Politico: How Biden’s team overrode the brass on Afghanistan
After two decades, troops have an end date on America's longest war. But it took a White House ready to pull rank on the military.
The military spent more than a decade urging three different American presidents to stay in Afghanistan. With President Joe Biden’s decision this week to withdraw all U.S. forces by Sept. 11, they finally lost the battle.
“We cannot continue this cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal and expecting a different result,” Biden said Wednesday in a speech announcing the decision. “I'm now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan. Two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”
As Biden weighed a full exit from the country this spring, top military leaders advocated for keeping a small U.S. presence on the ground made up primarily of special operations forces and paramilitary advisers, arguing that a force of a few thousand troops was needed to keep the Taliban in check and prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a haven for terrorists, according to nine former and current U.S. officials familiar with the discussions.
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WNU Editor: If this article is accurate, there are some interesting points that caught my eye. For one ....
.... But behind the scenes, it is Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan who are truly “running the Pentagon,” according to two former officials familiar with the discussions. “The Pentagon is not making these decisions,” one of the people said.
This one is a doozy ....
.... As for US Secretary of Defense Austin, his role was primarily to implement the president’s goal and keep the Joint Staff from “going rogue,” one former official said.
This confirms what WNU said two months ago on why Gen. Austen (Ret.) was selected by President Biden to run the Pentagon ....
.... Experts say Biden chose Austin for his Pentagon chief precisely because he would follow orders. An “enormous part” of Biden’s rationale in selecting Austin was that during his time as a commander in Iraq, he “saluted” and oversaw the 2011 U.S. withdrawal from that country, Schake said.
Update #1: Former General/CIA Director Petraeus believes that when the U.S. is gone, the Taliban will likely overrun the country and allow terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State to reconstitute .... Petraeus Trashes Biden Decision to Quit Afghanistan (Defense One).
Update #2: My read on these phone calls is that even though he made his decision, President Biden still needed the reassurance of these two former Presidents that what he was doing was the right thing .... Biden Spoke to Bush, Obama Prior to Announcing Pullout of US Troops From Afghanistan (Sputnik).
Update #3: When U.S. and NATO forces leave, as bad as this war is, it is going to escalate into something far worse (see the BBC video below):
