How Obama and Biden Destroyed the Greatest Military the World Has Ever Seen 

By Daniel Greenfield 

0 Introduction 

1 How Obama Sabotaged the American Military 

2 Impeach Biden 

3 Court Martial General Milley 

4 Impeach the Vice President 

5 Impeach Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin 

6 Fire Marine Corps Commandant David Berger 

7 Fire Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Brown 

8 Impeach Secretary of State Antony Blinken 

9 Conclusion - One Year After Afghanistan 

10 Addendum He Called America Racist, Now He’s in Charge of Our Nukes 

11 Footnotes 


Introduction by David Horowitz and Daniel Greenfield 

Joseph R. Biden is directly responsible for the worst, most humiliating, most dangerous – yet completely avoidable – defeat in the history of American warfare. He has betrayed the country that elected him and that he is sworn to serve. Yet Biden has shown no remorse and taken no responsibility for the damage he has done. Instead, he has brazenly lied and called his own disaster a “success.” 

Every tyrant and terrorist watched the humiliating retreat from Afghanistan and knew we were weak. 

A few months after the fall of Kabul, Communist China completed its takeover of Hong Kong with rigged parliamentary elections. Right around the same time, Vladimir Putin began the military buildup for the invasion of Ukraine. 

None of that was a coincidence. 

Biden has weakened our military while arming and empowering terrorists. He has emboldened Iran, China, and Russia leading to threats and conflicts around the world. 

The question is, what will Republicans do about it? 

Republicans are favored to take the House and even the Senate in the upcoming elections. If they do, will they hold Biden and his cabinet members and military leaders accountable? Or, just like Benghazi and so many other betrayals, will they back away instead of confronting the culprits and beginning America’s climb back to greatness. 

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are not going to resign. Will Republicans have the guts to impeach them over decisions that were so bad that former British prime minister and staunch American ally Tony Blair has called them “imbecilic”? (No former head of state has ever used such an extreme – but accurate – term to describe the decisions of an American president.) 

Biden is not going to fire the generals who should have gone to the wall to oppose his brainless decisions and resigned when they failed to reverse them. Will Republicans call for their firing? 

The Taliban held a victory parade to display the American military equipment that Biden simply abandoned and left for them to take. These weapons include Black Hawk helicopters, thousands of armored vehicles, and countless numbers of assault rifles.1 Enough to arm numerous terrorist groups all over the world. There’s no telling how many Americans or allies these weapons will kill.

Thanks to Biden’s lack of interest in American security and as a consequence of his decisions, the Taliban now control nine air bases including one at Bagram, which we spent hundreds of millions of dollars turning into a state-of-the-art complex. 2Adjoining Bagram was the country’s largest prison which housed thousands of Taliban, al-Qaeda, and ISIS-K prisoners who have been unleashed to kill more innocents. Those nine air bases will now become assets not only for the Taliban, but for China, Iran, Pakistan, and other Taliban allies. 

Massive amounts of intel data have also fallen into enemy hands. The Taliban are using hand-held biometric scanners to hunt down and kill former American allies. And the Chinese and other enemy intel officers that go over what we left behind will learn a lot about American methods and neutralize the technical advantages America once had on the battlefield. There were thousands of state-of-the-art night vision goggles left in Afghanistan. These provided a decisive military advantage to the Afghan government forces allowing them to see at night while the Taliban could not. Now the Taliban and every terrorist group with access to its vast store of American loot will share that advantage.3 

An American president and commander-in-chief loyal to his country and its citizens would never have made the decisions that Joe Biden did, which have put the lives of all Americans at risk. A loyal general staff would never have gone along with them. A decent set of leaders would have hung their heads in shame at the result of their decisions and been grateful that treason is no longer punished by firing squads, and then departed political and military life forever. 

The first days of Biden’s misbegotten term in office should have warned everyone of what was to come when he began surrendering American interests to our enemies. Thus, the Biden administration scuttled the Trump administration probe into the Chinese lab origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Worse still, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the likely source of the lab leak, has once again become potentially eligible for taxpayer funding.4

While President Trump designated China’s persecution of Muslims as genocide, Biden squeamishly told CNN, "Culturally, there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow."5

Under Biden, genocide and terrorism have become cultural norms that we are bound to accept. 

Biden not only desperately pursued a renewal of the suicidal nuclear deal with Iran, he allowed the Islamic terrorist state to receive billions. He also ended the campaign against Iran’s Houthi terrorists in Yemen whose motto is, “Death to America,” and who had fired missiles at the USS Mason. 

