WASHINGTON, 02 October 2021, (TON): The US military chief has informed American lawmakers that the loss in Afghanistan was a cumulative effect of 20 years of wrong decisions and bad planning and was not caused by any single factor, such as the Taliban’s alleged sanctuary in Pakistan.

In their latest testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, top US generals also blamed the Trump administration’s agreement with the Taliban for accelerating the fall of Kabul in mid-August.

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark A. Milley, however, described the Taliban’s alleged ability to escape to Pakistan during 20 years of US presence in Afghanistan as a major strategic issue.

He told the committee “not effectively dealing with Pakistan as a sanctuary, major strategic issue that we are going to have to really unpack.”

Gen Milley made a similar demand in a Senate hearing on Tuesday, saying: “We need to fully examine the role of Pakistan sanctuary.”

But in Wednesday’s hearing, his focus was on finding the root cause of the US loss and he urged the lawmakers to focus on “a whole series of decisions that take place over 20 years,” not on a single-source.

Gen. Milley said “my assessment is, this is a 20-year war, and it wasn’t lost in the last 20 days or even 20 months. There’s a cumulative effect to a series of decisions that go way back.”