Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III; Joint
Chiefs Of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley; Pentagon Press Secretary
John F. Kirby
PRESS SECRETARY JOHN F. KIRBY: OK, good afternoon, everybody. We'll get started here in just a second.
Just a little bit of ground rules. We've got about 30 minutes. Both
the secretary and the chairman have opening comments. We'll let them get
through those first, and then I'll moderate and -- and call on
questioners. Please identify who you are and what outlet you are with
when you ask your question, and please limit the follow-up -- follow-ups
so we can get through as efficiently as possible.
With that, sir, Mr. Secretary.
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Thanks, John, and thanks to all of you for coming today.
I'd like to start by talking briefly about my trip later this week to
our priority theater of operations, which is, of course, the
Indo-Pacific, and then I'll add just a few words on Afghanistan, which
is very much on all of our minds here.
And I'd like to start by saying I'm looking forward to my second trip
to the region as secretary of defense. This time, we're heading out to
Southeast Asia, and I'm glad to have the opportunity to engage in person
with leaders there.
I'm especially looking forward to making keynote remarks in Singapore
about how we're strengthening one of our unmatched strategic assets in
the region, which is our powerful network of allies and partners. I'll
follow up -- I'll follow that up with stops in Vietnam and the
Philippines, where I'll meet with my counterparts and other leaders.
And so it's going to be a busy trip. There's no shortage of national
security interests that we and our partners share in this dynamic
region, and I'll be carrying a few key messages and agenda items. The
first is simply that the United States remains a reliable partner, a
friend who shows up when it counts.
We've been there to maintain stability and let sovereign -- we've
long been there to maintain stability and let sovereign states in the
region make their own choices, and today, we've moved urgently to help
our partners tackle COVID-19 and to build back even stronger afterward.
I'll also continue to make the case for a more fair, open and
inclusive regional order, and for our shared values to ensure that all
countries get a fair shake. We don't believe that any one country should
be able to dictate the rules, or worse yet, throw them over the
transom, and in this regard, I'll emphasize our commitment to the
freedom -- to freedom of the seas. I'll also make clear where we stand
on some unhelpful and unfounded claims by China in the South China Sea.
And finally, I'll be working closely with our partners about how
we're updating our -- and modernizing our capabilities and their own
capabilities to work together to tackle some changing forms of
aggression and coercion that we're all seeing. And I'll be talking with
our friends about how we're -- we'll work hand-in-hand to pursue our new
vision of integrated deterrence.
Now, let me briefly talk about where we are on Afghanistan. I'm very
proud of the professionalism that our forces have displayed. Our
drawdown continues in a safe and orderly manner, and we're still on
track to finish up by the end of August. The president has made a
decision that we're going to get it done, and we're going to get it done
right, and we have four ongoing key tasks. We remain committed to
protecting our diplomatic presence in Afghanistan and to providing
funding to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, and to
advising Afghan security ministries, and to preventing the -- the
reemergence of transnational terrorist organizations.
And we've added a fifth urgent task, and that is working closely and
urgently in support of the State Department as they relocate brave
Afghans and their families who have provided such exceptional service
during our long mission. These are friends of the United States who have
done exemplary and courageous work, and we take our obligations to them
and to their families very seriously. You've seen that we'll be hosting
the first group of Afghans at -- on Fort Lee in Virginia, and we expect
them to arrive soon and most likely, will stay there only for short
while as they complete their parolee paperwork. We're also working on
several overseas locations to host other individuals not as far along in
the visa process as this first group, and some of these locations
belong to us, and some are in third countries, and when we can provide
more details about which ones we'll use, we'll -- we certainly will.
This is a priority for the administration, and not only do we in the
Department of Defense have a responsibility to these brave men and women
and their families, so, too, do we have a responsibility to support the
State Department as it carries out the president's directive.
And of course, even though our mission in Afghanistan is not over, I
would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to honor the American
and allied troops who have served bravely over the last two decades of
war and those who gave their lives there. We owe them and their families
a debt that we can never repay.
