US Joint Chiefs of Staff: We may cooperate with the Taliban
The United States may cooperate with the Taliban in counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan against ISIS or other groups, according to Mark Milley. However, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is skeptical about this.
Mark Milley, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained the US military stance against the Taliban in a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, September 1.
He did not rule out the possibility of the United States working with the Taliban in the fight against terrorist groups like ISIS in Afghanistan.
Milley stated that the US military has been in contact with Taliban commanders outside the airport for the past three weeks to coordinate the evacuation of 124,000 people from Kabul airport, and this is a form of cooperation.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff said: "In war, we do what we have to do to reduce the risk to operations and forces, not what we want and like to do."
Milley described the Taliban as a "ruthless" group and said it was unclear whether they would change.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed doubts about the possibility of the country's cooperation with the Taliban and whether the recent cooperation between the two sides at Kabul airport could be a prelude to further cooperation, saying he did not want to speculate about future cooperation.
The US military invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban government and has been at war with the extremist Islamist group for the past 20 years. However, US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said recently that the Taliban is an enemy of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (the Afghan branch of ISIS) and therefore shares common interests with the US.
He also vowed to carry out more strikes against the group in retaliation for the ISIS-K attack on Kabul airport that killed more than 150 Afghans and 13 American soldiers. Last Saturday, a US drone strike killed two ISIS-K commanders. Biden told ISIS after the attack: “We are not done with you yet.”
However, military and political experts believe that confronting ISIS without the presence of ground forces in Afghanistan will be very difficult.
General Milley has met with Taliban commanders many times, twice last year and several times in December. He has spoken to them face-to-face and has been trying to stop their attacks on the US-backed government in Afghanistan.
Both Milley and Austin have been commanders of U.S. forces in Afghanistan for the past 20 years, and at Wednesday's conference, their focus was largely on honoring the American soldiers who have served in Afghanistan and those who have been killed or wounded.
"War is hard, it's violent and it's evil. Yes, we're all angry and we've suffered. When we look back at the events of the last 20 years and the last 20 days, it makes us angry and hurt," Milley said at the conference.
The US government is currently facing the challenge of how to deal with the Taliban. Biden, in coordination with US allies, is trying to force the Taliban to fulfill a promise the group made to the international community: to help Americans and other nationals safely leave Afghanistan.
General McKenzie, commander of CENTCOM (US forces in the region), described the country's cooperation with the Taliban in the withdrawal operation as "very practical and very much like a deal," and said the group assisted security forces at Kabul airport.
Source: DW
