He's no prize, but somebody started this thread quoting about interference from people not in the chain of command and not the Commander In Chief. There are all sorts of distractions and you can get all kinds of requests, but if your personnel, time, and assets are committed to your mission and these outside requests negatively impact your mission to handle from your actual chain of command, you stonewall and ignore, to take the hit later, but preserve the mission you are charged with.
Turns out, handling these requests was not the main problem, but mostly the biggest problem was the stall from above to order the closure and withdrawal of State Department operations in Kabul in advance of the pullout. That is Joe and Blinken. Since Blinken works for Joe, that one is on Joe. Interesting to know, State department people on the ground there, knew the score and were trying get assistance to move out at least parts of their operations and personnel to buildings across from the airport before they had orders or authorization from State Department, stateside. Whoever it was, was thinking on their feet, and calling the correct shots on their own. This could have been an even bigger clusterf#ck than it was. Mind you after 20 plus years, I can appreciate a good clusterf#ck as well as the next man, maybe better and love reading the after action reports being brought together to incorporate or never be seen again in the final Commander's after action.