Exclusive: U.S. generals ran cover for Taliban, despite violent attacks during bungled withdrawal

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and CENTCOM Commander Frank McKenzie repeatedly ran cover for the Taliban’s behavior in 2021, denying that the Taliban had carried out attacks against U.S. and NATO bases during the withdrawal and defending the Taliban’s behavior during the evacuation.

In the weeks after the fall of Kabul, U.S. military brass such as Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would repeatedly testify that the Taliban had broken every provision of the Doha Agreement but one — its vow not to attack U.S. and NATO forces.

In fact, the Taliban had also violated that provision, because the Taliban attacked U.S. and NATO bases in Afghanistan multiple times, both before and after President Joe Biden’s "Go-to-Zero" order, including attacks on Bagram Air Base when U.S. troops were still there. The Taliban’s official spokespeople would often take credit for the attacks too.

The GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) final report from last year had a section about how “Taliban Attacks on U.S. Bases Continue[d]” during the U.S. military withdrawal in the spring and summer of 2021, but nowhere in that section nor anywhere else in the report did it include the key fact that Milley and McKenzie repeatedly and falsely claimed that these attacks hadn’t happened.

Multiple key Biden Administration officials also repeatedly praised the “businesslike” character of the Taliban during the non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) at Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), despite clear evidence that the Taliban was beating up some Americans and blocking some U.S. citizens from escaping Afghanistan, and in spite of overwhelming evidence that the Taliban was beating up and even executing some Afghans who wanted to flee Taliban rule. McKenzie played an especially key role in establishing this narrative, although Milley played his part too.

HFAC’s September report also made no mention of McKenzie’s insistence that the Taliban had been “very businesslike” and “very pragmatic” and made no mention of Milley’s claims that the Taliban was not interfering with the U.S. evacuation, nor did the report make any reference to other Biden Administration officials repeating this false “businesslike” mantra about the Taliban.

Biden issued a pardon to Milley on his last full day in office in January 2025. McKenzie and other military leaders were not pardoned. McKenzie is currently listed as the Executive Director for the Global and National Security Institute at the University of Southern Florida. 

McKenzie did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him through his email at the school. Nor did he respond to prior Just the News reporting about him.

Milley did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to him through Princeton University, where he was named a visiting professor last year, and through JPMorgan Chase, where he has been a senior adviser since 2024. Nor did he respond to previous Just the News reporting on him.

Taliban fires rockets at U.S. bases, but Milley and others deny it

Milley said on May 6, 2021 that “there have been no attacks against U.S. and coalition forces since the retrograde began on about 1 May, and that is also consistent for the past year.” This was incorrect, as the Taliban had conducted indirect fire attacks against U.S. and coalition bases earlier in the year and would soon carry out similar small attacks against U.S. and coalition forces during the retrograde. 

A UAE-based English-language newspaper reported that “the Taliban fired two missiles on a coalition military base in Afghanistan's Khost province” on March 30, 2021. The Afghan military’s Khost Protection Force said at the time that the “Taliban fired indiscriminate rocket missiles on the military headquarters of coalition forces in Khost city.” The Taliban contended that the Doha Agreement had been broken by the West and so “today these invaders were targeted.”

In fact, the Taliban violated every single promise it made in the Doha Agreement — not just breaking its vow to end its alliance with al-Qaeda, but also breaking its promise not to attack United States forces.

An Afghan news outlet similarly reported at the time that “a joint military base of foreign and Afghan forces in eastern Khost province was targeted in a rocket attack by Taliban insurgents.” And another Afghan outlet reported on social media that “the Taliban launched a missile attack on the base of the joint forces in Khost.”

The Taliban itself even touted the attack on the forces stationed at the airport in Khost city, with Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeting on March 30, 2021 that “a large number of rockets were launched in the vicinity of the center of Khost province on the old airfield of that province, which is the main center of the enemy's mercenary forces. The missiles hit specific targets, and as a result, the enemy suffered heavy losses in life and property.”

Despite these reports, Milley later told the Senate on September 28, 2021 that “the one [provision of the Doha Agreement] that was met was the most important one — which was do not attack us or the coalition forces, and they did not.” Milley repeated this argument to the House the following day. Austin also wrongly claimed in September 2021 that “the only thing that they lived up to was that they did not attack us.”

The Pentagon inspector general said in a mid-August 2021 report that, from April through June that year, the Taliban “were believed to have executed a few ineffective indirect fire attacks in the direction of U.S. or NATO bases.” The Pentagon watchdog stated that the “Taliban Conducted Limited Attacks on Coalition Bases.”

