KABUL: The US’s top general in Afghanistan on Tuesday gave a sobering assessment of the country’s deteriorating security situation as America winds down its so-called forever war.

Gen. Austin S. Miller said the rapid loss of districts around the country to the Taliban several with significant strategic value is worrisome. He also cautioned that the militias deployed to help the beleaguered national security forces could lead the country into civil war.

Miller told a small group of reporters in the Afghan capital that for now he has the weapons and the capability to aid Afghanistan’s National Defense and Security Forces. What I don’t want to do is speculate what that (support) looks like in the future, he said.US officials have said the Taliban have made some progress, but it’s not clear whether the insurgent group has kept its end of the deal.

The insurgent group issued orders against allowing foreign fighters among their ranks, but evidence continues to surface that non-Afghans are on the battlefield.

Still, Miller was insistent that only a political solution will bring peace to the war-tortured nation.

It is a political settlement that brings peace to Afghanistan. And its not just the last 20 years. Its really the last 42 years, he said.

Miller was referring to not only the US war but that of Russia’s 10-year occupation that ended in 1989. That conflict was followed by a brutal civil war fought by some of the same Afghan leaders deploying militias against the Taliban. The civil war gave rise to the Taliban who took power in 1996.

American officials have said the entire pullout of US troops will most likely be completely finished by July 4. But Miller refused to give any date or time frame, referring only to the Sept. 11 timeline given by President Joe Biden in April when he announced the final withdrawal of the remaining 2,500-3,500 American troops.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2021