America’s enemies read these gifts as proof of America’s weakness under the leadership of an American coward who as Vice President had been the lone vote against killing Osama bin Laden and who had abandoned Iraq to ISIS. 

The Taliban knew they had nothing to fear from Biden so they tested him by offering to let America control Kabul. Instead of protecting our withdrawal and exit, Biden declined their offer – an act so suicidal it was itself worthy of impeachment. He let the Taliban take Kabul and surround the airport to provide security, with deadly consequences to 13 American military personnel as well as Afghan civilians. 

Al Qaeda’s allies, the Haqqani Network, controlled the checkpoints and surrounded the Kabul airport. American refugees trying to reach the airport were beaten by these terrorist thugs who didn’t let them get to the airport but opened the door for ISIS-K to come bearing rockets, machine guns, and suicide bomb vests. That’s how the thirteen brave Americans were murdered in Kabul. 

And these decisions seemed not to be absent-minded mistakes, but calculated and deliberate. 

Thus, in advance of the coming evacuation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken scrapped the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau created by Trump to evacuate Americans. He invited the terrorist-supporting UN to investigate American “systemic racism” while abandoning our people to the real systemic racism of the Taliban. 

The Biden administration is a disloyal government that over and over has genuflected to America’s enemies and betrayed the American people, endangering their lives and the security of the nation. But while the whole Democrat Party goes along with these anti-America policies and the catastrophes they create, instead of holding them to account Republican leaders are playing their usual feckless roles, wasting their opportunity to nail the incompetent and disloyal president, along with his entire rotten administration to the wall. 

Thus, House Minority Leader McCarthy has refused to move forward on Biden’s impeachment. 

McCarthy admitted that the Afghanistan rout was “probably the biggest failure in American government on a military stage in my lifetime.” “Probably”? McCarthy also called for “accountability.”6But what kind of accountability does he have in mind if he won’t hammer home the horrific actions Biden has taken? And what kind of accountability is he seeking if he won’t move to remove Biden and his enablers from office? 

Every Republican should be shouting “Impeach Biden! Impeach Harris! Impeach Blinken, Pelosi and Schumer!” Also: “Court Martial the Joint Chiefs of Staff!” who were busy imposing Critical Race Theory on the troops and witch- hunting conservatives in the ranks, when they should have been planning the Afghanistan retreat. 

Many Republicans, including their leaders, who don’t understand the political war that Democrats are waging against them, think this is a bad idea. They think: even if Biden could be impeached, that would leave America in the cackling grip of President Kamala Harris. This is the type of thinking that accounts for the passivity of Republicans while Democrats are always fighting an aggressive war against them. 

Nancy Pelosi spent four years attempting to impeach Trump on transparently bogus charges. Did this hurt Democrat polling despite its embarrassments, or did it help Democrat efforts to tar and feather Republicans and increase Democrat support? Nancy Pelosi is not going to impeach Biden or anyone else. But the American people need to hear what these Democrats are guilty of and calling for their impeachment is the way to do it. Impeach them for betraying the American people, endangering their lives and the lives of their children. This is how Democrats would conduct their political war if the roles were reversed. Republicans need to wake up and take the war to the enemy camp. 

Meanwhile, as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sleeps, American patriots are on the move. 

Dozens of flag officers have signed a letter by “Flag Officers 4 America” calling on Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to resign. 

Republican leaders did nothing to protect some of our finest officers, like Lt. Colonel Matt Lohmeier, from being sacrificed on the altar of critical race theory when the incompetent military brass fired them. 

Will they re-think the costs of their silence? 

Where are the GOP leaders willing to fight for our soldiers and our nation by taking the fight to Biden, to his cronies and stooges, from Kamala Harris to Lloyd Austin, Anthony Blinken, and Mark Milley? What’s House Minority Leader McCarthy risking? A few corporate donations? The respect of the D.C. establishment? 

Joseph R. Biden is the worst president and the worst human being to ever occupy the White House. Patriots should never forget this, and never let Americans forget as well. Afghanistan is a holograph of America’s future if Democrat policies prevail. It fell because of the treachery of the Democrat Party in selecting a dementia case and judgment-challenged politician to be president. Afghanistan fell because of the lack of patriotic concern by the entire Biden White House and the military chiefs, the lack of concern for the welfare of the people, the first responsibility of those who hold these offices. The military chiefs who are a product of Barack Obama’s politicized military were busily pushing a Marxist ideology on their troops – one that indicts America as a hopelessly racist country – while the Taliban terrorists were preparing their victory march to Kabul. 