Some of the Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition bases in 2021 happened prior to Biden’s Go-to-Zero order. The watchdog report said that “the Taliban fired rockets toward a coalition military base in Khost province in the early morning of April 2. .... Additionally, the Taliban fired rockets at an airport in Khost where U.S. troops were based. U.S. forces responded by conducting clearing operations in the vicinity of the base.”

The Pentagon inspector general also said that “on April 7, 2021 the Taliban launched another rocket attack, this time against Kandahar air base, where several hundred U.S. troops were still based at the time.” The Afghanistan Times reported that on that day Afghan provincial officials said that the “Taliban unleashed a barrage of rockets at the Kandahar airport” and that “six rockets hit the airport.”

The Taliban yet again touted the attack on a base where U.S. forces were located, with the Taliban spokesman tweeting that “Kandahar airbase, a key enemy military center, targeted with multiple missiles noon hours today. Missiles have hit targets, causing heavy human & material losses.”

Confronted with facts, the Pentagon waffles

A reporter told then-Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on April 7, 2021 at a press briefing that the Taliban had attacked Kandahar Airfield and Camp Chapman, and asked Kirby what the U.S. military was doing to stop these Taliban attacks on U.S. and NATO troops. Kirby said that “we condemn today’s attack on Kandahar Airfield” which he said was still home to several hundred U.S. and coalition personnel. 

The Pentagon spokesman added that “while the attack resulted in no casualties or damage, the Taliban's decision to provoke even more violence in Afghanistan remains disruptive to the opportunity for peace.”

The reporter then noted Kirby still hadn’t said what the U.S. military was doing about the Taliban’s attacks against U.S. and coalition forces. Kirby said that “we always have the right of self-defense for our troops” but said that “our focus right now is on supporting a diplomatic process here to try to bring this war to a negotiated end.”

Kirby said that “I'm not prepared today to give an assessment of this attack as balanced against the Doha Agreement, okay?” when asked whether the Taliban attack against the Kandahar Airfield aimed at U.S. forces there was a violation of the agreement.

Biden’s Go-to-Zero order came a week later, and the Taliban's sporadic attacks against the U.S. and NATO continued.

Reality sets in at the Pentagon

The Pentagon watchdog cited media reports which said that “an explosion inside Bagram Airfield on May 1 killed one and wounded 24 Afghan personnel.” The Defense Intelligence Agency also said that “the Taliban launched two rocket attacks against coalition forces at Kandahar Airfield on May 2.”

U.S. military spokesman Colonel Sonny Leggett said on May 1, 2021 that “Kandahar Airfield received ineffective indirect fire this afternoon” and that, in response, “U.S. Forces conducted a precision strike this evening, destroying additional rockets aimed at the airfield.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid again defended the Taliban attack against the U.S., tweeting that day that the Taliban could “take every counteraction it deems appropriate against the occupying forces.” An Afghan news outlet reported the same day that Afghan security officials in Parwan province said that “one person was killed, and 24 others were wounded in an explosion while security force members were offering prayers at a mosque inside Bagram base.” The security chief for Parwan police headquarters said that all the casualties were Afghan security forces.

Kirby repeatedly downplayed the significance of the attacks from the Taliban, even as he acknowledged at least some of the attacks which occurred.

The Pentagon spokesman said on May 3, 2021 that “what we've seen are some small, harassing attacks over the course of the weekend” but that “we've seen nothing thus far that has affected the drawdown.” Kirby said again on May 13, 2021 that “we have seen small harassing attacks” from the Taliban, but said the attacks “have not had an impact on the retrograde.”

Despite the well-founded reports of attacks circulating for three months, General Austin “Scottie” Miller also wrongly claimed on June 7, 2021 that the Taliban hadn’t attacked the U.S. during the retrograde: “To date — and it’s to date — we have not seen that.” When asked about the Doha Agreement’s condition that the Taliban not attack U.S. forces, Miller later admitted to HFAC that the Taliban conducted “at least a couple indirect fire attacks” on U.S. forces.

Biden admin maintains wishful thinking, denying attacks happened

Derek Chollet, who would go on to be Austin’s chief of staff, later told HFAC that the Taliban were “meeting the most important condition” of the Doha Agreement in 2021, “which was they were not shooting at U.S. military forces in Afghanistan.” This was said long after news outlets and even Pentagon staff acknowledged the attacks.

Chollet, who was serving as the Counselor of the U.S. Department of State and was a top advisor to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told HFAC that he did "not recall" assessing whether the Taliban met any of its other obligations under the Doha Agreement because “the most important thing on our minds was we did not want the Afghan war to resume — against us.” 

