1. False Claims About Taliban Attacks on U.S. Forces
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Milley (Chairman of Joint Chiefs), McKenzie (CENTCOM), Austin (SecDef), and others repeatedly testified in 2021 that the Taliban had not attacked U.S. or NATO forces after the Doha Agreement.
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Evidence shows otherwise:
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Taliban fired rockets at coalition/U.S. bases in Khost, Kandahar, and Bagram in March–May 2021.
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Taliban themselves claimed responsibility for these attacks in public statements.
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Pentagon’s own inspector general confirmed “limited” Taliban attacks on coalition bases.
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Public statements by Milley, McKenzie, Austin, and others directly contradicted both intelligence and open-source reporting.
2. Redefining “Attacks”
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When confronted later, Milley and McKenzie shifted language:
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Claimed Taliban didn’t carry out “lethal” attacks, even though they admitted “some” small indirect fire incidents.
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McKenzie even said in 2024 that the Taliban had “scrupulously” upheld their no-attack pledge.
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This rhetorical shift reframed the Doha Agreement provision to mean “no lethal attacks,” rather than “no attacks.”
3. “Businesslike Taliban” Narrative
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McKenzie, Milley, Austin, Blinken, Sullivan, and NSC officials repeatedly described Taliban behavior during the evacuation at HKIA as “pragmatic” and “businesslike.”
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In reality:
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Taliban beat Americans and confiscated passports.
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U.S. citizens were sometimes blocked from entering HKIA.
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Afghan allies were beaten, harassed, or executed in full view of U.S. Marines.
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HFAC’s 2023 final report did not mention these “businesslike” claims by top U.S. officials.
4. Pentagon & White House Damage Control
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Early May 2021: Pentagon spokesman John Kirby acknowledged small “harassing attacks” but downplayed them as having no impact on the retrograde.
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Austin privately admitted to Congress that Americans had been beaten by Taliban guards but insisted they were “exceptions.”
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Biden publicly contradicted evidence by claiming no Americans had been blocked from reaching the airport.
5. Marines and State Dept. Witness Taliban Brutality
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Marines reported watching Taliban beat, execute, and shoot civilians at Taliban-controlled checkpoints near HKIA.
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Rules of Engagement (ROE) restricted intervention unless Americans were directly targeted.
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State Dept. officials, including Jayne Howell, confirmed seeing Taliban fire on crowds and beat civilians.
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ARCENT investigation acknowledged Taliban used “excessive force,” but U.S. command limited engagement to avoid escalation.
6. Political Fallout & Selective Reporting
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HFAC’s GOP-led final report (2023) documented Taliban attacks but omitted the fact that Milley, McKenzie, and Austin falsely denied those attacks.
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HFAC also excluded any mention of the repeated “businesslike” characterization of the Taliban by U.S. military and administration officials.
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The article’s author (and ex-HFAC investigator) quit in protest over what he described as deliberate omissions from the committee’s final report.
7. Current Status of Key Figures
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Milley: pardoned by Biden in Jan 2025; now at Princeton & JPMorgan.
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McKenzie: not pardoned; currently Executive Director of the Global and National Security Institute at University of South Florida.
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Deception and narrative control: Senior military and administration officials knowingly misrepresented Taliban actions in 2021.
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Word games: Officials redefined “attacks” to mean “lethal attacks” in order to defend their earlier false claims.
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Media and Congress complicity: Despite evidence, much of the press and the HFAC report failed to confront these contradictions.
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Moral failure at HKIA: U.S. troops were forced to stand by as Taliban beat and executed civilians, due to restrictive ROE and policy decisions.
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Historical record distortion: By omitting critical facts, both government officials and congressional investigators contributed to a sanitized version of events.
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