Americans who love this country need to heed the call to defend it because the hour is late and the nation they love is under attack. 


1. How Obama Sabotaged the American Military 

By the time Barack Obama left office, every branch of the military was smaller than it had been on September 11. But the change in size concealed the true impact of America’s most left-wing president in undermining our national security and weakening us in the face of our enemies. 

“I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone,” Obama famously boasted. He used the pen to unleash a blizzard of executive orders and memorandums. There were orders that led to outraged protests, but some of his most devastating penned assaults on our nation’s military flew under the radar. 

One of those took place during his last year in office. His memorandum, “Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce,” created the woke military of the Biden administration by putting identity politics, diversity quotas, and political indoctrination at the heart of the military’s mission.7 

Obama had always resented the military. Even former General McChrystal, an Obama loyalist fired for describing his boss a little too aptly in the presence of a reporter, stated that he was “uncomfortable and intimidated” by generals.8But  Obama’s parting shot at the military cut the generals down to size by transforming them into community organizers. 

His order redefined diversity as the military’s “greatest asset” and reinvented national security as a system for maximizing employment quotas by race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and every identity politics metric, but not the military metrics that truly mattered: readiness, competence, and a willingness to wage war in defense of the homeland. 

Along with transforming the military into another quota- based federal employment agency in which skills and capability mattered much less than being a disabled transgender woman “of color,” the order also demanded that national security agencies should make “implicit or unconscious bias” training mandatory for “senior leadership and management positions.” Divisions that didn’t earn sufficiently high IQ (Inclusion Quotient) scores would also be hit with bias training. 

Implicit bias training is a form of political indoctrination which asserts that all white people are racist. Its sessions force participants to accept its extreme racialist worldview or be treated as obstacles to the new organizational mission. Implicit bias training has succeeded in forcing out talented executives from corporations and officers from the military, replacing them with political activists and bootlickers cowardly enough to repeat Marxist dogma for the sake of their careers. 

Obama’s memorandum led to the expansion of implicit bias training within the military such as Army Secretary Eric Fanning’s infamous Directive 2017-06 ordering mandatory implicit bias training for “soldiers and employees in senior 

leadership and management positions”9that was protested by chaplains for infringing on religious freedom.10While the Trump administration later ordered a ban on such abusive training in the military, by then Obama’s order had long since been circulating in its cultural and organizational bloodstream and was quickly restarted by Biden. 

Biden’s first executive orders not only rescinded the ban, but doubled down on making the military more woke, more racist towards white Americans and the constitutional order they had created, and more incapable than ever. The new equity push went even further by attributing any failure to meet racial, gender, and other identity politics quotas to the grand hoax of “systemic racism” –a practice outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meeting these quotas became the foremost task of senior leadership. 

China might beat us in the hypersonic weapons race, but America’s top military brass were determined to pull out all the stops to make sure that they had the most diverse arrangement of incompetent radicals, preferably in senior leadership positions, to establish their progressive credentials. 

The ‘wokening’ of the military was not a bottom-up, but a top-down phenomenon, imposed at every step from branch leaders to academy superintendents, after originating from the White House. Obama’s “Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in the National Security Workforce” was one of the final building blocks for his key administration goal of bringing the most conservative arm of the federal government into compliance with the political agendas of the radical Left. 

Obama’s former NASA administrator, Charles Bolden, had caused a stir when he frankly admitted that his boss had given him three top priorities, none of which involved space, but one of which was Muslim self-esteem.11No military leader had come out with an equally honest assessment, but Obama’s priorities for the military consisted of looting its physical resources for environmental gimmicks like the Navy’s disastrous biofuels programs, and its human resources for a massive community organizing and Marxist indoctrination effort under the false flag of diversity. 

Obama didn’t just leave the military smaller in size, but smaller in spirit, its leadership class no longer dedicated to national security, but to the identity political agendas of the radical Left. 

By Obama’s second term, male Army ROTC cadets were being forced to march in women’s high heels.12The humiliating woke rituals, whose purpose is not the stated one of inclusion, but of exclusion, of demeaning and destroying the morale of the traditional fighting man, continue to hollow out the military readiness of armed services waging a culture war against themselves. 

Obama remade the military just as he remade the nation, from a team based on individual worth into a broken system divided by the intractable gulfs of oppressors and the oppressed. 

No military organization can function that way and no nation can survive that way. 

