Former President Joe Biden granted a preemptive pardon to Gen. Mark Milley on Monday, capping a presidency marred by the turmoil of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Milley accepted the pardon and said in a statement that she did not want to spend the rest of her life fighting “retribution.”
But critics of the exit in parliament say his treatment is far from over.
“Mark Milley may be pardoned, but we will continue to find ways to hold him accountable,” said Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), an Afghanistan veteran.
Post-evacuation assessments have largely questioned why the military withdrew from the area before civilian evacuation was complete.
Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that the withdrawal, which killed 13 American soldiers, was a “strategic failure.”
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Biden granted a preemptive pardon to Mark Milley. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Seneta, File)
At a 2024 Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Milley criticized the State Department for delaying non-combatant evacuation operations (NEOs), or orders for the withdrawal of U.S. civilians working in the country, but praised the military's actions.
The order was not issued until mid-August 2021, just two weeks before the departure deadline that Biden had set.
“I think it was too little too late. And that set off a chain of events that culminated in the last few days. There were a lot of other mistakes.” [were] I made it on the way… [but] I think that was the key. ”
“While the U.S. military is responsible for supporting the State Department in non-combatant withdrawal operations, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from combat areas associated with acts of war is the responsibility of the Department of Defense, and ultimately, we do not leave any remaining forces behind. There was no,” former Pentagon counterterrorism official Alex Pritsas told Fox News Digital.
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Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane on the perimeter of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, Monday, August 17, 2021. (AP)
Biden also pardoned Anthony Fauci and members of the Jan. 6 Commission. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
In June 2021, Milley said in Congressional testimony that the United States would not see scenes reminiscent of the fall of Saigon in Vietnam, such as U.S. military personnel being airlifted from rooftops.
“There is no 1975 Saigon in Afghanistan. The Taliban are not the North Vietnamese Army.”
Milley's pardon was part of a preemptive pardon group that included Anthony Fauci and members of the January 6th Committee.
“My family and I are deeply grateful for the president's actions today,” Milley said after receiving the pardon.
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He continued, “After 43 years in uniform, defending the Constitution, and faithfully serving my country, I will spend the rest of the time that the Lord has given me in vain for the unjust retribution of my perceived contempt. I don't want to spend my time fighting people who may want to. I want to spare my family, friends, and those I served with the resulting distractions, expenses, and anxiety.”
Jerry Dunleavy, former top investigator on the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Afghanistan investigation, told Fox News Digital about the pardon: “Mr. Milley unfairly drew a clearly valid comparison between the fall of Saigon and the impending fall of Kabul. “The size of the Afghan army had swelled significantly,” grossly underestimated the speed and extent of the Taliban's control of the area, and subsequently imposed the fiction that Afghanistan fell in just 11 days.
He added: “After the catastrophe in which 13 soldiers were killed at the monastery gates and the Taliban regained power, Mr. Milley incorrectly predicted that Ukraine would fall to Russian forces within just three days.” He added, referring to Milley's remarks in a private meeting with members of Congress. .
