As I write this 11 Marines, a Soldier, and a Navy Corpsman are coming home beneath our flag. Some say the flag honors them, I think this is wrong, they honor our flag. Another 18 military personnel, presumably Marines, lay wounded. Last I read more than 70 Afghanis and still counting have been killed and over 200 wounded.
I feel deep sorrow for the deaths of the Afghanis.
I am devastated by the loss of our Marines, Soldier, and Navy Corpsman.
Before I go on, I must disclose that I started my first career as a Marine private (Infantry) and ended it as a Navy Lieutenant Commander (Naval Aviator). My father was a career Marine (Infantry), my brother was a Marine Sergeant (ANGLICO), my sister served in the Air Force (Intelligence), my nephew is currently a Marine 1st Sergeant (Infantry). Many of my uncles and cousins served in the Army, Navy, and Air Force, with more than a few serving over 20. Many of us served in minor hot spots, and some in one or more major wars including World War II, Korea, Lebanon, Vietnam, Kosovo, the Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Some of us have been shot at and missed, all have been shit at and hit.
I disclose this not to claim the moral high ground, or special wisdom. I have neither. I do so because I believe everyone is the sum of their experiences and though I strive to be objective, the reader has the right, especially on this topic, to know where I am writing from.
I am more than furious. I am beside myself over what has happened in Afghanistan. Everything about this debacle could have been avoided with a little competency, some planning, and leaders who lead. Instead we’re inflicted with incompetent morons, with no plan, and who can’t spell “leadership” cluelessly meandering around stranding Americans and our allies in Taliban controlled Afghanistan while needlessly getting our troops and Afghan allies killed.
I am angry because this all could have been avoided with a little malicious forethoughtand flexibility. Instead, Biden and his Administration developed a poor plan based on arbitrary deadlines, and then held to it like a junkyard dog holding onto a bone when things went south.
In any evacuation operation, you get the non-combatants out first, then the equipment (if you have time), then the troops securing the evacuation site. Biden’s gang did just the opposite.
They drew down our troops to 600-700.
In July we literally snuck out of Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night turning off the electricity as we left – without notifying the Afghan Commander the base was to be turned over to.
Biden cutoff U.S. air support for the Afghan Army before evacuating American citizens and allies.
Neither Biden nor our senior flag officers moved any additional military assets into the area. Instead they were content with the Regan Carrier Strike Group (CSG) and the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked. The 24th MEU are the Marines on the ground in Kabul. The Vinson CSG and the America ARG with the 31st MEU embarked were, and as of this writing still are operating in the western Pacific - a few days steaming from the North Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. I can find no information that Biden sent additional air assets to Kuwait.
The abandonment of Bagram coupled with the failure to move additional assets into the area is why we now must negotiate with terrorists in order to evacuate our citizens and allies, and even then, we are shamefully going to leave many behind.
As for the “unexpectedly” fast fall of the Afghan Army, think about it:
We snuck out of Bagram, cut off the maintenance needed to keep the Afghan Air Force flying, cut off our air support, and refused to delay our withdrawal until the winter months when fighting slows or completely stops. We did all of this while the Afghan Army was sustaining heavy casualties.
Add this all up and you destroy the Afghan army’s moral. Why the hell should they get killed when the U.S. has deserted them, they’re suffering heavy casualties, there is no air support, they’re low on ammo and fuel, and their pay is intermittent? The only surprising thing is they fought as long as they did.
The Biden Administration and senior military leadership had plenty of time to do this right and did not.
I am angry at the generals and admirals who instead of exercising leadership and resigning, went along with a poorly thought-out plan they had to know would be a disaster at best. If they didn’t know Biden’s plan was disaster looking for a place to happen, then they should resign in shame of their stupidity.
When Biden insisted on his flawed plan, the flag rank officers involved had the duty to advise him against carrying it out, and if he insisted, to resign. Information is coming out that the generals did advise Biden that his plan was flawed, advice Biden ignored. However, Biden disregarding their advice does not absolve the generals – they should have resigned. Instead they continued their uninterrupted string of failures to perform their duties by not only misleading, but also lying to Congress and the American people:
Secretary of Defense Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley advised Biden not to close Bagram for tactical reasons on more than one occasion. They then turned around and informed Congress that Bagram was not necessary to carry out the mission and Kabul International was the better choice.
Both Secretary Austin and General Milley stood by as Biden repeatedly stated that Afghanistan had an Army of 300,000 when they knew it was not over 182,000.
General Milley, with Secretary Austin next to him, testified to the Senate on June 17, 2021 that “right now, the government of Afghanistan is holding and they have approximately about 325,000 to 350,000 person security force - army and police force.” At the time both Milley and Austin knew the Taliban was rapidly rolling up the Afghan Army and knew Milley had inflated the size of the Afghan Army and police forces by at least 50,000.