Obama understood the nature of big government all too well. It’s a lot easier to program a bad leftist idea into the system than to get it out again. Bill Clinton had tried to tame the military through incremental changes, but Obama went for broke by transforming its mission. 

By making diversity the mission, politics in the form of diversity and inclusion also became the mission. 

The new military mandate was to recruit diversity and to purge its opposite, the traditional white males who made up the backbone not only of the leadership, but of active-duty combat personnel. Once an apolitical institution on matters beyond its purview, the military adopted leftist politics as its guiding light. The new advisers pushing diversity and inclusion warned the brass that the military could not become truly inclusive unless it adopted identity politics and all the Marxist ideas and anti- American attitudes that came with it. 

That’s why Ibram X. Kendi, a disgraceful half-literate racist, showed up on reading lists and why Naval officers denounce America as if they were being held captive by the Viet Cong. 

The road to our disgrace in Afghanistan was paved by the Obama administration which embraced a policy of military defeatism on the battlefield and in its institutions. Long before the Taliban entered Kabul, the moral struggle had already been lost in Washington D.C. While the Taliban were carving up Afghanistan, the nation’s military leaders were busy implementing racial quotas, imposing implicit bias training, and teaching military personnel to hate their country through critical race theory. 

The brass who had accepted Obama’s diversity mandate began destroying the military in order to save the military. And they kept it up under the Trump administration even when Obama was gone. Any officer who protested was punished, smeared, and forced out. It will take more than a change of administrations to break that vicious cycle. It will take a fundamental change of leadership. 

Obama fundamentally transformed the military as he did the nation. It must be fundamentally reformed by removing the brass who traded victory for diversity and anti-Trump lunacy. Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who had ranted to aides that President Trump was spreading the “gospel of the Fuhrer,’’ and defended critical race theory, is proof. 

Milley and other failed military and political leaders who have undermined our national defense must go so that the military can return to the fundamentals of national defense. 

Otherwise, the defeat in Afghanistan may become the first of even worse defeats to come. 


2. Impeach Biden 

When Kabul fell, the Taliban offered the Biden administration a deal. Either the United States could control the city until August 31, the terror group’s deadline, or the Taliban would.13 

The Taliban may have been testing Biden, wary of a direct military confrontation with a large concentration of American forces, but if so they quickly learned that they had little to worry about. Instead of maintaining control over Kabul so that Americans could be speedily evacuated, the Biden administration and its cronies turned over the city to the Taliban. 

And the Taliban turned to their most professional and deadliest assets. The Haqqani Network had been closely allied with Al Qaeda and picked up many of its tricks. Its commanders understood urban warfare, excelled at suicide and truck bombings, and had expert units whose commandos had been trained in Pakistan by the terror regime’s ISI secret agents. 

The Taliban officially named Khalil al-Rahman Haqqani to head security in Kabul. The Haqqani terrorist had a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States.14Not long after the Biden administration made its deal with the devil, Al Qaeda’s allies controlled the gauntlet that American refugees fleeing to Kabul’s airport had to run. 

The Biden administration made no protest. It did not complain that a terror group founded by one of Osama bin Laden’s mentors which had repeatedly targeted American soldiers with suicide bomb attacks, including the murder of a colonel and two lieutenant colonels by a car bomber, a truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers in a 9/11 anniversary attack on a base, and a truck bombing attack on another base, was now “coordinating security” for Kabul airport. 

Biden had been given the opportunity to create a secure escape route for American civilians fleeing Afghanistan and to keep American soldiers safe in the city. Instead, he set them up to be massacred by turning security in Kabul and around its airport over to our worst enemies. 

Even while Biden falsely claimed at a press conference that Afghanistan would be nothing like the fall of Saigon, military and intelligence briefings had already warned of much worse. But if someone had to take the PR hit for chasing away refugees and a botched evacuation, Biden preferred that the Taliban play the bad guys while he disavowed all responsibility. He didn’t care how many Americans died as long as he maintained plausible deniability to cover up their deaths.

Biden’s assumption that the Taliban could be trusted to do his dirty work without wanting anything in return except the end of our presence in Afghanistan was treasonously dumb. 

Obama had assumed that the Muslim Brotherhood could be trusted in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. The attacks of September 11, 2012, climaxing in the Benghazi massacre, proved him wrong. Biden’s own Benghazi began the same way when he turned over power to Islamists while believing that they would be satisfied with just taking over a country. 

