by Sam Faddis at AND Magazine
My father was a career military officer. At the age of 22, he was in the battle of Okinawa, and he spent 30 years thereafter in the service of the United States Navy.
Dad taught me what I consider to be the core principles of being a United States military officer. Sleep last if you sleep at all. Eat last if you eat at all. Never ask anyone to do anything not just that you wouldn’t do yourself but that you have not already done yourself. Never lie. Accept responsibility. Credit goes to the men and women under your command. Blame – you shoulder personally.
You are in command. Command.
If you ever understood these principles, you gentlemen seem to have long ago forgotten them.
The White House recently issued a lengthy document detailing its assessment of what happened during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. It is a nauseating and disgusting stew of lies.
This document was issued by the White House. It most certainly must, however, have been coordinated with the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense. You either agreed with its conclusions or you stood by silently while this obscenity was crafted.
No one would expect you to speak up publicly and disagree with the President while still in uniform or in office. They would expect and, in fact, demand that you express yourselves forcefully in official channels and that you would resign rather than stand by and allow the memory of all those who have fallen to be disgraced by this abomination.
The document trotted out by the White House is built on a simple foundation. It is all Trump’s fault. Joe Biden is responsible for nothing.
Donald Trump left office in January 2021. Kabul fell…
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