General Mark Milley, who serves as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently announced that civil war is likely to break out across Afghanistan in the wake of the United States’ recent withdrawal from the nation.
The United States abruptly ended the twenty-year war in Afghanistan last week, ultimately leaving the Taliban in complete control of the country. However, it remains to be seen whether or not the terrorist organization will create a functional government.
In a discussion with Fox News, Milley alluded to his “military estimate,” which observes that current conditions will likely lead to the development of civil war, especially since he does not know whether or not the Taliban will succeed in “[consolidating] power and [establishing] governance.”
Due to the uncertainty of the Taliban’s future governance, “a very good probability” for “broader civil war” to occur in Afghanistan exists, which in turn could “lead to conditions that … [reconstitute] al-Qaeda … ISIS … or other myriad terrorist groups,” Milley observed.
Milley also predicted that terrorism in the region may resurge as soon as 12 months, which the United States will monitor.
Various individuals across the Biden administration, along with the highest levels of leadership in the Pentagon, have claimed that the American military will work against terrorist uprisings via “over the horizon” operational capabilities. Despite these efforts, the military will remain at a general disadvantage given the absence of troops on the ground, who would assist with intelligence acquisition.
Recently, the Taliban obtained nearly total control of Afghanistan in under two weeks. The terrorist organization embarked on a military campaign that rapidly defeated forces across Afghanistan, though the Afghan forces had received training, support, and equipment from the American military.
However, Milley admitted that the Afghan forces potentially were not “designed appropriately.”
The U.S. military “created and developed forces” in Afghanistan, which “looked like Western forces,” and Milley acknowledges that “one fo the big lessons learned here is maybe those forces were not designed appropriately for the type of mission.”
The United States ultimately evacuated over 120,000 individuals from Afghanistan, yet hundreds of American citizens remain in the nation. Recently, more than 170 individuals were killed in a horrific ISIS-K attack, which took place at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The airport has served as the chief location for evacuations, and the military recently announced that it prevented two other major terrorist attacks from occurring.