We know these are difficult times for them and we will never forget all that they gave for their country.
And so now, for more context on where we are in Afghanistan, let me pass this over to the chairman.
GENERAL MARK MILLEY: Thanks, Secretary. I appreciate that, and I appreciate your comments and your leadership every day.
And good afternoon to everyone.
I want to extend also a thank you to all of you, because you're a
reminder that freedom of speech is alive and well and freedom of the
press is a principle in our Constitution.
Last week, I traveled to Norfolk to attend a ceremony recognizing a
new operational capability: the first and only NATO headquarters on U.S.
soil, Joint Forces Command Norfolk, which is part of a vital network of
strategic alliances and partnerships that enable us to project U.S.
military strength throughout the world.
And during those discussions that visit, we also talked about the
changing character of war, the geostrategic changes and the challenges
that we're going to face sometime in the future.
Also last week, the secretary and I were honored to welcome home
General Scott Miller from Afghanistan. And I want to publicly thank him
one more time for his incredible leadership as the longest serving
commander in Afghanistan. Twice wounded in combat over the years, Scott
Miller is an American hero of the first order. He is representative of
the more than 800,000 servicemembers who have served in Afghanistan
across the last two decades and we should always remember their faithful
service.
General Miller and his team, along with CENTCOM and many others in
the joint force, have paved the path for a safe, orderly and responsible
transition.
The sheer volume of movement involved in this operation has been
extraordinary. 984 airlifts over the last less than three months have
enabled us to reach almost 95 percent completion on the retrograde. To
include equipment, we also moved 9,000 people, both civilian and
military.
Furthermore, all the military operating bases outside of Kabul have
been fully transferred to the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan
security forces. A small contingent of predominantly military personnel,
but some civilians and contractors, along with Department of State,
remain in Afghanistan to provide security and bolster our diplomatic
presence in Kabul. The forces here are key to achieving the five ongoing
tasks that the secretary laid out in his comments.
A major component of sustaining a robust diplomatic presence in Kabul
is to maintain a functioning and secure airport in Kabul. So we
continue to dedicate our security resources to that, to secure the
embassy, to secure the international zone and secure HKIA, the
international airport in Kabul for our diplomats, our personnel and our
continued support to the government of Afghanistan.
The Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight
and defend their country, and we will continue to support the Afghan
Security Forces where necessary in accordance with the guidance from the
president and the secretary of defense.
The future of Afghanistan is squarely in the hands of the Afghan
people, and there are a range of possible outcome in Afghanistan. And I
want to emphasis repeatedly, and I've said this before, a negative
outcome, a Taliban automatic military takeover, is not a forgone
conclusion. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and make
adjustments as necessary.
Additionally, we're always going to maintain the capability of
self-defense. We possess the military means and have several options at
our disposal to fully protect our force in Afghanistan and throughout
the region.
In CENTCOM, if needed, the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is
on station. The package of long-range bombers, additional
fighter-bombers and troop formations are postured to quickly respond if
necessary and directed.
Further, we will always protect our nation. We maintain an agile
over-the-horizon counterterrorism capability that is set up and
effective now to detect and address any terrorism threat to the United
States. In addition to our mission in Afghanistan, we continue to defend
this country from all kinds of other threats. We're monitoring Russia,
North Korea, Iran. We watch China closely while maintaining strategic
deterrence to safeguard great power peace.
The Department of Defense ensures no terrorists are able to launch
attacks from Iraq or Syria or Africa. We keep a watchful eye on Haiti
and Cuba, and we do all these things while we serve here at home as
well, and I want to recognize the great efforts of our Reserve
component, our National Guard and our active-duty soldiers that are
fighting wildfires in California and the Pacific Northwest, and as of
Tuesday morning, California and Nevada National Guard C-130 units are
operating near Sacramento, California, and have flown 205 sorties and
provided 4.5 million pounds of fire retardant, and we will continue to
provide support as required. Our Joint Force is incredible because of
the skill, determination of our men and women and their leaders, and
there's task that they cannot accomplish.
