WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, on Tuesday asked U.S. Department of State Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad about the Biden administration’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing, “U.S. Policy on Afghanistan.”

“[B]oth President Obama and President Trump's instinct was likely to end the war in Afghanistan, focus resources other places, and admit that it was not likely that during their administration our goals of political and military stability in Afghanistan were going to be met. They were convinced otherwise, ultimately, in part by military leadership that put on a very impressive presentation about what could happen if we stayed another year or two. I know those presentations are impressive because I've watched probably a dozen of them,” said Murphy.

On President Biden’s decision to withdraw troops, Murphy added: “I think President Biden came to the conclusion, as he said in his remarks, that we're at a point where we have to accept the facts on the ground rather than the fantasy of endless PowerPoint presentations. And the facts on the ground are that we are moving backwards, not forwards, that the security situation is getting worse, not better.”  

Earlier this month, Murphy took to the U.S. Senate Floor to support President Biden’s decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan. 

You can read Murphy’s full exchange with Khalilzad below:

MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for your service, thank you for continuing to come before our committee both in classified and open settings. I think my sense is, and others would likely agree that both President Obama and President Trump's instinct was likely to end the war in Afghanistan, focus resources other places, and admit that it was not likely that during their administration our goals of political and military stability in Afghanistan were going to be met.  

“They were convinced otherwise, ultimately, in part by military leadership that put on a very impressive presentation about what could happen if we stayed another year or two. I know those presentations are impressive because I've watched probably a dozen of them. Every time that I went to Afghanistan, a new, impressive, highly-credentialed general would explain to me how the next year was going to be different than the prior year.

“I think President Biden came to the conclusion, as he said in his remarks, that we're at a point where we have to accept the facts on the ground rather than the fantasy of endless PowerPoint presentations. And the facts on the ground are that we are moving backwards, not forwards, that the security situation is getting worse, not better. 

“And so I guess I have one additional question, but given that there's nobody that knows this portfolio better than you, just to speak for a moment about what it would look like if we stayed for another year at our current levels and why the team has come to the conclusion that it's likely the trajectory would continue, that the security situation would continue to degrade, the Taliban would continue to advance, the Afghan government wouldn't be any closer to being legitimate in the eyes of the majority of the Afghan people. That's not an appetizing scenario. But I think the conclusion was made that one more year or two more years wasn't going to change the trajectory. Am I wrong about that?”

KHALILZAD: “Well, there are two additional factors to your very able description of the conditions. One, that if we did stay another year or two or indefinitely, that we will be back at war with the Talibs. For the last 13 months or so we have not had any fatalities because part of one consequence of the agreement was for them not to attack coalition forces. Although we had the right to come to the defense of the Afghan forces under the agreement when they were attacked by the Talibs.

“If we said we are staying, we're getting out of that agreement, that means we would be back at war with them. So whether the current numbers then would satisfy that we've had 2,500 plus, there could have been potentially demand for more forces to be able to maintain the status quo, not to lose significant grounds.

“But two, we were, the military balance was changing territorially negatively for the past several years. So things were not standing still in the configuration that we have been in for the last several years. So there was no military solution. I think that was a judgment for some years for Afghanistan, but the decision to pursue withdrawal and a political settlement, I think several presidents had that in mind. And, of course, we know what President Biden decided.”

MURPHY: “So there are capabilities, especially on the military side, that we have been midwifing for 20 years. I mean, I remember going there during my House days and hearing about our desire to have the Afghan Air Force be able to provide their own close air support so that they wouldn't be reliant on us. We have made very little progress on many of these capabilities, including that one. They are still very reliant on us to provide that support for counterterrorism missions.

“And is it your assessment that some of these security capabilities are unable to be possessed by the Afghan military, or is it that they were conveniently able to rely on us for the last 20 years and so they didn't have to do the difficult work of constructing their own security capacities?”

KHALILZAD: “The Afghan security forces have developed significantly. I was Ambassador, Special Envoy first and Ambassador since 2002 to 2005. And really nothing existed, so now we're talking about the capabilities of the forces that exist. They are very capable special forces in the thousands, perhaps as high as 40,000. Their air force, yes, is dependent on us for maintenance and even some bigger operations, but it has been effective in many operations. It’s used to compensate for some of the challenges in other areas. 

“And we're working with them to make sure that as we withdraw, they have access to others who could provide those services for them. I think we need to continue to invest in those security forces to assist them, and we're committed to doing that, but we will have to make arrangements where we used to do it, now they have to do it.

“I believe that sometimes we--some of our analyses are the worst case circumstances that are challenges that we confront, but I think it would be a mistake in my judgment to dismiss the Afghan security forces as not being a credible force that could perform well although they will face more difficult circumstances now.”

MURPHY: “You have been consistent in your relative optimism about the capabilities of the Afghan security forces. We hope that you're right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.”

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