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We have court martialed men for less, but there’s no accountability at the top.
At the Congressional hearing on Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan disaster, Gen. Milley showed the presence of mind and command of detail that he was famous for.
“I’ll be candid, I don’t know the exact number of Americans that were left behind, because the starting number was never clear,” Milley admitted. “Same is true of at-risk Afghans, SIVs the commandos, other Afghans that served with us — those numbers varied so widely that they were quite inaccurate.”
The upshot of the testimony from Milley and Gen. McKenzie is that the whole thing was a mess because of the State Department which refused to evacuate until the last minute.
Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who was the top U.S. general in the Middle East during the withdrawal, also testified beside Milley on Tuesday.
He echoed Milley’s comments on what he conceded was a late call to evacuate, placing blame on the State Department, which holds the authority to initiate such operations.
“I believe that the events of mid and late August 2021 were the direct result of delaying the initiation of the NEO for several months,” McKenzie said. “In fact, until we were in extremists, and the Taliban had overrun the country — as you are aware of, the decision to begin a NEO rests with the Department of State, not the Department of Defense. Despite this, we had begun positioning forces in the region as early as nine July, but we could do nothing.”
On Tuesday, McKenzie, who retired in 2022, reaffirmed that he effectively relayed his advice to the president: “I participated in meetings at the very highest level where I expressed the opinion I just stated to you, and it was heard,” he said during an exchange on the matter.
We’ve heard all this before. What has been less emphasized, but is equally obvious, is that the State Department got its way because Biden sided and still sides with the State Department.
On May 8, 2021, during a rehearsal for the evacuation operation with Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and others, the Pentagon and the State Department feuded over whether they had to close the U.S. embassy in Kabul as troops withdrew.
The Defense Department argued that the country would be too dangerous to have the embassy try to do business as usual.
Brian McKeon, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, jumped in and said their diplomats would be fine: “We at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys,” he told the uniformed personnel.
Ward writes that “Milley nearly jumped out of his chair, but restrained himself from shouting how he and many serving in the armed forces had lost friends in war. Austin showed no signs of anger, but he later told colleagues that he was offended by McKeon’s remark.”
After Afghanistan, “no one offered to resign, in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake. Ending the war was always going to be messy,” Politico’s Alexander Ward writes in “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore Foreign Policy After Trump.”
“Biden told his top aides, [National Security Advisor Jake] Sullivan included, that he stood by them and they had done their best during a tough situation.”
“There wasn’t even a real possibility of a shake-up,” a White House official told Ward.
Now consider how Gen. Milley had made his disagreements with Trump public when no lives were at stake, but kept his disagreements with Biden private when lives were at stake.
But Milley’s career depended on a break with Trump and on keeping quiet about Biden.
Never forget American Citizens were NOT given priority over “Vulnerable Afghani’s” during the evacuation ( Called Operation Allies Welcome Afghan Refugees”. The USA ALONE evacuated 90,347 non US Citizens from Afghanistan:
.www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/PLCY – AFG 2503 Update 2_0.pdf
It is up to Congress to pass a law that stipulates U.S.A prioritize US Citizens for the future! If I am Incorrect, and there IS such a law, Please post….
I have no problem helping those who helped the U.S.A., but Citizens come first, or should under international Law. The Taliban was “assisting” the evacuation at least at the airport level ( happy to see us leave). The USA could have negotiated a bit more time, and prioritize US Citizens and those with residency permits….
Sudan is another example of how US Citizens are “on their own”. Europe sent ships to evacuate citizens and residents, the USA sent a team just to evacuate Diplomats, no one else.
US Citizens living abroad, for whatever their reasons must keep their passports current, have their own plan to leave if need be, and not to be shy in seeking help from allied Government consulates.
I hope there is more investigation of this. It smells exactly like the kind of thinking that went on in the Obama administration with Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi disaster. Brian McKeon was certainly right about them having a higher risk tolerance. Incredible that he actually bragged about it. In Benghazi they were quite convinced that they could trust the local militia groups. I believe Blinken was Deputy Secretary of State back then. Same people, same SNAFU
Milley and those like him are a cancer on our military. They sit in their shiny suits with their stacks of medals (each of those ribbons over his pocket represents a medal for those who do not know about military dress) looking important. Yet they have no sense of duty.
Thankfully Milley is out of the administration. Let JPMorgan deal with his lack of accountability and pronoun usage protocols.
Too many “4-Stars,” as Douglas MacGregor has often said.
Milley looks like he’s wearing a plate, despite his incompetence and being a ccp asset.
When the top echelon of any military becomes political, and they’re far more concerned about their own careers rather than the boots on the ground, their decision making abilities default to their own self-preservation. Historically speaking, these are the guys who start military coups.
Milley is a coward and a traitor to the uniform and country he bilked out of a retirement from, but it comes as no surprise that Biden’s State Department was ultimately responsible…again.
Thanks Daniel!!!!!
Miley committed high treason under Trump. By not having him court-martialed for treason and insubordination and placed on death row in a military prison Biden is also guilty.
Daniel, here I thought that the Commander in Chief is the one giving orders and is to be held responsible, but no where do I read that he must take responsibility for the deaths of 13 American’s and all the civilian’s.
13 Americans is truly sickening! But with our wide open borders, millions of who knows what crossing into
our country. I predict we’ll have our own October 7th massacre!
“After Afghanistan, “no one offered to resign, in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake. ”
No surprise there. Biden is the king of mistakes. And having no experience with success, he wouldn’t recognize a mistake if it jumped out of his diaper.
Biden is a legend in his own mind. HE doesn’t make mistakes. Everything is someone else’s fault. FWIW, nearly all the generals testifying protected Biden. He’s the who ordered the ridiculously low force level insufficient to allow the evacuation from Baghram. He’s the one who wouldn’t even allow contractors to go back into Afghanistan to service their aircraft so they had to fight without air support although they’d been trained by the U.S. in fighting with it. He’s the one who decided to not require the Taliban to observe their commitments under the Doha agreement. He’s the one who established the timeline so that he could give a “Yea is me” speech on September 11, 2021, and brag that “After 20 years,I got us out of Afghanistan” (although his files show he can’t even spell it, consistently spelling it “Afganistan”. In the end, the person who most should have resigned over the debacle is Joseph Robinette Biden III.
Milley: “Don’t know. Don’t care. Didn’t have the man parts to tell the Department of State to bug off.”
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“After Afghanistan, “no one offered to resign, in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake.” YOU meaning Milley admitted it was wrong. so why did YOU not resign.
PRESIDENT TRUMP needs to recall those “retired” Admirals/Generals and have a mass COURT MARTIAL!! Nothing would help heal Our Nation moe than seeing all those scum lined up to march off to GITMO!!
They’d go to Leavenworth, not club gitmo. The recall idea is a great one. They’re recalling retired soldiers to make up for nobody wanting to enlist in that woke charley foxtrot they’ve created. Trump using that to recall some for courts martial would be a nice twist.
ask him for the exact amount of his annual income from all sources.