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Former US Marine Corps top general ripped President Joe Bidenthe disastrous plan to withdraw from the war in Afghanistan – a country the former military leader said history would see as a mistake.
Gen. Frank McKenzie, who retired in April 2022, was head of U.S. Central Command during the withdrawal, including the suicide bombing that killed 13 service members at Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021.
In an interview on Sunday, he said he believed the withdrawal – which had drawn widespread criticism and which he had previously defended – would be seen as a terrible mistake from plan to execution.
“I believe history will view the decision to leave Afghanistan in the way we did and the way we were asked to do as a fatal flaw,” he said.
McKenzie said in March 2022 that he would regret the withdrawal for the rest of his life — a decision that allowed the Taliban to quickly take control of Afghanistan as Americans and refugees fled for safety.
General Frank McKenzie, now retired, was head of US Central Command during the withdrawal. He now says it was a bad decision to leave
“I have a lot of regrets about how it ended in Afghanistan. I have one regret about the fundamental decision, which I think was the wrong decision,” he said. Fox News.
“And I particularly regret that we did not choose to begin evacuating our population, our embassy staff, our American citizens and our at-risk Afghans at the time we made the decision to bring in our combat forces. I I think it was a big mistake, and I think it directly led to the events of August 2021.”
McKenzie previously said he was proud of how U.S. troops evacuated 124,000 people from Kabul, but he was and remains forever haunted by the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans.
“We were dealing with the possibility of a suicide attack, but without a specific description of the person,” McKenzie, who served under Biden and Trump, said of the attack.
“We were dealing with the possibility of an indirect fire attack, either rocket or mortar, but I know there was no intelligence to support the claim that we knew what the bomber looked like and that he was carrying a backpack with three yellow stripes,’ he added.
“There was just none of that. We just didn’t have that intelligence.
He was honest when asked what he could have changed about the withdrawal.
“You always look back every time you lose people and wonder if you could have done things differently, and it haunts me. I think about it quite a bit. It’s one of the many regrets I have. I’ve looked at everything we do and think about it especially every August for the rest of my life.
Smoke rises from a deadly explosion outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 26, 2021.
McKenzie previously said he was proud of how U.S. troops evacuated 124,000 people from Kabul, but he was and remains forever haunted by the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans.
Among McKenzie’s successes was the high-profile raid to kill or capture ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019, but he also described how he thought about the troops killed in Kabul every day.
He first spoke about it during his last press briefing in March 2018.
“The collapse of the Afghan government was not the outcome we wanted when we began our withdrawal,” he said.
“That said, the courage and hard work of several thousand service members under difficult and dangerous conditions, which enabled the evacuation of 124,000 U.S. partners and Afghan nationals, is something of which the nation can be very proud.
“It came at a terrible cost in the deaths of 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians.
“And it is a loss that I deeply regret. I will regret it for the rest of my life.
“We owe our gratitude to these heroes.”
The 13 fallen service members were returned to the United States after the August 26 attack on the Kabul airport, in the final days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Cpl. Lance of the Marine Corps. David L. Espinoza (left) and Navy Hospital Maxton W. Soviak (right)
Thousands of Afghans were trying to flee to safety, and U.S. Marines were controlling them one by one when the suicide explosion occurred.
The local branch of the Islamic State – known as ISIS-K – claimed responsibility.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about August of last year and the loss of our 11 Marines, one soldier and one sailor,” McKenzie said.
“I think about it a lot. You go back and you always try to find different ways to do things that you could have done differently.
But he added that the battlefield was a dynamic place.
“We couldn’t stop this attack,” he said.
“I don’t know what we could have done to provoke this particular attack,” he said.
“For those family members who have lost a child or loved one there. My heart breaks for them and I feel their pain.
He has led U.S. troops in the Middle East and Southwest Asia for the past three years. And he took charge of the mission in Afghanistan last year, as the United States phased out its presence there.
He hinted at some of the darker moments during his final comments to reporters.
“And there have been days, I tell you, I would rather have my leg taken off below the knee, and then I come over there and talk to you guys,” he said in retiring.
“But it was an important thing to do.”
He took the opportunity to take stock of the region under his command and describe the threats facing the United States.
“Continue to view Iran as the greatest threat to regional security and stability,” he said.
“They provide weapons, support and guidance to proxies across the region who engage in acts of terrorism and undermine local governments, all advancing Iranian interests.
Iran’s arsenal was exposed this weekend when missiles struck a US army base and the office of a Kurdish news channel in Erbil, northern Iraq, in retaliation for an attack Israeli.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps last month unveiled a new missile – the “Khaibar-buster” – with a range of about 900 miles.
“The Iranian ballistic missile threat has continued to advance and expand with increased range and precision. CENTCOM has continued to monitor Iran and its proxies as we act as a deterrent to Iranian attacks on U.S. interests.
These attacks, and the threat to US interests, were highlighted last weekend when its rockets struck a US army base and an office of a Kurdish news channel in Erbil, in northern Iraq.
Iran later claimed responsibility, saying it had staged the attack in retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of the Revolutionary Guards last week.
No one was injured in the Erbil attack.