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Stars and Stripes | Defense officials testify they were surprised by Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan
The Taliban's rapid takeover of Afghanistan came as a surprise to defense officials who had spent months planning the evacuation mission from the country, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
The Pentagon began planning for the possibility of a noncombatant evacuation from Afghanistan "as far back as this spring," Austin said, though no one predicted the Afghan government would fall before U.S. forces left on Aug. 30.
"The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise," he said. |
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