WASHINGTON, Sept 28, 2021 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Tuesday that the Afghan army's sudden collapse caught the Pentagon "by surprise," as military leaders confronted a contentious Senate hearing about how and why America lost its longest war. ... "The fact that the Afghan army we and our partners trained simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise," Austin, a former four-star general who served in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. ..
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https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/pentagon-leaders-face-afghanistan-reckoning-congress-2021-09-28/