Thanks for the opportunity, and look forward to your questions.
MR. KIRBY: Thank you, sir.
Bob?
Q: Thank you, John. I have a question for each of you.
Secretary Austin, both you and General Milley have mentioned a number
of times that the United States intends to continue providing --
supporting Afghan forces through financial assistance and remote
logistical assistance. But given the tenuous state of security there,
the -- the Taliban offensive, I'm wondering whether in your view, the
U.S. should do more beyond August 31st to prevent a collapse of the
government.
And if I could pose a question to General Milley also. General
Milley, you're portrayed in books published this summer as having
sounded the alarm privately about the possibility of President Trump
manufacturing a crisis involving the military either domestically or
overseas in order to stay in office after January 20th. I'm wondering,
would you now set the historical record straight, and were you concerned
about the possibility of a coup, and on what basis was that concern?
SEC. AUSTIN: So on the first piece, Bob, thanks for your question
there. We -- we are doing a lot to support the Afghan military and the
Afghan leadership as we speak. You know, we talked a lot about the fact
that we're going to stand up nodes to continue to provide security
assistance. We've stood up a node in -- in -- in Qatar that's
operational now. We -- we have provided -- begun the provision of the
aircraft that we mentioned to you earlier, that we're going to provide
on Friday three newly-refurbished UH-60s that landed in -- in Kabul, and
they'll continue to see a steady drumbeat of that kind of support,
going forward. We've talked about, you know, setting up a -- a -- a node
to be able to conduct over-the-horizon strikes. That node is in place.
Q: After August?
SEC. AUSTIN: After August, our focus, as we've said, is on those
threats that -- that present a -- those -- those -- those elements that
present a threat to the United States of America, so it'll be a
counterterrorism focus there. So -- and that's currently where we stand,
but we have not changed that.
But make no mistake that we remain committed to helping the Afghan
Security Forces and the Afghan government going forward, and -- and we
are doing what we said we were going to do in terms of putting the
pieces in place to ensure that we can provide that support.
GEN. MILLEY: And Bob, thanks for the question. Look, I know there's a
lot of interest out there on all of these books that are out there and
quoting me and lots of others, et cetera. I'm not going to comment on
what's in any of those books. Let me just say this, though: I always
personally provided the best military professional advice to President
Trump previously, to President Biden or any other president. I always
provide that best military advice to the secretary of defense, whomever
is the secretary of defense, and I do that for the National Security
Council, as well. And -- and I will speak also for this one time on the
part -- on behalf of the Joint Chiefs. The same applies to them. We've
always adhered to providing best professional military advice, bar none.
It was candid, honest in every single occasion. We did that all the
time, every time.
The other thing that I think is important to note here is that I, the
other members of the Joint Chiefs, and all of us in uniform, we take an
oath, an oath to a document, an oath to the Constitution of the United
States, and not one time did we violate that. At the entire time, from
time of commissioning to today, I can say with certainty that every one
of us maintained our oath of allegiance to that document, the
Constitution, everything that's contained within it. And we also
maintain the tradition of civilian control of the military. We did that
without fail, and we also maintained the tradition of an apolitical
military. We did that then, we do that now, and we will do that forever,
all the time, Bob.
SEC. AUSTIN: I -- I'd just like to add a comment to that, Bob. I --
I've known the chairman for a long time. We've fought together. We've
served a couple of times in the -- in the same unit, so I -- I'm not
guessing at his character. He doesn't have a political bone in his body.
And I -- I think -- you know, I -- I clearly have tremendous faith and
confidence in the chairman. What I want to make sure we do is main --
maintain our focus on -- on the threats ahead, maintain our focus on our
pacing challenge with China and -- and all the things that we're trying
to do to make sure that this force is ready to meet the challenges of
the future.
MR. KIRBY: Courtney?
