Joint Chiefs chairman says no Afghanistan ‘endgame’ as US troops withdraw

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he doesn’t believe the “endgame is yet written” in Afghanistan as US troops near the withdrawal deadline and called on Afghan forces to exert their “will” to keep militant Taliban fighters from taking over the country. 

Speaking about the pace of the US military drawdown with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at a news conference on Wednesday, Milley said the remaining weeks before the Aug. 31 deadline for the US military pullout will tell the fate of the war-torn country.  “We’re going to find out the levels of violence, whether it’s going to go up, stay the same. There’s a possibility of a negotiated outcome that’s still out there. There’s a possibility of a complete Taliban takeover or possibility of any number of other scenarios, breakdowns, warlordism, all kinds of other scenarios throughout that we’re monitoring very closely. I don’t think the endgame is yet written,” he said.