Mark Milley Denies Knowledge of Taliban Takeover Having Been Imminent in Afghanistan

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who has been widely criticized and blamed for the Afghanistan debacle, held a press conference today with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

During the press conference, Milley claimed to have no knowledge of that a Taliban Takeover having been imminent in the beleaguered country.

A clip shared by MSNBC shows Milley explaining his position as he began, “Let me make one comment on the intelligence because I am seeing all over the news that there were warnings of a rapid collapse.”

“I have previously said on this podium and in sworn testimony before Congress that the intelligence clearly indicated multiple scenarios were possible,” Milley claimed.

Milley then listed off those scenarios and continued, “One of those was an outright Taliban takeover following a rapid collapse of the Afghan security forces and the government, another was a civil war, and a third was a negotiated settlement.”

“However, the timeframe of a rapid collapse, that was widely estimated. It ranged from weeks, months, and even years following our departure,” Milley explained and added, “There was nothing that I, or anyone else saw, that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.”

MILLEY: "There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days." pic.twitter.com/bbAqFcwyqS

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 18, 2021

Joy Pullman with the Federalist wrote a recent piece where she declared that Milley “Deserves to be fired and court-martialed for his Afghanistan lies.”

Pullman referenced a Ben Domenech piece where he declared, “Whoever Biden doesn’t fire, their performance Biden believes is acceptable. If this is acceptable, how can the American people possibly trust the NSA, CIA, or the Pentagon? Even their most recent predictions were completely off. Once again, the intel community and expert class totally failed us, predicting this would take months and the Afghan army would fight.”

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson recently included a graphic in a segment about the debacle where he called Milley “Thoroughly modern Milley” and implied that he was supportive of various social justice movements.

It remains to be seen how long President Joe Biden will allow Milley to continue in his position, as he obviously likes the sort of rhetoric that Milley uses, as he had called Jan. 6 an act of “White Rage” when testifying before Congress.