Austin on Afghanistan: ‘The War is Over’
Austin on Afghanistan: ‘The War is Over’
America’s longest war has come to a close, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Sept. 1 at a Pentagon press conference.
“The war is over, but we are entering a new chapter,” he said.
He added, “It is time to thank all of those who served in this war. You are the most extraordinary asset we have. The war has ended, but our gratitude never will.”
The end of the Afghanistan conflict doesn’t mean the military is standing down. “It is our duty to defend this nation. We are not going to take our eye off the ball,” Austin said.
Austin described the U.S. military’s evacuation mission from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul as “heroic” and “historic.” American service members were “operating in an immensely dangerous and dynamic environment, but our troops were tireless, fearless and selfless.”
“Our forces risked their own lives to save others,” said Austin, a retired Army general who served in Afghanistan. “I am enormously proud of what our military has accomplished,” he said of the evacuation, which flew 124,000 people out of the country.
Austin honored the 2,641 U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan, in addition to the 20,000 troops who were wounded. He also noted that there were thousands of U.S. contractors and “tens of thousands” of Afghan soldiers, police and civilians killed.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who also served in Afghanistan, lauded the 13 American service members killed in the Aug. 26 bombing at the Kabul airport.
“They literally gave their tomorrows for the tomorrow of those they never knew,” Milley said. “There isn’t anything we can say to bring the dead back, but we can always honor them.”
Reviews have begun of the Afghanistan conflict and its end, Milley said, with many lessons to be learned, but the 20-year mission protected the nation. “For the past 20 years, there has not been a major attack on the homeland,” Milley said.
More than 800,000 American service members served in Afghanistan. “This is the longest war in our history. There have been a couple of generations that have participated in this war,” Austin said, suggesting it will take “time and space” for veterans to full resolve how they feel about its end.
“War is hard, it’s vicious, it’s brutal, it’s unforgiving,” Milley said, acknowledging his own “pain and anger” over the conflict and how it ended.