Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011, has come out saying that he now regrets supporting the “nation building” policy of President Barack Obama in Afghanistan in 2009. Furthermore, he credits Joe Biden, who was then Vice President, with “getting it right” when he opposed Obama’s surge. Mullen is thus far the only senior officer from that period who has publicly admitted that the U.S. policy—and he personally—was deeply mistaken, historian Fred Kaplan wrote in Slate yesterday. “It’s hard to deny the evidence in front of you,” Mullen said in a phone interview Monday morning.
Mullen first revealed his regret during an Aug. 22 appearance on ABC’s This Week show, Kaplan reports. On the show, he also gave credit to Biden for opposing the surge. Biden “had it right back then,” Mullen said, and “I give him credit for that.”
