US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman: We May Cooperate with Taliban

According to Mark Milley, the United States may cooperate with the Taliban in counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan against ISIS or other groups. However, Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, has doubts about this.

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, outlined America’s military stance toward the Taliban at a joint press conference with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Wednesday, September 1st.

He did not rule out the possibility that the United States could cooperate with the Taliban in fighting terrorist groups such as ISIS in Afghanistan.

Milley clarified that the US military has been in contact with Taliban commanders outside the Kabul airport compound over the past three weeks to coordinate the evacuation of 124,000 people from Kabul airport, which is itself a form of cooperation.

The Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said: “In war, we do what we need to do to reduce the risk to our operations and forces, not what we want to do or prefer to do.”

Milley described the Taliban as a “ruthless” group and said it is unclear whether they will change or not.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed skepticism about the possibility of his country cooperating with the Taliban and whether the recent cooperation between the two sides at Kabul airport could be a prelude to future cooperation, saying he does not want to speculate about future collaboration.

The US military toppled the Taliban government by invading Afghanistan in 2001 and fought this Islamist extremist group throughout these twenty years. However, US President Joe Biden has recently said repeatedly that the Taliban is an enemy of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS’s branch in Afghanistan) and therefore shares common interests with America.

He also promised to carry out more strikes against this group in retaliation for ISIS-K’s attacks on Kabul airport, in which more than 150 Afghans and 13 American soldiers were killed. Last Saturday, in a US drone strike, two ISIS-K commanders were killed. After this strike, Biden said to ISIS: “Our work with you is not done yet.”

However, military and political experts believe that countering ISIS without the presence of ground forces in Afghanistan will be very difficult.

General Milley has had numerous meetings with Taliban commanders; twice last year and several times in December. He has spoken directly with them and has been trying to prevent their attacks on the US-backed government in Afghanistan.

Both Milley and Austin have been commanders of US forces in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, and at Wednesday’s press conference, their main focus was to honor the American soldiers who served in Afghanistan and those who have been killed or wounded.

Milley said at the conference: “War is hard, violent and evil. Yes, we are all angry and we have suffered. When we look at the events of the past 20 years and the past 20 days, it causes us anger and pain.”

The US government is currently facing the challenge of how to deal with the Taliban. Biden, in coordination with American allies, is seeking to force the Taliban to fulfill its promise to the international community: to facilitate the safe withdrawal of Americans and other nationalities from Afghanistan.

General McKenzie, commander of CENTCOM (US forces in the region), described his country’s cooperation with the Taliban in the evacuation operation as “very practical and very much like a deal” and said the group helped security forces at Kabul airport.

Source: DW