Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley was "incredibly disingenuous" with his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, told Newsmax.
Milley left out any mention of the U.S. drone strike that ended up killing civilians, including children, rather than an ISIS-K target in the final days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, Turner lamented on Tuesday's "National Report."
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was "emotional" about the 13 U.S. service members who died in a suicide bomber strike at the Kabul airport during the evacuation from Afghanistan, but Milley's reaction was different.
"You saw Gen. Milley being antagonistic and really almost mad that he's even being questioned," Turner said. "He starts with his opening statement, of going all the way back to the beginning of Afghanistan, walking through what was occurring in the Trump administration and truncates what was happening in the Biden administration."
The drone strike, though, had been touted by the White House as showing the capabilities that would have been used to keep the U.S. safe from terrorism without the need for troops to be in Afghanistan, said Turner.
"Clearly, it shows that this administration does not have the capability," Turner said.
He also said he questions why Milley brought up the topic of his conversations with his Chinese counterpart concerning former President Donald Trump and the possibility of a military strike, but will not provide a transcript.
"As we know from what occurred during the Trump administration, President Trump frequently, when there was controversy over conversations he had with world leaders, would release the transcript," Turner said. "Gen. Milley could eliminate questions about what his intentions were and what was actually said, by just releasing the transcript."
Turner said he will get to question Milley during his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, and it should be interesting to observe his demeanor "because he appears to be just annoyed."
Meanwhile, retired Brigadier Gen. Anthony Tata, also on Newsmax on Wednesday, said he found there was a "lack of genuineness" in Austin's response. He was surprised at how quickly Afghan forces fell to the Taliban.
"You have to listen very carefully, but seeds were planted, particularly for the Democrats on the committee, where he mentioned our agreement, that was a very good agreement, that required forces to continue," Tata aid. "He said he didn't want to begin to withdraw troops too soon, because that could have accelerated the collapse of the Afghan government."
If that was the case, said Tata, "they knew up front. That this was going to fall apart really quickly, and so it's disingenuous what he said about being surprised. They weren't surprised."
"This was not an intelligence failure," he concluded.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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