Thursday, August 19, 2021

What Was Austin Thinking

 What was SecDef Lloyd Austin thinking when he approved the retreat from Bagram AFB?

Every soldier knows that the first thing you fight for, and the last thing you abandon is your airfield.  Bagram is about 44 miles from the US Embassy in Kabul.  Even if HKAI could be open for traffic, having a secure Air Force base just minutes away could provide secure staging areas, depth of defense, and supply points that would be invaluable today.

Lloyd Austin and Mark Milley should answer tough questions about the decision-making that led to this debacle, immediately before they sign their retirement papers.  Even after their long and distinguished military careers, this should put an end to it.

5 comments:

Termite said...

Every officer O-9 and up involved in this debacle should be fired. Forced to retire in shame.

It is not POTUS's job to plan on how to leave an Ops area, that is the generals job, that's what POTUS has them for.

Old NFO said...

Concur. And a bunch of folks at State should be right behind them!

Judy said...

I'd say he wasn't thinking at all!

Eaton Rapids Joe said...

The more "sophisticated" somebody thinks they are, the stupider the mistakes.

Les said...

Send them personally in after the citizens they abandoned, civilians and (I'll bet) military. Do you really think they bothered to get all our people out?