Fmr. CENTCOM Head: 'I Would Have Preferred to Hold Bagram' 

During portions of an interview with NBC released on Wednesday’s edition of NBC News’ “Hallie Jackson Now,” former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie (Ret.), who helped oversee the evacuation of Afghanistan, said that he would have preferred if the United States kept possession of Bagram Air Base with the around 2,500 troops it would have taken to do so.

McKenzie said, “I felt, very strongly, that we had the ability to keep a platform in Afghanistan at about 2,500.”

McKenzie stated, “I would have preferred to hold Bagram at 2,500, but that’s what it would have taken, and that would also assume the Afghans would stand and fight with you. And we thought the Afghans would stand and fight with us at 2,500.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett