Officials distracted by climate kook operation during Afghan debacle
In the midst of the Biden administration’s disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan, top Pentagon officials were working to get the Secretary of Defense to sign a major climate change initiative, according to emails obtained by The Daily Wire.
In the two weeks between the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, and the final U.S. military flight out of Afghanistan on August 30, Pentagon officials were scrambling with the White House to finalize the Department of Defense Climate Adaptation Plan, a document that declares climate change a major national security risk.
The emails indicate frustration from climate change-focused Pentagon officials at the difficulty of getting the plan signed — but that ultimately their determination to focus on climate change even during the Afghanistan withdrawal paid off. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin signed the climate initiative on September 1, just six days after 13 Americans were killed by a Taliban suicide bomber.
James Fitzpatrick, a member of the U.S. Army Reserve who obtained the emails through his organization, the Center to Advance Security in America, says the emails show military leadership was being “hounded” by climate activists within the government as it was trying to navigate withdrawal.
“While the Biden Administration was in the middle of a disastrous and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, our top military leaders were being hounded by DoD climate activists to fast track a plan to transform the Department by forcing politically charged climate change discussions into every decision the DoD makes,” Fitzpatrick said.
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The pair appears to have grown frustrated in the days that followed. The frustration was not that the mission in Afghanistan had devolved into a full-fledged crisis with people falling off planes as they departed the airport, nearly 200 murdered by terrorists as they flooded the airport in hopes of evacuation, and a botched military drone strike that killed civilians rather than terrorist targets. It was that Austin had failed to sign the climate plan.
On August 30, the final day of the frantic withdrawal, Kidd expressed frustration after Bryan informs him that the plan “hasn’t been signed yet.”
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The Afghanistan withdrawal is considered one of the biggest U.S. military failures in history. More than 800 Americans were left behind, as well as thousands of Afghan allies who feared they would be killed by the Taliban for assisting the United States.
James Hasson and Jerry Dunleavy, the authors of a just-released book on the Afghanistan withdrawal, say it was not uncommon for the administration’s political priorities to interfere with its military operations — their book, for example, says coronavirus vaccine requirements kept some key personnel on the sidelines.
“Our book details several episodes where the administration’s political priorities interfered with military necessities during the withdrawal, and this incident is consistent with that theme,” Hasson and Dunleavy told The Daily Wire. “When thousands of American citizens are stranded in a war zone and the lives of American troops are hanging in the balance, that has to be the Pentagon’s sole focus.”
“It’s unlikely that political appointees focused on climate change could have helped much, but they should have at least stayed out of the way,” the authors added.
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I am reminded of a night compass march operation during a Marine Corps officer Basic School operation where a young officer fell into a ravine and needed help getting out. He was yelling at his partner for help and the partner responded "No. I will lose my azimuth." The fact is when lives are in immediate peril the threat of "climate change" should take a back seat. I have the opinion that climate change is not an immediate threat or really a major concern. The projections of doom and gloom have not been met.
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