In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 service members, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise. We were told that the terrorist victors share similar goals to ours in a hasty American retreat from Kabul. We were reminded that Afghan refugees (unlike U.S. soldiers) will not be forced to be vaccinated on arrival. Such statements are either untrue or absurd.
On the very day of the attack that killed American troops, the sergeant major of the U.S. Army reminded us in a tweet that diversity is our strength, commemorating not the dead but Women’s Equality Day. If so, then is the opposite of diversity — unity — our weakness? Will such wokeness ensure that we do not abandon the Bagram air base in the middle of the night without opposition?
The chief of staff at the Office of Naval Intelligence warned the ONI’s active duty and retired service members that they must not criticize Biden, their commander in chief, over the Afghanistan fiasco. The office correctly cited prohibitions found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice barring any disrespect shown to senior government leadership.
Indeed, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps was relieved of his command for posting a video accurately blaming military and civilian leadership for the Afghanistan nightmare.
Yet until Jan. 20, retired top brass had constantly smeared their elected commander in chief with impunity.
- Recently retired Gen. Michael Hayden retweeted a horrific suggestion that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan, where they presumably would be left to die.
- Other retired high-profile military officials variously called their president an emulator of Nazi tactics, a veritable Mussolini, a liar, and deserving of removal from office sooner than later. None of these retired four-stars faced the sort of repercussions that the Office of Naval Intelligence just warned about.
- Hayden earlier had compared Trump’s border facilities to Nazi death camps.
- More than 50 former intelligence officials on the eve of the November election signed a letter suggesting that incriminating emails found on Hunter Biden’s missing laptop might be “Russian disinformation.” They used their stature for political purposes to convince the American people that the story was a lie.
- Retired Gen. Joseph Dunford and retired Adm. Mike Mullen recently blasted retired brass who had questioned Biden’s cognitive ability. OK. But they should have issued a similar warning earlier, when the violations of fellow retired officers were even more egregious in election year 2020.
- Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized for doing a photo op with Trump, erroneously buying into the narrative that Trump had ordered rioters cleared from Lafayette Square for the staged picture. Worse, he leaked to journalists that he was so angry with Trump that he “considered” resigning. Think of the irony. If Milley considered a politicized resignation to rebuke Trump over the false charge, then surely he could consider a real resignation after overseeing the worst military disaster of the last half-century in Kabul.
- Milley had promised to root out white supremacy from the ranks while recommending that his soldiers read Ibram X. Kendi’s racialist diatribes.
Something is terribly wrong in the ranks of America’s top commanders that reflects something wrong with the country.
The Pentagon needs to stop virtue-signaling about diversity days and culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees. Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram air base was abandoned by night, or why Taliban terrorists are our supposed “partners” in organizing our surrender and escape?
Which general allowed more than $85 billion in American weapons to fall to the Taliban — a sum equal to the price of seven new U.S. aircraft carriers?
Who turned over to the Taliban the lists of Americans and allied Afghans to be evacuated?
Who left behind biometric devices that the Taliban are now using to hunt down our former Afghan friends?
Somehow our new woke Pentagon is hell-bent on losing the trust of the American people — along with the wars it fights abroad.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal
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This is not reporting, this is a bad opinion piece. The fact is the US spent two generations trying to unite this country. In 4-years Trump blew it up. Released the City-founder of the Taliban and then sent Pompeo to negotiate the release of 5,000 Taliban & Isis-k prisoners without ever speaking to the real Afghanistan government. At that point, should we be willing to spend another 20-yrs and countless American lives to round them up again? Trump betrayed our country and the Afghan people. Facts speak for themselves, we don’t need your fantasy opinion. Look it up.
And your boy Xiden completely screwed the pooch with the completely UNACCEPTABLE method of withdrawing from the morass started by Bush 43 and his “nation-building” neocons…..
Xiden has been hell-bent on trying to reverse any policies that Trump put in place, in a completely thoughtless and in many cases, HEARTLESS policy reversals….
The inflation, economic and cultural instability that has PLAGUED the US since January is ALL BIDEN’S FAULT…
Name calling shows your level of knowledge on the facts. You recite no historic truth. Not worth teaching you history But if you really want to understand the failures why don’t you read something up on it from factual accounts from reports actually there and reason independently of politics or believes. Too many peoples judgement is clouded by their politics and they refuse facts that don’t align with what they believe. Good luck.
Under Barack Obama’s second term, the US decided to switch tactics and increase troop levels, expand into Africa, increase NGO presence, and increase Defense Contractor presence. He turned Afghanistan into a Social Engineering project while our troops were turned into an NGO for nation-rebuilding. Meanwhile, Democrats and Rino’s got fat in the wallet along with the crooked afghan government. Let’s not forget the endless turnover of ANA’s that did nothing but show up for a check and funnel weapons to the Taliban. Honey, Afghanistan was in shambles way before Trump. A document released to the NYT’s showed the pentagon and top military brass lied about our presence and success in Afghanistan. Even the Democrat Party acknowledged the document as fact and some showed aggravation over it. The 5,000 was a release of prisoners in Afghan Government custody and Trump took a bashing for doing it, however, let’s not forget the reason why the 5,000 was mentioned. It came to light that many of the “Taliban or ISIS-K” looked familiar. Five of them were very familiar because Obama released them from gitmo, paid five billion to Qatar, and they ended up orchestrating the attack on Kabul and have posed for pictures holding our weapons and in our black hawks. Obama tried to negotiate a peace to look good for his re-election and he expressed regret about Karzai’s involvement because Karzai leaked the peace agreement details and wanted to ensure the US remain in country. So Trump enlisted the help of an Afghan US Envoy and the negotiation contained strict measures for the Taliban to meet. They had to meet with the Afghan Government and form their own agreement, they weren’t allowed to confer with terrorist groups, and they weren’t allowed to disregard Afghan sovereignty. The agreement never binding because they didn’t follow the plan. Biden admitted it when he said that he had his own plan and changed the withdrawal dates and terms. Biden moved too quickly. He erased all safeguards for a clean evacuation and gave up strategic exit points. Biden also said there was no Al Quaida presence and the Taliban will not take over. Biden left behind Americans and claimed he didn’t. He left behind weapons and claimed he didn’t (by the way, we normally destroy what we don’t bring back), and he’s still lying about leaving behind our friendlies and interpreters. He even left the guy who rescued him and Blinken when their helicopters had to land due to an extreme snowstorm. Biden denied giving the Taliban a list of those evacuated and not evacuated. It turns out he did. Biden lied about vetting the refugees, because now we’re finding evidence of sexual offenders, terror watch listers, and possible child brides. They were evacuated before our own people and non-com’s. He didn’t bother properly informing Nato allies and he depended on the Taliban to provide security at Kabul Airport for those he left behind, but funny, that security didn’t work when 13 troops were killed, or more or less, executed as a thank you for you help from Biden to the Taliban. They can identify January 6th people through facial recognition but they can’t tell you who was left behind? Now, we are giving the Taliban 90 million bucks because they agreed to climate change. You’re a fool for attempting defend by deflecting. The goal of the Democrat and Republican Rino’s is to cede US Sovereignty to a single global government. The actions taken by Biden were meant to marginalize true Patriots and our beloved US military fighting force. Biden was working with the Taliban all along. FYI…It’s not about the ANA’s failing to defend. It’s about Biden leaving our own behind and purposefully helping the Taliban execute Americans and friendlies. Biden didn’t end a war in Afghanistan, he produced a Migrant Crisis heading for Europe and empowered the Taliban. Biden is a disgrace and those who support him are guilty of murder.