Doc7505
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- Feb 16, 2016
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The General Who Recommended Abandoning Bagram Air Base Has Already Left Afghanistan. Hmm...
During Wednesday’s briefing by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CBS national security reporter Jennifer Griffin asked the two about the decision to abandon Bagram Air Base in the weeks leading up to Afghanistan’s collapse. That decision has proven to be crucial, as it left Afghanistan with no U.S. military support and now leaves the civilians stranded there with one option: to try to get to the Kabul international airport through Taliban checkpoints. The U.S. government issued a statement saying that it cannot guarantee their safety and that even if they can get to the airport, they will face a long wait.
That wait could have been made shorter and the evacuation safer with better planning and the use of Bagram Air Base, which has two runways. HKIA only has one.
Gen. Milley took up answering the question of why Bagram was abandoned after Austin acknowledged that some U.S. military aircraft have been piloted out of Bagram by the Taliban. Milley carefully said the plan was driven by Washington, designed on the ground in Afghanistan, and then briefed all the way up the chain. Here is the entire briefing. Fast-forward to about 29:17.
“Securing Bagram is a significant level of military operating forces,” Milley says. “It would also require external support from the Afghan security forces. Our task, given to us at that time, our task was to protect the embassy,” Milley said (emphasis added).
In any case, Milley clearly says the plan to abandon Bagram came from the commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin “Scottie” Miller, in response to orders from Washington.
It’s tempting to call for Miller’s firing now, but there’s a problem with that. He already left.
NBC ran this story about Miller stepping down from command of U.S.-NATO forces on July 12. It’s poignant now to read the quotes he and his commander, CENTCOM’s Gen. Frank McKenzie, offered Afghanistan at the time of Miller’s departure.
In fact, the United States abandoned Bagram Air Base a full week prior, the AP reported at the time. Miller’s plan had already been initiated on July 5.
~Snip~
This was the plan: bug out of the largest U.S. base in the dead of night without even telling our allies, then a week later reassure them that we were always going to stand by them—when the military knew Biden had no intention of doing so.
~Snip~
On June 29, a few days before abandoning Bagram and two weeks before he departed Afghanistan, Gen. Miller said, “The future will tell the rest of the story. What we will have to do is make an honest assessment of what went well and what didn’t go so well over the years as we work forward.”
Will that honest assessment ever come? It would have to start with the man in the White House, what he did, when, and why.
Comment:
Unfortunately for America, this entire episode will go down as one of the biggest disasters in U S history created by a fraudulently elected incompetent president.
In the real world of corporate America, Biden, Harris, Austin, Blinken, Milley and this entire administration would be fired for a screw up this bad.
We now have learned that Bai Dung's interview with George Stephanopoulos was highly edited and Joey Xi lied time and time again.
In his entire life, Joey Xi has never, been held accountable for his actions.
When someone is never held to account for their decisions, they never learn anything important. They deflect, deny, blame, run away from their incompetence.
This is likely the very first time he has ever been held to account, and he is melting down in real time. This is all OJT for him—being responsible for his decisions. He can’t handle it.