Ross Wilson, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan in 2021, later told HFAC that “the Talibs had absolutely met their commitment not to attack American forces, personnel, or installations. It's not an unimportant thing to me, and I think also to the American people.”

Like Chollet, Wilson said that he couldn’t recall any Taliban indirect fire attacks directed against on U.S. bases in 2021, but said maybe there had been “misfires” by the Taliban.

Milley and McKenzie bend the meaning of "attacks"

Milley was asked during an appearance before HFAC in March 2024 whether the Taliban stopped attacking the U.S. military in 2021, and the language of the military commander shifted from claiming that the Taliban had not attacked U.S. forces to suddenly arguing that the Taliban had not carried out any “lethal attacks” on U.S. troops in 2021.

“They, well, yes. Lethal attacks. They committed to not doing that. There were some attacks, but they committed to not conducting lethal attacks and by my memory I don’t think there was a lethal attack on U.S. forces from February 2020 onward,” Milley said during the HFAC hearing.

Redefining the word "attacks", Milley added that “There were some attacks. The issue was a lethal attack — really that’s the fundamental piece. And there was also some specifics about no VBIEDs [vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices] in the cities. … I think it says no attacks on U.S. and coalition forces. I can tell you in conversation with Zal Khalilzad what you’re talking about is lethal attacks really [...] But the idea of not attacking coalition or U.S. forces, I would say largely that was adhered to by the Taliban.”

During his 2024 book tour, McKenzie then claimed again — despite the evidence — that the Taliban never attacked U.S. forces in 2020 and 2021: “The Taliban had about seven things that they were supposed to do. They didn’t do six of them, but one they did very well and scrupulously, in fact — they did not attack American forces in Afghanistan anymore.” 

Zalmay Khalilzad, the former special representative for Afghan reconciliation, later told HFAC that the Taliban never admitted to carrying out any of these attacks, but characterized the Taliban’s words thusly: "Because you are violating the agreement, killing so many of us, sometimes local commanders, out of anger, may have done something, but it's not something authorized by the military committee or by Commander Yaqoob or the political leadership. And so, if there is something that's happened, we will investigate and get back to you, but it's not authorized. But I am telling you that your violations … is creating a situation which has a lot of anger. We are losing a lot of people."

Biden admin praises Taliban's "businesslike" approach

McKenzie described the U.S. evacuation effort at the end of August 2021, saying: “We had gone from cooperating on security with a longtime partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a longtime enemy. … The Taliban had been very — very pragmatic and very businesslike as we have approached this withdrawal.” He added: “I will simply say that they wanted us out. We wanted to get out with our people and with our — and with our friends and partners. And so for that short period of time, our issues — our view of the world was congruent, it was the same.”

Just the News previously reported on how McKenzie turned down a Taliban offer in Doha in mid-August 2021 which potentially would have allowed the U.S. military to secure Kabul and conduct the NEO free from Taliban interference.

Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan soon echoed McKenzie’s “businesslike” remarks and said that the Taliban have “been businesslike in their approach with us, not because they’re nice guys — they’re not — but because they’ve had an interest along with us to make that evacuation mission run smoothly.”

McKenzie again testified in late September 2021 that “it was a very pragmatic, businesslike discussion” with the Taliban when coordinating security at HKIA with them.

National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in early September 2021 that the Taliban “have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents” from Kabul airport and “have shown flexibility” and “been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort.”

The Biden Administration repeatedly painted a rosy picture of the Taliban’s actions toward American citizens during the evacuation.

Austin claimed on August 18, 2021, that “the State Department, the Taliban are facilitating safe passage to the airport for American citizens, that is, U.S. passport holders.”

Biden repeated that notion in a White House press conference about how the Taliban was handling airport security, claiming that no Americans had been blocked from HKIA by the Taliban guards. “Let me be clear: any American who wants to come home, we will get you home,” Biden said on August 20, 2021, and he soon falsely insisted: “We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get — in Kabul — through the airport. We’ve made an agreement with the — with the Taliban. Thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through. It’s in their interest for them to go through. So, we know of no circumstance where American citizens are — carrying an American passport — are trying to get through to the airport.”

Facts come out, Biden's admin goes into damage control mode

In reality, Americans had variously been beaten, threatened, beaten, blocked, and had their passports confiscated by the Taliban.

The New York Post and other media reported that "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told members of Congress on a conference call Friday that Americans attempting to evacuate Afghanistan have been beaten by the Taliban, directly contradicting President Biden’s assertion that U.S. citizens were not being blocked from the airport."  

