Milley defends China calls and says ‘I am certain Trump did not

During his questioning at the Senate hearing, Republican senator Tom Cotton pressed Gen Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, on why he did not resign over Joe Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Cotton specifically referred to reports that Biden ignored Milley’s advice on keeping a US troop presence in Afghanistan, asking how the general could stay in his role after that.

“As a senior military officer, resigning is a really serious thing, and it’s a political act if I’m resigning in protest,” Milley said.

While noting that part of his job is to provide military advice to the commander-in-chief, Milley added, “The president doesn’t have to agree with that advice. He doesn’t have to make those decisions just because we’re generals. And it would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken.”

Milley reflected on the sacrifices of people like his father, who served in World War II, and the young troops who lost friends during the Kabul evacuation mission.

“They can’t resign, so I’m not going to resign. There’s no way,” Milley said.

Senator Elizabeth Warren asked defense secretary Lloyd Austin whether he believed that remaining in Afghanistan for another year would have prevented the Taliban’s rise.

Austin said the answer to that question depends on how many US troops remained in Afghanistan and what the mission’s objectives were.

“There are a range of possibilities, but if you stayed there at a forced posture of 2,500, certainly you’d be in a fight with the Taliban, and you’d have to reinforce…