Q: Secretary Austin, on Afghanistan, are -- are you concerned that as
the Taliban gain ground, that Al-Qaida will be able to move back in and
be able to strengthen enough to attack the West? And if so, can you
give us a sense of how long, and the estimates are before they will be
able to have that capability?
And General Milley, I know you -- you don't want to talk about the
book, but you -- you have not denied any of the recent reporting that's
been out there about you, including the comments, including some of the
actions. And the American public and members of the military, because of
your -- your silence on it and the -- in denying it, have no reason to
believe that -- the vignettes are anything but -- but accurate. So
looking back now, I know you said that you didn't violate, and you
maintained apolitical. But looking back now, were you too political at
the time? And are you concerned about the message that that sends to the
rank and file?
SEC. AUSTIN: You know, Courtney, on your -- on your first piece and
-- and whether or not we're concerned about Al-Qaida coming back, that's
something that we are watching very closely currently, and we will
continue to keep an eye on. Again, you know, our major focus going
forward is to make sure that, you know, violence, terrorism cannot be
exported from -- from Afghanistan to our homeland. And so we'll maintain
the capability to be able to not only observe that, but also address
that if there -- if it does emerge.
The Taliban early on committed to not providing a safe haven for
Al-Qaida. We expect for them to meet that commitment. If they want
legitimacy going forward, I think that's something that they'll have to
consider. That's -- that's one way to earn it. And so, we'll see what
happens.
But most importantly, we will maintain the over-the-horizon
capabilities to be able to address this threat or any threat if it
emerges.
You heard me say a while back that, you know, my rough estimate was
that it would take two years for them to develop that kind of capability
and it was a medium risk. I've not changed my -- my assessment there.
But again, a number of things that could happen that could speed that up
a bit or slow it down.
GEN. MILLEY: So, Courtney, I hear what you're saying but I'm not to comment on any of the books.
But I want you to know and I want everyone to know, I want America to
know that the United States military is an apolitical institution, we
were then and we are now. And our oath is to the Constitution, not to
any individual at all.
And the military did not and will not and should not ever get
involved in domestic politics. We don't arbitrate elections. That's the
job of the judiciary, and the legislature, and the American people. It
is not the job of the U.S. military. We stay out of politics, we're an
apolitical institution.
Q: But are you concerned that some of these comments that are
attributed to you are making it -- pulling you more into politics than
you necessarily -- or your office should be?
SEC. AUSTIN: Look, let me -- let me just make a comment here. I --
you know, it's really important to me that this department remain
apolitical. And so we're going to do everything within our power to make
sure that our troops, our leadership both civilian and -- and military
remain focused on the task at hand and understand that they are not a
part of the -- of the political apparatus there. So we will remain
apolitical.
MR. KIRBY: Tony?
Q: Mr. Secretary and General, I -- closer to home, you've got a
yawning gap in leadership among the weapons buying bureaucracy here. You
don't have an under secretary for Acquisition and Sustainment, you're
seven months into the -- into the administration.
Michael Brown pulled out last week. Your capable acting is leaving.
How concerned are you? I mean -- the Pacific's important, your trip’s
important, but your -- the business of the department -- a lot of money
being spent here. How much -- how concerned are you? And have you
suggested to the White House a new candidate?
And for this -- General Milley, a non-book question. You talked about
the Afghans having the capability to defend themselves, 300,000. We
spent $74 billion on them. They're facing about 75,000 Taliban over the
-- the president said this. In layman's language for the American
people, given the numeric superiority of the Afghans, why does it appear
that the Taliban is winning?
SEC. AUSTIN: Tony, on your first question in term -- regarding the
numbers of people that we've had confirmed thus far, certainly we'd like
to see more.
This is something that the deputy secretary and I, and my whole --
all of my leadership remained focused on each and every day. And we
continue to work with the White House to make sure that we have quality
and qualified applicants to -- to fill these seats.
We have six that have been confirmed so far, and 10 that are -- that
are waiting for a vote and five more that are in committee. So the
process continues to work. And I think that you'll see that when the
confirmations do occur that they'll be experienced, quality people that
will add a lot of value.