On June 23, 2021 Milley, again with Austin next to him, testified to the House that “Our joint force is currently conducting a safe, responsible, and deliberate strategic retrograde from Afghanistan in good order, while ensuring continued support for the Afghan National Security Force.” They both knew this was false.
Both knew Bagram was to be abandoned, that the U.S. had cut off air support, that Biden prevented contractors from maintaining what air force the Afghanis had, the Taliban was sweeping through Afghanistan, and that the Afghan army was suffering heavy casualties and desertions. No doubt our troops were withdrawing in good order, but the U.S. certainly was not supporting the Afghan National Security Force.
General Milley advised Biden to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan to cover the withdrawal. Biden overruled him. Milley should have resigned in protest then and there. Instead he just kept on playing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and never mentioned the need for these troops to the Senate or House during his testimony.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies stated in a report dated August 17, 2021 “all too many of the data in open source official reporting are colored by spin, propaganda, and false claims of success.” In other words, we have been lied to and no one has resigned or been fired.
Every flag officer who had a hand in this debacle should resign, those that are now trying to cover their asses should be court-martialed and thrown out.
I am outraged at the actions of many of our elected officials. A few examples
Senator Schumer (D-NY), the senate majority leader did not have time to address the Kabul crises until our troops were killed and wounded on Aug 26th, but he found time to dance with Stephen Colbert at a rained out NYC concert on the 21st - while our citizens were, and still are trapped in Afghanistan along with countless thousands of our allies. Pathetic.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA12). On the day we suffered our greatest losses in Afghanistan since 2011, Pelosi’s first 5 tweets were about Woman’s Equality Day, including “Join me live in San Francisco with Mayor London Breed, elected officials and community leaders to commemorate Woman’s Equality Day.” I and the vets I’ve spoken with read it as ‘hey everyone come on down and party with me and my friends as the Marines and Afghanis collect their dead and wounded.’ Life is good when you have no shame.
I have not seen nor heard from two of the loudest representatives in the House - Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14), Ilhan Omar (D-MN5). Not a peep, no tweets, no statements on their House website, nada.
What is more mind boggling is the almost complete lack of condemnation of Biden from his party. To the contrary, up until the 26th all you heard from the Democrats in the Senate and House was either deafening silence or support for Biden. The notable exception is Seth Moulton (D-MA6).
I am dismayed at the lack of focus shown by many flag officers and some of our most senior non-commissioned officers.
General Milley supports teaching CRT at West Point and claims it is important that those in uniform understand “white rage.”
The Sergeant Major of the Army, the most senior enlisted person in the army tweeted this shortly after the bombs went off in Kabul:
on June 7, 2021 Senator Cotton (R-AR) reported that his office has received “hundreds” of complaints about CRT being forced on military personnel.
These are just three examples. If you want to be shocked Google “woke military training.”
Yes, stamping out racism and ensuring equality between men and women are vital. But pushing the latest trend in political ideology or implementing policies straight out of a sophomore Gender Study’s text book is more than counter-productive, it is harmful. I would suggest that our generals read more Art of War and less White Fragility. Maybe then we would avoid catastrophes like Kabul.
I am infuriated that much of our media continues to engage in strawman and false equivalency arguments in an attempt to make Biden’s disastrous decisions appear reasonable. There are some notable exceptions, Jake Tapper surprised me with good reporting, Clarissa Ward of CNN was outstanding, most on Fox have been good, but most just infuriate me. Instead of going through a long and seemingly never ending list I give you this video:
I am beyond angry that the Biden Administration continues to lie to the American people. For months President Biden and everyone in his Administration, including generals, who could get near a microphone assured us that everything in Afghanistan was under control. They lied. We woke up on August 15th to find we’re in the middle of a Freddy Kruger nightmare of their making.
They lied about the size of the Afghan Army;
The lied about Bagram;
They lied about supporting the Afghan Army;
They refused to answer how many Americans were evacuated until a memo marked “Limited Official Use” was leaked showing the number was less than 4,000. More Americans have been evacuated after the leak, but not enough;
They lied about evacuating every American who wanted to leave;
They lied about who is responsible for the disaster they call an evacuation;
They lied about claiming the evacuation is a success based on the number of people we got out, but ignoring we are leaving Americans and allies behind. Hell, it is so bad that private groups consisting of vets are running off the book rescue ops;
They lied about getting our Afghan allies out, like the interpreters, Afghan commandos and other people who worked for us and are now high priority Taliban targets;
They lied to us about being experts who had planned for every contingency. It turns out they are not experts, had a flawed plan, and certainly did not think of, let alone plan for, every contingency.
This man summed things up better than I can:
Just as I was about to hit publish, this came across my feed. They do not know what loyalty is and have no shame:
It is time that every single one of the idiots that had anything to do with planning, executing, or briefing this operation resign. If they refuse, then impeach the politicians and their political appointees; fire the life tenured government employees; and court-martial the officers, strip them of their rank and dismiss them from military service. Then send all of them off to live with their shame for betraying the trust placed in them by the American people in general, and our military personnel in particular.
