Lawmakers to Question Milley and Austin on End of War in Afghanistan

• Sept. 28, 2021Updated 8:42 a.m. ET

Nearly a period aft the last American troops departed Afghanistan successful a hasty evacuation, the Pentagon’s apical brass connected Tuesday greeting volition look crisp questions from lawmakers astir the military’s relation astatine the extremity of the nation’s longest war.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are definite to beryllium asked astir their proposal earlier successful the twelvemonth to President Biden not to retreat each U.S. troops from the country.

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., the caput of the military’s Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan, offered the aforesaid proposal to the president. General McKenzie volition besides look earlier lawmakers.

In the archetypal of back-to-back Senate and House hearings this week, General Milley is expected to beryllium asked wherefore helium declared a U.S. drone onslaught successful Kabul past period “a righteous strike” adjacent aft subject officials said they were investigating reports of civilian casualties. The Pentagon acknowledged a week aboriginal that the onslaught was a tragic mistake, sidesplitting 10 people, including 7 children. General Milley tacitly conceded that helium spoke excessively soon, calling the mistake “heart-wrenching.”

Tuesday’s proceeding earlier the Senate Armed Services Committee is nominally astir the frantic evacuation from Kabul and the Pentagon’s strategy to combat violent groups determination from agelong distances. But lawmakers from some parties are expected to usage the infinitesimal to rise different topics successful what is expected to beryllium a rancorous partisan donnybrook.

Republicans are apt to zero successful connected comments General Milley made to a succession of authors astir his efforts during the past chaotic months of the Trump medication to support the subject and American antiauthoritarian institutions from a president who was searching for avenues to enactment successful power.

Those moves, arsenic described successful a caller book, culminated with General Milley doubly calling to reassure his Chinese counterpart and extracting promises from the subject concatenation of bid not to motorboat a atomic limb connected Mr. Trump’s orders without archetypal alerting him.