Trump's transition team is reportedly making a list of military officers that they want to court martial.
They want to start with whoever had anything to do with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Trump has talked about this for a long time. This includes forming a commission to investigate the decision making process of the execution of the withdrawal. Charges such as treason are being considered. How this would work, since they were following the orders of President Joe Biden, is uncertain.
Trump's teams reportedly are making a list of military leaders including Joint Chiefs of Staff members to remove from their roles.
Tara Setmayer of the Lincoln Project said, "Those of us who have been warning about this, we are apoplectic."
The biggest problem is that Trump is responsible for the chaotic withdrawal. He reduced troop strength and then negotiated with the Taliban directly, adding to the difficulty of doing the withdrawal.
If Trump's cadre actually follows through on the threat, they'll also expose Trump's mistakes. You can't possibly investigate the withdrawal without seeing these.
It all starts with Trump's frequent mentioning of the 13 soldiers that died from a suicide bomber at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport. The bomber turns out to have been an Islamic State operative that was freed from prison by the Taliban.
Some service members said that they spotted the bomber but were told not to engage. Turns out they were looking at the wrong man, and the strike was not preventable, according to the investigations.
The previously reported evidence says that Trump was responsible for the withdrawal problems and nobody was responsible for not stopping the suicide bomber. Under these circumstances why would they bother with an investigation into the withdrawal? All they're going to do is point the finger at Trump.
There were two US Central Command (CENTCOM) investigations done of the bombing. A letter by numerous Republican House members was sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. They picked apart supposed discrepancies between reports from soldiers at the location versus the reports from the two investigations. They talked about a helmet cam video that supposedly recorded lots of small arms fire after the explosion. They were also confused why no Afghans were interviewed in the investigations.
From the letter dated May 8, 2024:
"There has always been a great deal of confusion over the amount of small arms fire heard at Abbey Gate during the attack. Some service members reported 'a mass volume' of gunfire, while others asserted that they were under attack from multiple locations, including a rooftop and a water tower."
The CENTCOM investigations asked "three questions:
1. Whether an improvised explosive device (IED) test run occurred near Abbey Gate on August 21, 2021.
2. Whether before the attack occurred, service members identified in the crowd the suicide bomber who committed the attack.
3. Whether service members posted at or around Abbey Gate had an opportunity to engage with the bomber before the attack."
What got Republicans up in arms was a very long report on April 24, 2024 by CNN, that described the video from a soldier with a GoPro camera, both before and after the explosion, interviews with 10 anonymous servicemen, and a doctor who described all the bullets that he took out of Afghans, not the ball bearings used with the IED.
The doctor spoke on the record for the first time. He counted dozens who died from gunshot wounds. The Pentagon reports insisted that all deaths were caused by the explosion and the ball bearings.
The Congressmen asked why CENTCOM did not have the footage of the disaster that CNN had, and why they hadn't talked to the doctor.
The Marine's GoPro video reveals 11 episodes of gunfire over 4 minutes, not just the warning shots supposedly fired by British and American troops. No Marines are seen shooting on camera, or anyone visibly hit by gunfire. Nothing on the video gives an indication of where the gunmen were or at who they were firing.
CNN informed the Pentagon of the footage and findings before the publication of the story. The Pentagon stood by the second report that backed up the first one, but they would have to see the video before commenting further.
The CNN report includes interviews with many servicemen who were there at Abbey Gate. They back up the gunfire and discount the report of warning shots. Shots fired from the sniper tower would not have been warning shots.
The Pentagon has only released 5 minutes of footage, from a drone, of the aftermath. At a congressional hearing, reported March 19, 2024, Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie were confronted with a Freedom of Information Act request that found that the Pentagon had a list of footage they had not released. The generals said that they had seen the footage and that it should be released to congressional investigators.
The reasons why Trump's team are talking about court martials has some basis. I have found no follow up reports from CNN or any other news organizations since the hearing and the congressional letter. This seems odd on it's face. Especially with CNN.
There were remembrances on August 26th, the three year anniversary of the bombing, and on Sept. 8 Speaker Mike Johnson awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13.
There was an AP story about the release of the Republican report on the incident on Sept. 9th, but nothing about the GoPro camera video, the videos that the Pentagon already had, the doctor who removed bullets, not ball bearings, or the 11 shot reports in four minutes.
Is the silence because there's so much news about Trump and his nominees? I guess we have to wait until we hear more about the court martial list. When it happens, these discrepancies will be a major factor in what it's all about. Not just poor planning and timing of the withdrawl.
