accountable.” 

Watch part of Davis’s interview above.