by Rob Crilly at Daily Mail
An Army report details how senior White House and State Department officials failed to understand the rapid advance of the Taliban on Kabul and lays out frustration among senior military officers that troops were put in greater danger because of political decisions.
Initial plans included using both Kabul’s international airport and Bagram airbase for the operation, but the latter had to be abandoned because there were too few troops to protect it.
After refusing to heed warnings about the Taliban advance, an officer described finding the embassy in meltdown in mid-August after militants had seized the capital, with some staff ‘intoxicated and cowering in rooms.’
And the 2000-page report repeatedly says planners were unable to react to conditions on the ground, but instead had to do what they could with 3000 troops.
Marine Gen. Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command, said he was ‘not surprised’ commanders had different opinions about how the evacuation could have gone better.
There ‘might have been other plans that we would have preferred,’ he told the Washington Post on Tuesday, ‘but when the president makes a decision, it’s time for us to execute the president’s decision.’…
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