And of course, you know, I'm concerned about the -- the A&S
position that you mentioned, and absolutely, we'll make a -- we'll --
another nomination -- provide another name to consider -- for the White
House to consider. And -- but that's an ongoing process, and -- and
again, when we do get that person, it will be the best person available.
And, you know, again, I consider that job to be very, very important,
but we'll continue to work with the White House on the issues.
GEN. MILLEY: And -- and Tony, what I would tell you is a couple of
things. One is you know as well as anybody else does that warfare is not
just about numbers. So yes, you cited some correct numbers there. And
the Afghan Security Forces writ large, the NDS, the police, the Army, et
cetera, they're well equipped, they've been well trained over the years
-- the past 20 years, at -- at great expense to the United States and
other international allies.
But there's other factors that determine outcomes. The two most
important combat multipliers actually is will and leadership. And this
is going to be a test now of the will and leadership of the Afghan
people, the Afghan Security Forces and the government of Afghanistan.
Right now, you’ve talked about the -- the narrative that the Taliban
are winning. There clearly is a narrative out there that the Taliban are
winning. In fact, they are propagating an inevitable victory on their
behalf, they're dominating a lot of the airwaves on -- on that sort of
thing.
I would tell you that as of today, more or less -- I guess it's about
212, 213, it's in that range -- the 200s -- of the district centers are
in Taliban control. It's about half of the 419 that are out there.
You've got 34 provincial capitals in Afghanistan. None of them have been
seized, as of today, by the Taliban, although the Taliban is putting
pressure on the outskirts of probably about half of them -- 17 of them,
in fact -- and what they're trying to do is isolate the major population
centers. They're trying to do the same thing to Kabul.
And roughly speaking, the order of magnitude -- a significant amount
of territory has been seized over the course of six, eight, 10 months
sort of thing by the -- by the Taliban. So momentum appears to be --
strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban.
The Afghan Security Forces, though, are consolidating their forces.
So part of this is they're giving up district centers in order to
consolidate their forces because they're taking an approach to protect
the population, and most of the population lives in the provincial
capitals and the capital city of Kabul.
So they are, right now, as we speak, adjusting forces to consolidate
into the provincial capitals in Kabul. And they remain -- that's why I
say it remains to be seen over the rest of the summer. Right now, the
balance is relatively low cause of Eid, but after Eid, we're going to
find out -- we're going to find out the levels of violence, whether it's
going to go up, stay the same. There's a possibility of a negotiated
outcome that's still out there. There's a possibility of a complete
Taliban takeover or a possibility of any number of other scenarios --
breakdowns, warlordism, all kinds of other scenarios that are out there.
We're monitoring very closely. I don't think the end game is yet written.
MR. KIRBY: We've only got time for a couple more. Barb?
Q: I wanted to ask both of you a question -- somewhat for both of
you, following up on your recent House testimony. Mr. Secretary, for you
first -- could you explain in more detail your views on when you think
and under what circumstances critical race theory should be an
appropriate part of military education? I know you brought -- you were
asked about it in that hearing and you addressed it briefly but I'd like
to better understand your views on that.
And for you, General Milley, in that hearing, you said to Congress
that you wanted, in your words, "to understand white rage and what it is
that caused thousands of people to assault the Capitol and try to
overturn the Constitution of the U.S., what caused that. I want to find
that out."
Can you offer a more detailed explanation what led you to the
conclusion of white rage, and since you talked about it publicly before
Congress, in your view, what is white rage and why and when should the
U.S. military be concerned about that? Thank you.
SEC. AUSTIN: Barb, you've -- you've heard me say that the critical
race theory is not something that this department teaches, professes,
embraces. You've also heard a couple of people at academic institutions
say that, you know, they have required this to be reading for their
students in -- in specific courses.
