The
Marine general whose Afghanistan withdrawal advice was rejected by
President Joe Biden says the ability of the United States to thwart a
terror attack from inside that country is now "gravely reduced" by
inadequate intelligence.
"I think that we have very, very limited ability to see into
Afghanistan right now," retired Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie said Sunday
on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "I've said I think we've got certainly less
than two or three percent of the intelligence capability that we had
before we withdrew."
McKenzie testified earlier this year to Congress that he told Biden
that the Taliban would overrun Afghanistan if the U.S. didn't keep
2,500 troops on the ground. Biden rejected that advice.
On Sunday, the general was asked why he didn't resign when the president rejected his advice.
"Once a civilian leadership makes a decision, even though I might
disagree with that decision, it is my moral responsibility to execute
that order," he said.
Historically, resigning "is not something that U.S. officers have
typically done," McKenzie added. "And it sends a very bad signal. It is a
political act by an officer who must need and must be and remain
apolitical."
McKenzie, however, acknowledged that the decision to withdraw the way
the United States did has had serious consequences for its ability to
wage the war on terror.
"Our interest in Afghanistan is preventing al-Qaeda or ISIS from
regenerating and being able to conduct an attack on our homeland or the
homelands of our friends and partners," he said. "And our ability to do
that has certainly been gravely reduced."
He praised the recent drone strike that took out al-Qaeda leader
Ayman al-Zawahiri, but cautioned it wasn't proof the United States has
strong operations on the ground.
"I would note that's one strike in a year, and ... I would be
careful about drawing conclusions about our ability to operate
effectively in Afghanistan in a counterterrorism sense based on that
single operation," he said.
McKenzie was inside the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 when it was
struck by one of the hijacked planes. He reflected on the 21st
anniversary of that deadly attack, saying the 20-year war in Afghanistan
kept another major attack from occurring on U.S. soil.
"We prevented a major attack from occurring on the United
States," he said. "The cost was not cheap, as you noted. We lost a lot
of brave young Americans. Our coalition partners lost a lot of their
soldiers. And, of course, the Afghan people paid a steep price for
that."
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