The United States said Thursday it will do whatever is necessary to protect Afghans who worked as translators for US forces and now fear for their lives once foreign troops leave Afghanistan.”I can commit to you that it’s my belief that the United States government will do what is necessary in order to ensure the safety and protection of those that have been working with us for two decades,” the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told a congressional panel.Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin voiced a similar message to the Senate Armed Services Committee.”This is very important to us,” Austin said. “We’re pushing as hard as we can on our end to move as fast as we can.”President Joe Biden has ordered a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, and the Pentagon said this week that the pullout is more than 50 percent complete.