“We’re also aware that some people, including Americans, have been harassed and even beaten by the Taliban,” Austin reportedly said on the call. “This is unacceptable and [we] made it clear to the designated Taliban leader.” But Austin tried to downplay the Taliban violence, insisting that “with the exception of those cases … we continue to see Americans and appropriately credentialed Afghans continue to move through.” 

Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, also admitted that day that Biden had been wrong, and admitted that Afghan allies with proper paperwork had also been beaten up by the Taliban, but he worked to downplay that too, also saying he didn’t see it as a major issue.

“We have made it clear to the Taliban that these Afghans, with the proper credentials should be allowed through the checkpoint. And again… certainly we recognize that there have been multiple cases of Afghans — even some credentialed Afghans being assaulted, and beaten, and harassed, no question,” Kirby said. “But, by and large, those Afghans who have the proper credentials — and we have made it clear to the Taliban what those credentials look like, what they are. By and large, they are getting through the checkpoint. And we have not seen that become a major issue.”

Nevertheless, Biden told reporters that day that “thus far, the Taliban have been taking steps to work with us so we can get our people out.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on August 25, 2021 that he hoped the Taliban “continue to cooperate” — even as he knew that the Taliban’s cooperation was problematic.

Ambassador John Bass, the lead State Department official for the evacuation, would later tell HFAC that "what I can recall are reports of Americans being beaten because the Talibs at a particular checkpoint would not recognize their documents, told them to go away,” and that “Americans who were beaten when they presented themselves with other members of their family at a Taliban checkpoint and the Talibs said, ‘Okay, you can go ahead, but everybody else has to move away,’ and in the course of either an argument or an effort to prevent that physical separation of a family unit, American citizens or family members were beaten.”

Ross Wilson, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, also told HFAC that the Taliban would turn away Americans seeking to evacuate from Afghanistan: “The Talibs were very difficult to deal with. … It often happened that — not ‘often’ — it happened that the Talibs turned away American passport holders.”

U.S. troops watched helplessly as the Taliban killed Afghan civilians

The Taliban carried out many acts of violence against Afghan allies attempting to flee Afghanistan, even murdering many of these Afghans, often within view of the Marines guarding the gates. The U.S. military’s rules of engagement (ROE) at HKIA forbid the Marines from intervening and stopping the Taliban’s murderous acts targeting civilians.

Lieutenant Colonel John Naughton said during the 2022 CENTCOM briefing that Marines reported seeing the Taliban turn away potential evacuees, beat up potential evacuees, and even shoot at potential evacuees, and “so as the chevron became largely impassible and potential evacuees became more and more desperate they began to seek out and utilize alternate ingress routes to bypass Taliban checkpoints.” Thus did the Taliban violence reduce security around the airport and make the crowds even more uncontrollable, increasing the ability of a suicide bomber to make his way to the gates.

The initial Abbey Gate investigation found that “the Taliban used excessive force which resulted in civilian evacuees seeking alternate routes to Abbey Gate to avoid Taliban checkpoints” and that “the change in routes dramatically increased the number of evacuees in the canal area at Abbey Gate between 25-26 August 2021.”

ARCENT investigators contended that the rules of engagement originally “authorized offensive engagement of the Taliban as a declared hostile force” but that “the Taliban became a temporary and tactically expedient partner force, armed, and near Service members at Abbey Gate.” ARCENT said that “this temporary and expedient partner used excessive force against the civilian population which was observed by certain service members attempting to conduct a NEO.”

Despite the Taliban murdering civilians within view of U.S. troops, ARCENT said that U.S. military commanders “constrained Service members’ authority under the ROE to stop the violence due to a justifiable concern of jeopardizing the mission and potentially incurring additional civilian casualties in what would escalate to open combat at the gate.”

ARCENT said that “under the ROE, service members understood they had the right to defend others only if they were verified AMCITS [American citizens] or coalition military forces.” 

The ARCENT investigation also said that “Marines knew about the Taliban using excessive force” and that “several Marines, working near the chevron, stated they personally witnessed the Taliban shoot civilians.” The investigative report said U.S. military snipers “specifically described a vantage point from the west side of the sniper tower, looking down the outer corridor toward the chevron, where they could view an area controlled by the Taliban” and that the snipers said “it was at that location where they observed these shootings occur.” The report also said the command center at HKIA “received reports describing violence and excessive force that resulted in the death of civilians.”

