Milley took his disputes with Trump public when no lives were at stake and kept his private with Biden when lives were at stake.
We have court martialed men for less, but there’s no accountability at the top.
At the Congressional hearing on Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan disaster, Gen. Milley showed the presence of mind and command of detail that he was famous for.
“I’ll be candid, I don’t know the exact number of Americans that were left behind, because the starting number was never clear,” Milley admitted. “Same is true of at-risk Afghans, SIVs the commandos, other Afghans that served with us — those numbers varied so widely that they were quite inaccurate.”
The upshot of the testimony from Milley and Gen. McKenzie is that the whole thing was a mess because of the State Department which refused to evacuate until the last minute.
Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who was the top U.S. general in the Middle East during the withdrawal, also testified beside Milley on Tuesday.
He echoed Milley’s comments on what he conceded was a late call to evacuate, placing blame on the State Department, which holds the authority to initiate such operations.
“I believe that the events of mid and late August 2021 were the direct result of delaying the initiation of the NEO for several months,” McKenzie said. “In fact, until we were in extremists, and the Taliban had overrun the country — as you are aware of, the decision to begin a NEO rests with the Department of State, not the Department of Defense. Despite this, we had begun positioning forces in the region as early as nine July, but we could do nothing.”
On Tuesday, McKenzie, who retired in 2022, reaffirmed that he effectively relayed his advice to the president: “I participated in meetings at the very highest level where I expressed the opinion I just stated to you, and it was heard,” he said during an exchange on the matter.
We’ve heard all this before. What has been less emphasized, but is equally obvious, is that the State Department got its way because Biden sided and still sides with the State Department.
On May 8, 2021, during a rehearsal for the evacuation operation with Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and others, the Pentagon and the State Department feuded over whether they had to close the U.S. embassy in Kabul as troops withdrew.
The Defense Department argued that the country would be too dangerous to have the embassy try to do business as usual.
Brian McKeon, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, jumped in and said their diplomats would be fine: “We at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys,” he told the uniformed personnel.
Ward writes that “Milley nearly jumped out of his chair, but restrained himself from shouting how he and many serving in the armed forces had lost friends in war. Austin showed no signs of anger, but he later told colleagues that he was offended by McKeon’s remark.”
After Afghanistan, “no one offered to resign, in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake. Ending the war was always going to be messy,” Politico’s Alexander Ward writes in “The Internationalists: The Fight to Restore Foreign Policy After Trump.”
“Biden told his top aides, [National Security Advisor Jake] Sullivan included, that he stood by them and they had done their best during a tough situation.”
“There wasn’t even a real possibility of a shake-up,” a White House official told Ward.
Now consider how Gen. Milley had made his disagreements with Trump public when no lives were at stake, but kept his disagreements with Biden private when lives were at stake.
But Milley’s career depended on a break with Trump and on keeping quiet about Biden.
Wellington says
Milley is disgusting but symptomatic of current America, i.e., a complete eff-up and incompetent who will face no consequences whatsoever because he has not aligned with conservative Americans. Think Anthony Fauci as another example. Lois Lerner too of “IRS fame” and who defied a Congressional subpoena and nothing happened to her, but when Peter Navarro defied a Congressional subpoena from the utterly bogus and stacked deck J6 Committee he has ended up with a four month jail sentence.
America is being lost quick like. The creation of a two-tier justice system, implemented by America’s two worst Presidents, Obama and Biden, have “led the way” here.
Milley, Biden, Obama—destroyers all, even traitors. Disgusting human beings. America still in precipitous descent.
BTeboe says
You took the words out of my mouth. Milley should’ve been Courts-Martialed.
Anastasia Montapert says
I agree with your assessment
Apod says
Well said!
Sue says
You said it.
We all need to get on our knees and beg for the True and Living God to have mercy on us.
Peter S Forella says
I refuse to let him off the hook. He a pathetic example of the woke military.
RDK 3 says
These two bozos couldn’t lead water down hill.
Nothing was stopping them from disagreeing and resigning, but of course then they would have had to give up all the perks of the position.
They deserve NOTHING but contempt.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
He is a traitor. When Trump comes back, I hope that the DoD goes after him for treason, as well as others like him. Oh, & crack down on everybody who’s been encouraging wars, be it in Ukraine or anywhere else, in the hopes of selling more toys to the combatants
nicholas tesdorf says
They weren’t all Biden Voters, so I didn’t bother to count them or get names.
James Lincoln says
According to Politico’s Alexander Ward:
“no one offered to resign, in large part because the president didn’t believe anyone had made a mistake.”
No one had made a mistake???
Mind watch says
“No one had made a mistake???” . Seems that have, can you be a little more explicit (if you know them) – wilful ambiguity? Thanks
tgusa says
After insulting traditional American military volunteers through their woke bs the US Army has published ALARACT for utilization of the Army Retiree Recall Program. Traditional Americans want nothing to do with Milley and his high heeled pink tutu divisions. I would advise any retired that get a notification to state that their oath was to defend against enemies foreign and domestic. So are they recalling me to defend against the biden/democrat domestic enemies cabal because anything else is a no-go with a big f-u.
Ray Jarman says
I remember that Milley said that while Trump was president, he had one on one talks with his counterpart in Chinese military and promised to apprise the Chinese if then President Trump attempted to use force against China. He said he was especially concerned that President Trump had the codes for the nuclear arsenal. Now he claims to have been ignored by the Biden personnel. Maybe he thought he was the anthesis of General Douglas McArthur who was fired for letting the President and the world know how he felt about the management of the Korean War. It was said that McArthur thought that Truman said stand up when he actually said for him to shut up. Thirteen members of our military might still be alive had Milley stood up and forced the issue and had the American personnel withdrawn from Bagram Air Base in a timely fashion.
Scotsman48 says
When Trump signed the withdrawal deal with Mullar the Taliban leader he told him that if one American dies from the day we sign this deal to the day we withdraw then I will bomb your home with your entire family inside, Mullar laughed until Trump pulled a photo of Mullar house out of his jacket pocket and showed it to him.
The withdrawal was set up perfectly, by Trump, but Old Joe is now taking credit for ending that mess with the 13 Marines dying at the Kabul Airport in the disaster of the withdrawal.
How can anybody in their right mind think that the current morons in the Oval Office will do any good for America or the American people.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
It was Abdooool, not Muller. Trump narrates this story often at his rallies
Troybeam says
Disgrace in uniform, disgrace to our nation, will not be able to go anywhere in the USA because people will let him know what scum he is.
OLD GUY says
Used to be HONOR in the OFFICERS Corp. of our military.
Jerome from Layton says
Oh, BTW, during that withdrawal fiasco, a bunch of working dogs were left in their crates on the tarmac. Why haven’t we heard screams from PETA, American Humane Association, ASPCA, etc. about that?
James Lincoln says
Gen. Milley:
A major reason why the US military has huge recruitment problems.
Bull Herman says
If degenerate Milley had a code word for his identity it would be “Pussy”.
Export his spineless ass to whichever enemy will coddle him.
Make it a two-fer and include Stinkin Blinkin too.