Clueless, or pretending to be? — American military leadership and Afghanistan

© 2021 Peter Free

 

14 August 2021

 

 

The US military's excuse for having to go back and evacuate . . .

 

. . . the American embassy in Kabul (Afghanistan) is that the Taliban is taking over the country faster than expected.

 

What does such foresight-lacking, situational vacuity say about the American military's tactical and strategic assessment capabilities?

 

 

The moral? — Every time we turn around . . .

 

. . . US four stars are having difficulty dealing with comparatively obvious Realities. It is no wonder that respect for the military institution is comparatively plummeting in the United States.

 

In that regard, I was amused by a photograph of pompously gravitas-projecting General Mark Milley (current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) inserted into one those public opinion-reporting essays.

 

See:

 

 

Matt Purple, The Crisis of Confidence in America’s Military, American Conservative (13 August 2021)

 

 

General Milley's physical and professional personas — seen in the above article's attached photograph of him — combine to synoptically caricaturize Bulldog Cluelessness at the Command Top.

 

Ergo, we are back in Afghanistan to rescue the folks, who never should have been left there — had we had the foresight to see how hopeless the Afghanistan situation was, even at the time we made that obviously silly operational decision.

 

On the other hand, of course, maybe all of this was done on purpose. That, so as to generate an excuse to come back, override the President's withdrawal order and possibly remain.

 

Meanwhile (agree the Stalwartly Resistant Bulldogs), let the Deep State's hysteria-fostering propaganda do its work. Lives and risks be darned.

 

These lesson-resistant Gravitas-Bearers are a tough crew. Their commonality being an assembled disregard for money, time, blood, strategy, basic morality and insightful smarts.

 

Not to pick on General Milley, of course. He is just one appearance-impressive specimen of the many such.

 

If you exit today with the suspicion that, at the top of US military commands, appearance and Party Line-ism are close to being everything, you would be correct.

 

It is unlikely that a military institution — which intentionally churns up such mediocrities — is ever going to amount to anything even marginally useful to the United States as a whole.

 

See, in essential agreement with that proposition:

 

 

Andrew Bacevich, After the Apocalypse — America's Role in a World Transformed (Metropolitan Books, 2021)