administration. he reportedly made these calls without the former president s knowledge. milley defended his actions including he followed protocol while keeping other top officials in the loop. military communications at the highest level are critical to the securit of the united states in order to deconflict mitary action, manage crisis and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world s most deadliest weapons. the calls on 30 october and 8 january wereoordinated before an aft wit sectary esper, and acting secretary miller s staff. shortly after my call ended with general lee, i pernally informed secretary of ste pomp and meadows among t calls with ticshat no time was i aempting to change or influencehe process, usurp authority or insert myself in the chain of command. milley also admitted and
during this process, the views of the joint cheechs of staff, all of us, the centcom commander, general mckenzie, the u.s. commander, general miller, and myself all given serious consideration of the administration, we provided a broad range of options. l and our assessment of their potential outcome. the cost, benefit, risk to force, risk to mission were evaluated. on 14 april, the president announced his decision and the u.s. military received a change of mission to retrograde all u.s. military forces, maintain a small contingency force of 600 to 700 to protect the embassy in kabul until the department of state could coordinate security support and assist turkey to maintain the karzai international airport and transition the u.s. military to an over the horizon security force assistance.
different orders. do you feel you had the opportunity to make your alleged vice very clear? i do, chairman. as i ve said before, i always keep my advice to the president confidential, but i am very much satisfied that we had a thorough policy review and i believe that all of the parties had an opportunity to provide input and that input was received. thank you very much. senator. thank you, mr. chairman. it was two weeks ago that we had a closed, classified hearing. we had general miller s recommendation at that time. let me first of all just mention that during the confirmation process you committed speaking now to general mckenzie and general milley to giving
will not turn my back on the following. with respect to the chinese calls, i routinely communicated with my counterpart general lee with the knowledge and coordination of civilian oversight. i am specifically directed to communicate with the chinese by department of defense guidance, the policy dialogue system. these military-to-military communications at the highest level are critical l to the security of the united states in order to deconflict military actions, manage crises, and prevent war between great powers that are armed with the world s most deadliest weapons. the calls on 30 october and 8 january were coordinated before and after with secretary esper and acting secretary miller s stamps and the interagency. the specific which caused us
do you ever present that assessment personally to president biden? i don t discuss what my conversations are with a sitting president in the oval office but i can tell you my personal opinion. general mckenzie, do you share that assessment? i do share that assessment. do you ever present that opinion personally to president biden? i m not going to be able to comment on those executive discussions. did general miller ever present that opinion personal i vly to president biden? i believe his opinion was well heard. secretary austin, president biden last month in an interview with george stephanopoulos said that no military leader advised him to leave a small troop presence in afghanistan. is that true?