Botched assessment of Ukraine's will to fight mirrors Afghan intel failures

Fresh off of the Pentagon overstating the strength of the Afghan military ahead of the Taliban’s rapid takeover last year, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency admitted he underestimated Ukraine’s will to fight in the lead up to Russia’s invasion.

The invasion of Ukraine came after weeks of warnings by the Biden administration that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was likely to invade. But a top defense intelligence official admitted last week that he had underestimated the quality of the Ukrainian military. Even President Joe Biden said in January he believed a Russian victory in Ukraine would essentially be certain.

Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, began a line of questioning during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday by commending the intelligence community for “the outstanding work that it did leading up to the invasion” in warning about Putin’s impending attack.