ARCENT claimed that “any escalation by U.S. forces to intervene in Taliban use of excessive force would have created an unnecessary and definite risk to mission and risk to U.S. forces.” The U.S. military leaders at Abbey Gate “were aware that violence occurred,” ARCENT said, but these leaders “explained that “if U.S. forces engaged the Taliban, leaders assessed the situation would devolve into a firefight between U.S. forces and the Taliban. This almost certainly would have caused military and civilian casualties and jeopardized the mission to maximize the number of evacuees.”

Scott Mann’s book Pineapple Express recounted just one of the many instances of the Taliban murdering Afghan civilians at HKIA and U.S. forces being told not to intervene: “Major Ian Wookey … swallowed hard as he listened to a pilot who had just seen a civilian execution along the airport’s southwest perimeter wall. ‘Enemy is in the clear,’ the pilot said, almost by rote. ‘Permission to engage.’ The answer came back quickly. ‘Negative. Repeat, negative. Do not engage.’ Apaches were some of the most advanced weapons belonging to the most powerful military in the world, and now they could not fire on insurgents who were killing innocent people.”

One of the Marines who worked in the Joint Operations Center at Kabul airport admitted that “we were not tasked to look for Taliban shooting people, and because of the limited ISR [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] assets, we did not really monitor the Taliban trying to kill people.”

Another Marine told investigators: “It was weird seeing Taliban in direct support of the battalion. We were basically told that if they shot at the crowd, we couldn’t do anything unless we saw an American passport holder in direct peril. We couldn’t engage or kill the Taliban unless we saw that. There was lots of weapons pointing for the duration, but we couldn’t engage, even if we saw executions, unless we saw a blue passport.”

Yet another Marine also said that “I saw humanity at its worst at HKIA. Coming out of Mosul, two clans were killing each other and that was pretty heinous, but this was way worse." Another corpsman said that “it was hard to watch, like the Taliban beating a pregnant woman. But you just have to turn around and walk away.”

Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews said that “we witnessed the Taliban beating and killing people — not just hitting them, breaking their faces, and bashing their skulls in.” The Marine sniper continued: “I saw them shoot at/around people. I saw them severely beat people, to unconsciousness or what I believed was death. I saw that and passed it up. We obviously have been going back and forth with the Taliban for decades, they are good at working around our RoEs. They would hit civilians with buttstocks and pipes until they fell and didn’t get up. That prompted me at one point, since I was routinely radioing this up to the chain of command, to ask if we were allowed to do anything about it. I was told that only if we saw Americans or ourselves being physically harmed, we were not allowed to do anything.” Vargas-Andrews said one night was particularly bad as he watched eight or nine civilians “beaten to the point of immobilization.” He said when he radioed that in “I was told to clear the net of radio traffic.”

Vargas-Andrews also described a recon patrol he and his fellow Marines conducted by climbing across rooftops to observe the Taliban position at the chevron. The Marine sniper said: “We got photos of the Taliban, the gear they were holding, and what they did to the civilians. … Up against the wall, they had 12-15 individuals flex cuffed against the wall. We saw the Taliban moving unconscious or lifeless bodies around. ... I was trying to get pictures to either let us engage or get the task force commander to talk to the Taliban about what they were doing. The amount of brutality we saw over less than a two-week period, it was unsettling to see people get beaten senseless for no reason.”

State Department official Jayne Howell told HFAC that “the Taliban periodically would start, either at the very minimum, beating people with sticks, and in the worst cases, they were using live bullets and shooting at people in the crowd if they felt that the crowd was out of control.” She said she observed the Taliban violence with her own eyes, “It was terrible. It was chaotic. It was heartbreaking.” Howell also said that consular officers under her watch reported to her that they saw people being shot by the Taliban.

Despite all of this, HFAC’s report last year never mentioned how McKenzie and others claimed the Taliban had been “businesslike” during the chaotic — and sometimes murderous — evacuation.

• Reporter's disclosure

A quick word about this author (a disclosure I shared in my prior pieces on Milley and McKenzie). I co-authored a book — KABUL — on the withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan and, prior to joining Just the News, I worked as the senior investigator on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC), specifically tasked with reviewing the bungled Afghan withdrawal.

I quit the committee in protest last August over disagreements with then-GOP Chairman Michael McCaul over how his investigation was run and over what was edited out of the drafts I wrote before HFAC’s final report was published last September.

In full disclosure, I have also been serving as an independent factfinder in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's ongoing review of the Pentagon’s failings during the Afghan withdrawal, but I am participating in that exercise solely as a journalist. I'm not paid by any government agency and my participation is solely to help provide Just the News readers and the American public a better understanding of what led to such a disaster.