by Jerry Dunleavy at Washington Examiner
The Republican-led congressional committee tasked with seeking answers and accountability for America’s defeat in the war in Afghanistan has instead sought to let the generals who lost the war off the hook.
Chairman Michael McCaul and the House Foreign Affairs Committee have been investigating the Biden-Harris Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, but, as part of that inquiry, McCaul decided to absolve U.S. military commanders of responsibility. I recently resigned as a senior investigator on the Committee in part because I believe it is incontrovertible that military brass like General Mark Milley and General Frank McKenzie share blame for what went wrong in August 2021. McCaul doesn’t agree. He is wrong.
McCaul’s deliberate decision to deflect from the failures of U.S. military commanders is perhaps best illustrated by a phone call McCaul had with Milley and McKenzie just ahead of the Committee’s public hearing with them.
“I’m trying to protect you a little bit,” McCaul told McKenzie on that call (as I openly took notes), alluding to the righteous indignation of the Gold Star families at the military’s lack of candor.
McCaul told the generals at the start of the call, conducted on speakerphone in his private office, that he had told other members of Congress that he would “use the gavel” if any of the congressional questions did not “show proper respect” to Milley and McKenzie.
The Chairman also previewed to the generals all the questions he planned on asking them…