But because that is the case does -- does not mean that this
department embraces this theory. And I stand by what I said earlier. And
Barb, I don't want us to get distracted with the -- with the critical
race conversation. This department will be diverse, it will be inclusive
and, you know, we're going to look like the country that we support and
defend. And, you know, our -- our leadership will look like what's in
the ranks of -- of -- of our military.
And so I'm committed to that, this department's committed to that,
the Chairman's committed to that and that's what we're going to stay
focused on. And so, you know, we're not going to spend too much time
debating the merits of -- of this theory or any other theory. We're
going to stay focused on making sure that we create the right force to
defend this country and promote our values.
And I know that's important to you and all of you in this room, as well, Barb, and -- but I thank you for that question.
GEN. MILLEY: So Barb, in -- in the minute or two left, first of all,
I'm not going to address specifically white rage or black rage or Asian
rage or Irish rage or English rage or German rage or any other rage,
right? The -- the events of the 6th of January happened, those are all
going to get sorted out, historians will sort it out, commissions will
sort it out, and so on.
But I do think it's important that we, as a professional military,
not only understand foreign countries and foreign culture and foreign
societies -- that's important that we do that -- but we also need to
understand our own society and -- and understand the soldiers, sailors,
airmen and Marines and the society they're coming from, and I think
that's important for the leadership to study. Thank you.
Q: But with due respect, Sir, you said the words "white rage."
GEN. MILLEY: Yeah, I said I'm not going to discuss it right now. I
think it's a very complicated topic and we don't have the time to go
into the nuance of it right this minute. I can do that later, I'll be
happy to do that later, but right now is not a good time to do that.
It's too -- it's too complicated.
MR. KIRBY: We've only got time for one more, guys, and I want to get to -- to -- over here. Ryo, go ahead. Yeah.
Q: Thank you for taking my question. My name's Ryo Nakamura, with Japan's Nikkei Asia. Yeah, I have a question to both of you.
To General -- to Secretary Austin -- on your trip to Southeast Asia,
China continues to militarize the South China Sea, despite the U.S.
Freedom of Navigation Operation military exercises security cooperation
with allies and partners in the region. So what will you do differently
to change the trajectory of China's behavior in the South China Sea?
To General Milley, on Taiwan, you mentioned in the House Armed
Service Committee last month China intended to develop their
capabilities to seize Taiwan by 2027. Do you feel a sense of urgency
that the U.S. and allies in the region, such as Japan, should develop an
operational plans and conduct joint military exercises for
contingencies in the Taiwan Strait?
Thank you.
SEC. AUSTIN: So on the importance of freedom of navigation of the
seas and the skies, this is -- this is really important, not only to the
United States of America but to all of our allies and partners in the
region and around the world.
And so, what we will -- what we have done and what we will continue
to do is to work with our allies and partners to make sure that -- that
we can navigate, you know, the skies and the -- and the seas to the
degree that we should have the right to, in -- in accordance with
international law. And so our emphasis will remain on that.
And our emphasis will also remain on making sure that we keep those
alliances strong and that -- and that our allies and partners know that
they can count on us going forward. And that's the message that I'll
take to the theater.
GEN. MILLEY: And I think to answer your question on -- on Taiwan, the
-- the geostrategic nature of the globe has been changing for quite
some time. And it's -- we're in the middle of that change as well.
And as we go forward, China is the pacing threat for us in uniform,
the United States. And it's been directed now by the secretary of
Defense, the president and the previous as well. So we are gearing our
capabilities, our programs, our training, our skills, our activities, et
cetera, militarily with China in mind. There's no question about it.
And we will work very closely with Japan, with other countries --
South Korea, Philippines, Australia and other allies and partners in the
region to make sure that we have proper capability to deal with it,
whatever comes to us in the future.
MR. KIRBY: Thanks, everybody. I'm afraid we have to go now. Appreciate...
Q: A follow-up on...
(CROSSTALK)
MR. KIRBY: ... appreciate your -- thanks very much. I'm sorry, we've got -- we've got to go. Sorry. Sorry about that.
Q: One more question...
(CROSSTALK)
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