US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that his military estimate is that "the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war" in Afghanistan. Milley said he believed it was "likely" that conditions for a future civil war could develop in Afghanistan following the US troop withdrawal. The general also stated that civil war in the region could lead to the resurgence of groups like Al Qaida and Daesh (so-called IS), among others. During an interview with Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin in Ramstein, Germany, that aired on Saturday, the reporter asked Milley if the US was safer today since the country had withdrawn its troops from Afghanistan. "Well you know this is something that I've thought a lot about. And I personally think that my military estimate is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. I don't know if the Taliban is gonna be able to consolidate power and establish governance — they may be, maybe not," Milley told Griffin. "But I think there's at least a very good probability of a broader civil war, and that will then in turn lead to conditions that could in fact, lead to reconstitution of Al Qaida or a growth of Daesh or other myriad of terrorist groups," Milley added, who noted that officials do not yet know for sure the fate of Afghanistan. Milley noted that it would be a "very difficult policy choice" when asked if he could envision a situation in which US troops would have to return to Afghanistan. "I wouldn't say yes or no to anything actually. I think those are, it's too early to say anything like that at this point," Milley said, adding that they needed to continue to monitor the intelligence situation. He noted, "You could see a resurgence of terrorism coming out of that general region within 12, 24, 36 months. And we're going to monitor that." "We'll have to reestablish some human intelligence networks, etc.," he added. "Then as opportunities present themselves, we'll have to continue to conduct strike operations if there's a threat to the United States," he said. He stressed, "We're going to have to maintain very, very intense levels of indicators and warnings and observation and ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) over that entire region." On the fall of the Afghan government, Milley reiterated "the collapse of the Afghan army happened at a much faster rate and very unexpected by pretty much everybody and with that is the collapse of the Afghan government so that was definitely a surprise." "The Army itself, the army and the police forces were a mirror image in many ways, and we created and developed forces that looked like Western forces," he remarked. "I think one of the big lessons learned here is maybe those forces were not designed appropriately for the type of mission." Last week, the US announced the completion of its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending the nearly 20-year war. — Agencies
