Yep, here’s yet another crazy thing.
The Trump transition team is compiling a list of senior current and former U.S. military officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal from Afghanistan and exploring whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the plan.
Officials working on the transition are considering creating a commission to investigate the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, including gathering information about who was directly involved in the decision-making for the military, how it was carried out, and whether the military leaders could be eligible for charges as serious as treason, the U.S. official and person with knowledge of the plan said.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” the person with knowledge of the plan said.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, is helping lead the effort, the sources said. It is being framed as a review of how the U.S. first got into the war in Afghanistan and how the U.S. ultimately withdrew.
Yeah, we withdrew because Trump made a deal with the Taliban — without the Afghan government -— for us to leave. Biden and the Generals were following Trump’s Plan.
That plan included releasing 5,000 Taliban prisoners. That plan included leaving US Civilians and State Department personnel in Afghanistan. That plan also included Trump blocking Afghanistan translators from migrating to America because of his fucking “Muslim Ban.”
President Trump’s executive order banning refugees and others from entering the United States damages many; but none worse than a small group of Muslims who were willing to sacrifice their lives aiding our troops: language translators in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These people took a grave risk by serving the US military and intelligence forces in their home countries. Rather than plotting against us, they stood next to us, helping us understand local languages and dialects; gathering and interpreting lifesaving intelligence.
Assisting our troops often branded these brave Iraqis and their families unfairly as traitors or American spies, making them prime targets for the same extremist groups we were fighting against.
Facing grave danger in their home nation, they sought a new life in America, seeking only safety and the opportunity to work toward the American dream. In fact, in 2007, our immigration system faced an influx of visa applications from Iraqis who served as translators for the US military in the Iraq War.
The equipment that was left behind belonged the Afghan Army, the US Army took all their gear with them when they left. Taking away the Afghan Army’s gear — was not on the table.
None of the soldiers we pulled out were combat troops, they were a couple thousand training officers and contractors who were there to support the Afghan Army who had been doing the bulk of fighting the Taliban for at least 2 years by that point.
What the Biden team didn’t realize was that leaving the Afghan government out of the negotiations left them without a stable foothold in the nation. With U.S. Troops and contractors gone, the Taliban surged as the Afghan Army — who had been doing the bulk of the fighting for years — melted away.
The government collapsed soon after the President fled the country.
None of that was the plan.
Afterward, the Trumpers can now claim that they were going to evacuate all Americans. — including the Diplomats — before the military left. It would have been nice for them to tell the Biden administration but since they didn’t have any transition meetings with them and left them no plans at all over anything that’s a little hard to prove.
For the first time in more than half a century, an outgoing administration is stonewalling an incoming one at every level — with no intention of relenting.
President Donald Trump hasn’t called President-elect Joe Biden. The Trump campaign hasn’t reached out to the Biden campaign. The White House and federal agencies haven’t briefed the Biden transition team. First lady Melania Trump hasn’t invited Jill Biden to the White House for tea.
There are no briefings being given about coronavirus, troop drawdowns in Afghanistan and Iraq, or aggression by China and Iran. No background checks being done for job applicants. No security clearances being conducted for potential Biden staffers.
There was no “Trump plan” to leave Afghanistan the “right way.” The Biden administration had no knowledge or expectation that the Afghan Army and Government would collapse in just 10 days.
No one anticipated that would happen, particularly not that fast.
Did they consider it might happen? Perhaps.
Did they have a plan in case it did? Apparently, yes since they implemented a history airlift to remove as many Translators, Diplomats and Americans as physically possible.
ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) --
One year later, the raw numbers used to capture the U.S. Air Force’s effort during the monumental, yet at times imperfect, withdrawal from Afghanistan create a portrait that is remarkable in its scope, reach and complexity.
While the numbers tell a story about the largest non-combatant evacuation airlift in U.S. history, numbers alone do not capture the full story. They cannot articulate the actions and bravery of individual Airmen, the Joint Force and allies; they do not identify individual decisions that saved lives; they cannot adequately describe the danger surrounding all of it and the important lessons learned.
“During a time of great uncertainty, our Total Force summoned courage to provide hope and deliver relief,” said Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall.
“Our aircrews were among the first to respond, and their efforts would go on to surpass the historic Berlin Airlift. Concurrently, our ‘One Team,’ with the help of the international community, built a support plan to receive and give immediate care to the thousands who needed desperate help. It was during this difficult time, we were awed by the efforts of service members who risked everything, some even giving their lives, to help total strangers,” he said.
In broad strokes, the effort that came to be called Operation Allies Refuge was the largest non-combatant evacuation airlift in U.S. history. Larger than Vietnam. Larger than any similar effort during World War II or the Korean War.
[...]
It continued despite a devastating suicide bombing at one of the airport’s entrances – Abbey Gate – that tragically killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 civilians.
While there remain questions about some aspects of the overall effort, there is almost no disputing that when the operation hit full stride, the results were astonishing.
During the evacuation, Airmen at numerous locations in U.S. Central Command cared for and processed the evacuees before 35,000 of them were welcomed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany by Airmen and representatives of more than 200 interagency, joint and coalition partners.
The effort, which at times was frantic, ad hoc and coolly efficient, drained the Air Force of a large percentage of its heavy-lift fleet. In all, more than 250 U.S. Air Force mobility aircraft contributed to the airlift, including C-17 Globemaster IIIs, C-5M Super Galaxies, C-130 Hercules and all three air refueling aircraft (KC-135 Stratotankers, KC-10 Extenders and KC-46 Pegasus). Roughly half of the Air Force’s fleet of 222 C-17s were committed to this operation.
LIke Benghazi, Abbey Gate was an unexpected terrorist attack by ISIS-K — a relatively new group that no one truly knew about. How exactly were they supposed to prevent an attack by a suicide bomber?
Overall, these efforts were probably the best reaction to a horrible situation and turn of events than we’ve ever had or could reasonably expect.
The people who implemented this Airlift are the same ones who planned the withdrawal, and these are the people they want to put up on Treason charges when it was Trump who essentially surrendered the entire country to the Taliban?
This is step one in Trump's plan to use Military Justice against his so-called "Enemy from Within." Next, he'll go after Gen Milley and Liz Cheney for "Treason."