Imagine if we still had Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan right now. We could have done a lot better of an evacuation, as the runways there are much longer than the crap at Hamid Karzi airport in Kabul. But a-las, Biden turned over Bagram air force base to the Taliban back in July and here we are today. It was general Scottie Miller, a Mark Milley underling who made the ultimate call to hand over Bagram to the Taliban.
Relevant to all this, Sen. Mitch McConnell says Biden overrode his military commanders when he decided how to withdraw from Afghanistan.
“If we were to keep both Bagram and the embassy going, that would be a significant number of military forces…that may have exceeded what we had, or stayed the same as what we had,” Milley continued. “So you had to collapse one or the other. And the decision was made, the proposal was made, from CENTCOM commander and the commander on the ground, Scottie Miller, to go ahead and collapse Bagram. That was all briefed and approved and we estimated that the risk of going out of KIA, or the risk of going out of Bagram, were about the same, so going out of KIA was the better tactical solution…in accordance with getting the troops down to a 600, 700 number.”
Who set that number and why? It’s a rhetorical question. We know the White House set that number.
I’ve written about why the choice to abandon Bagram makes little sense, at least from the other side of the world, from a tactical point of view. Bagram is more remote, but was also much more heavily armed and offered a second runway that HKIA does not have. It offered more space to house and feed evacuees. It’s a more defensible position. Using Bagram would have necessitated military armor convoys to make the hazardous trip from Kabul outward, but HKIA is proving to be unworkable so far. It’s surrounded by the Taliban and could itself fall to them. Austin does not deny that we are depending on the Taliban not attacking and overrunning HKIA right now, as it’s full of Americans and Afghans. About 5,000 to 6,000 American troops are currently defending it — roughly double the number of troops Biden withdrew.
The decision to abandon Bagram in favor of HKIA could result in a massive, unprecedented hostage crisis, should the Taliban decide to attack and then overcome the U.S. forces defending HKIA. If that happens, the possibilities grow grimmer from there. Black Hawk Down, the Iran hostage crisis, ISIS beheadings, all possible, all by the thousands. The U.S. military will be doing very well to avoid that. The Taliban would also be wise to avoid it, as going hot would force Biden to redeploy a massive number of forces to retaliate. The possibilities spiral out of control from there.
In any case, Milley clearly says the plan to abandon Bagram came from the commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin “Scottie” Miller, in response to orders from Washington.
It’s tempting to call for Miller’s firing now, but there’s a problem with that. He already left.
NBC ran this story about Miller stepping down from command of U.S.-NATO forces on July 12. It’s poignant now to read the quotes he and his commander, CENTCOM’s Gen. Frank McKenzie, offered Afghanistan at the time of Miller’s departure.