A reckoning could be on the horizon for U.S. military officials as the president-elect’s transition team was said to be considering investigating one of the first disasters of the Biden-Harris administration.
(Video Credit: MSNBC)
In August 2021, after President Joe Biden sought to complete the mission in time to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the world watched as the withdrawal from Afghanistan was botched resulting in the deaths of civilians and 13 U.S. service members. Now, as President-elect Donald Trump’s team prepared for his return to the White House, NBC News reported courts-martial could be coming for the military brass responsible for the disaster.
“They’re taking it very seriously,” a source told the outlet as a commission was under consideration to investigate the decision-making of the withdrawal and who, if anyone, could be eligible for charges possibly up to treason.
While a request for comment had gone as yet unanswered by the Trump transition team, NBC News further reported that the effort was said to be led by Matt Flynn, once a deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats at the Department of Defense and that the “transition team is looking at the possibility of recalling several commanders to active duty for possible charges…”
“They want to set an example,” the source said as it was not clear whether the second Trump administration would have legal justification for treason under the circumstances.
As Trump had already announced Minnesota Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth as his nominee for Secretary of Defense, the outlet noted that in the Fox News host’s book, “The War on Warriors,” he’d argued, “The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example.”
Particular note had been made of the bombing at Abbey Gate outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan that took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and close to 200 Afghan civilians, as well as a drone strike that was meant to be retaliatory and instead killed 10 Afghans, seven of whom were children.
“These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily. And, to this moment, they keep their jobs,” wrote Hegseth. “Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values — by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas. They are an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.”
The outlet stipulated, “A 2022 independent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021.”
The president-elect has continued to buck the status quo with his Cabinet nominations as the difference in staffing his administration had been noted prior to the election by the co-chair of the transition team, chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick.
Considered a contender for Treasury Secretary, Lutnick told NBC News that Trump had only learned after his first term that he had hired generals who associated with the Democratic Party and that he had no intention of doing that again.
