General Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in early February that he believes that a Russian incursion into Ukraine would likely result in the total collapse of the Ukrainian government in 72 hours.

Milley’s prediction was made in a closed Congressional hearing, in which he also said that Ukraine would likely lose 15,000 troops and Russia just 4,000.

But on Tuesday, Milley spoke to lawmakers again, telling Congress that he expects the war in Ukraine to last “years.”

It’s a bit early, still. Even though we’re a month-plus into the war, there is much of the ground war left in Ukraine. But I do think this is a very protracted conflict, and I think it’s at least measured in part in years. I don’t know about a decade, but at least years for sure,” Milley told the House Armed Services Committee.

Milley added that he doesn’t believe Putin could have been dissuaded from invading Ukraine without U.S. forces literally being in the country.

“Candidly, short of the commitment of U.S. forces into Ukraine proper, I am not sure he was deterrable,” Milley said.

“This has been a long-term objective of his that goes back years,” Milley continued. “I think the idea of deterring Putin from invading Ukraine – deterring him by the United States – would have required the use of U.S. military forces and would have risked armed conflict with Russia, which I wouldn’t advise.”

The inaccuracy of the U.S. military’s assessment of what would happen in Ukraine echoes the mistakes they made when assuming the Taliban wouldn’t quickly take over the country once the U.S. withdrew.

So the question now is, where do they go from here? The jury is still out. But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” President Biden said July 8th, just a month before Kabul fell.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)