The Biden team's Bagram blunder

 Mark Tapscott:

Gen. George Custer was in such a hurry to catch Sitting Bull and the Sioux warriors that he ignored orders to wait for reinforcements and instead charged headlong into an attack that ultimately led to his death and that of every one of his men at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Gen. Robert E. Lee massed nine Confederate brigades to charge into the center of the Union line in the doomed Pickett’s Charge on the third day at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Lee had too much confidence in his troops, failed to commit enough of them to the action to have a realistic chance of success, and sent them across a wide-open field that turned into an extended shooting gallery for Union soldiers and artillery. The Confederacy never recovered.

Add now to the list of men responsible for the worst military blunders in American history President Joe Biden’s decisions to abandon Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and to commence the U.S. withdrawal during the fighting season for that perpetually war-ravaged region of Central Asia.

The Bagram abandonment — done in the dead of night without forewarning to the Afghan national government that we supported and without the prior removal of valuable equipment — is so obvious and colossal a blunder as to defy rational explanation.

Biden claimed Thursday that he asked his military advisers — primarily the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense — about the advisability of pulling out of Bagram and they told him not to worry.

If that is true — and I pray to God that Biden was either lying to cover his posterior or simply misunderstood what they said — then every one of those men should be fired from their posts and discharged from the U.S. military. Here’s why:

Bagram was the largest U.S. base in Central Asia, a veritable nuclear carrier of U.S. power in the middle of a sea of adversaries, including Russia, China, and Iran. With Bagram intact, the U.S. could have credibly threatened the Taliban with massive precision air bombardment that would have slowed or stopped the terrorists’ drive to Kabul.

Those same air capabilities would also have continued to be available to support the Afghan National Army that absolutely depended upon U.S. air cover to have a fighting chance against the Taliban. At the very least, the Taliban would not now control Kabul and there would be no humiliating August 31 “red line” for the U.S. to complete its withdrawal.
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It appears this was one of those rare cases where Biden was not lying Bryan Preston reports that Joint Chiefs Chairman Milley testified that he did not need it Bagram. 

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Milley replies: “Can I make a comment? So, a couple of quick comments here. On Bagram, it’s not necessary tactically, operationally, for what we’re gonna try to do here with Afghanistan. Consolidate on Kabul, with, in support of their government.”

And then Milley backed up and discussed the “momentum of the Taliban,” which by then was already considerable. They were taking territory across Afghanistan with little to no effective resistance. Milley sought to minimize the Taliban’s control, claiming that about 81 district centers were under their control out of 419 district centers throughout the country, and “There’s no provincial capital that is underneath the Taliban control, and there’s 34 of those.”

Gen. Milley clearly sought to do two things with his comment: defend the decision to abandon Bagram, which had not been enacted yet; and minimize the Taliban’s advances across Afghanistan. As the top military commander in the United States, his words carried considerable weight.

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Rarely has a US general been so wrong and precipitated such dire consequences they are still being felt in Afghanistan where American women are being blocked from getting to the airport for evacuation.  Biden claims he is going to respond to the murder of Marines at the airport, but any such response really would be more likely if the US still controlled Bagram.

House Republicans have said they will investigate Biden's Afghan blunders.  They should also investigate Gen. Milley and determine whether a court marshall is needed.