Expressing “pain and anger” over the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, 63-year-old Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, four-star Gen. Mark Milley, reserved any criticism from his boss, 78-year-old President Joe Biden. Biden’s decision to pull the plug on Afghanistan April 17, giving the Taliban a drop-dead date of Aug. 31, was not the problem with the helter-skelter withdrawal plan that claimed 13 U.S. soldiers in the chaos that ensued after 72-year-old Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled Aug. 16 for his life after hearing the Taliban breach the presidential palace. Instead of methodically evacuating U.S. citizens over a four-month period, Biden panicked along with everyone else, order in the mass evacuation lasting only two weeks. Biden left hundreds—if not thousands—of U.S. citizens in Kaubl, unable to get on C-17 and C-130 cargo plane flights to neutral countries.
Milley’s statements are perplexing when you consider his hostile comments about Trump in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Milley said it was important for the military to understand “Critical Race Theory,” for the men-and-women in uniform to deal with “white rage” that he thinks caused the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. “We are all conflicted with feelings of pain and anger, sorrow and sadness, combined with pride and resilience,” Milley said today at a Pentagon Press Conference with 68-year-old Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Milley didn’t dare expose his real feelings toward Biden, whose exit plan caused the stampede on Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport that resulted in massive crowds exposing U.S. soldiers to the Aug. 26 ISIS-K suicide bombing, killing 13 U.S. soldiers and 170 Afghan citizens. Milley had plenty of disdain for former President Donald Trump when he slammed Trump June 23.
Trump said he would have fired Milley on the spot for forcing U.S. service personnel into indoctrination in uniform at U.S. service academies on “Critical Race Theory.” :Yet Milley’s bit his tongue, expressing on the one hand, “pain-and-anger,” and on the other hand, “sorrow and sadness.” Why would Milley have such pain-and-anger unless he had misgivings about the way in which Biden handled the frenetic pull-out. Milley said his own pain comes from the days in which he commanded troops on the ground in Afghanistan, losing some 242 soldiers over a 20-year period. Milley said he shared the pain and anger of Gold Star families that lost loved ones in combat, just like the 13 that died from the Aug. 26 ISIS suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul Airport. Milley, who readily slammed Trump’s Feb. 28, 2020 deal with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan, had no criticism for Biden.
Milley said he had “pain-and-anger” over getting shot at himself during patrols in Afghanistan. “I have walked the patrols and been blown up and shot at . . .” Milley said. “This is tough stuff. War is hard, it’s vicious. It’s brutal, it’s unforgiving,” Milley said, admitting nothing about how badly the end-game went when U.S. troops were used to maintain order near the Kabul Airport, leaving them vulnerable to a terrorist attack. “And when we see what has unfolded over the last 20 years, and over the last 20 days, that creates pain-and-anger.” Milley said, coming closest to pointing fingers at Biden for heaping the massive undertaking of evacuating thousands of U.S. and Afghan citizens out of Kabul under dire circumstances. Milley checked himself, before criticizing Biden for the most reckless, last-ditch, chaotic exit plan in U.S. history. Biden didn’t order the emergency evacuation until Ghani fled Aug. 16.
Milley, like other Pentagon officials, is thoroughly embarrassed because of his own ineptitude, knowing that Taliban was taking over the country and didn’t remove billions in U.S. military equipment or destroy it before the Taliban took over. Taliban officials celebrated today flying a U.S. Blackhawk helicopter left in haste by Milley & Co. in Afghanistan.with his reckless exit strategy. Milley should be apologizing profusely for his ill-conceived exit plan in Afghanistan, regardless of the White House orders. Pentagon planners knew for more than a year that Afghanistan had fallen into Taliban hands. Yet Milley couldn’t order the removal of billions in U.S. hardware before the last soldier was airlifted out of Kabul? Where’s Milley and the Pentagon’s contrition for handing the Taliban billions in U.S. military equipment? No, Milley’s more interested in Critical Race Theory than safeguarding U.S. equipment.
Let there be no mistake, Afghansitan is an abysmal failure for the United States. Once former President George W. Bush toppled the Taliban Nov. 14, 2001, he should have ordered the military out of Afghanistan, at least after Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden fled Afghanistan Dec. 15, 2001. Staying 20 years to nation-build was exactly the opposite of what Bush promised yet the waste of U.S. blood and treasure continued for nearly 20 years. Biden’s decision, like former President Donald Trump, to leave Afghanistan was the right one, regardless of all the war hawks on Capitol Hill. Biden’s big mistake was procrastinating the evacuation, waiting until Ghani fled the country, then, going into full-on panic mode, creating the stampede at the Kabul Airport that led to the massive crowds hit by the ISIS suicide bombers. Milley should not have “pain-and-anger,” he should apologize for the catastrophe.