The Taliban had turned over the problem of Kabul airport to the Haqqani Network. Like Biden, the Taliban wanted plausible deniability for whatever might happen around the site. The Haqqani Network was part of the Taliban, yet the United States had set the unfortunate precedent of designating the Haqqanis, but not the Taliban, as a foreign terrorist organization. 

That legal distinction had provided both the United States and the Taliban with plausible deniability over the years. The Haqqanis would carry out terrorist attacks while the United States could still negotiate with the Taliban without being accused of negotiating with terrorists. 

When the Taliban turned over the checkpoints and security around Kabul airport to the Haqqani network, they were sending a clear signal that they were washing their hands of any attacks. 

And the Biden administration, which had made the deal with the devil, could not hold the Taliban accountable without exposing its own complicity in this setup. The rest was all but inevitable. 

The Taliban checkpoints failed to hold back the crowds from the airport even with bouts of occasional brutality. The terrorists manning them had little interest in screening paperwork on behalf of the Kabul embassy, as Biden expected them to; instead they searched for the Afghans on their lists. Once the State Department handed the Taliban its lists of approved Americans and Afghans, their real job of finding and detaining key officials and other figures became easier. 

Americans continued to have trouble reaching the airport even while Biden and his cronies falsely claimed that there could be no problems with Al Qaeda’s allies running checkpoints. 

Things got worse from there. 

ISIS-K’s leader, Shahab al-Muhajir, was a former Haqqani 

commander.15The Islamic State affiliate had recruited heavily among the Taliban and, in particular, the Haqqani Network. 

Biden had put America’s worst enemies in charge of security around Kabul airport. 

Gen. Frank McKenzie, who had originally met with Taliban officials to hear their offer to take Kabul, went on bragging that, “we use the Taliban as a tool to protect us as much as possible.”16 

Who was using whom became obvious when an ISIS-K suicide bomber who had “somehow” gotten past the Haqqani checkpoints murdered 13 American military personnel. 

Including eleven of McKenzie’s marines. 

They didn’t have to die. And the entire botched evacuation didn’t have to play out this way. 

Biden made numerous mistakes that led to the fall of Afghanistan, including the abandonment of Bagram Air Base, which not only cut off a secure evacuation route, but freed countless terrorists. 

One of those terrorists, freed from the prison near Bagram, carried out the airport suicide bombing. 

Democrats made a point of impeaching President Trump twice. Impeachment in the Constitution begins with “treason,”,= continues with “bribery”, and then finally concludes with “high crimes and misdemeanors.“ Section 3 defines treason only as “levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” It’s hard to think of a clearer definition of aid and comfort than the massive number of armaments that the Taliban and its terrorist allies have picked up in Afghanistan. 

Turning over Kabul to the Taliban at a time when thousands of Americans sheltered there was no accident. Nor was shrugging when the Taliban handed over access to Kabul airport to the Haqqani Network which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization. 

These were treasonous acts whose foreseeable consequences are entirely his responsibility. 

Biden’s treason led to the murder of 13 American military personnel. His aid and comfort to the enemy, his adherence to the Taliban at the expense of American soldiers and civilians, led to the massacre of Americans. And he can and should be impeached for his treasonous crimes. 

President Trump was impeached over Ukraine, yet the impeachers could not point to a single American who had died in that country. Thirteen Americans have died in Afghanistan. The parents of some of these fallen men and women have come forward to demand justice. They deserve it. 

We all saw Biden checking his watch at Dover while waiting for the transfer of the bodies of the men and women he killed to be complete. The dead Americans are no more to him than the Afghans whose deaths he had dismissed as having happened, “four or five days ago.” 17 

Biden is counting on Americans to have as bad a memory as he does. And if Republicans remain silent, pivoting to the next scandal or talking point, he will have been proven right. 


3. Court Martial General Milley 

“This is America,” the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared at Ramstein Air Force Base.18 

Milley was taking a victory lap at the air base in Germany where thousands of Afghans were housed while hundreds of Americans had been left behind. 

As the Afghan withdrawal deadline approached, Milley was instead dealing with a “stand down order for the military” to address “extremism.” This imaginary problem, invented at the behest of the Biden administration to purge conservative and patriotic officers from the ranks, occupied him instead. 

At Ramstein, Milley was equally blasé about the Afghan disaster and the new terror threat. 

“I think they said a couple of hundred or something like that popped red,” Milley said, referring to the hundreds of Afghan evacuees whose backgrounds had raised red flags for terrorism.19 

Milley’s idea of defending America was leaving behind thousands of Americans, bringing in tens of thousands of Islamic terrorists, abandoning tens of billions in weaponry and massive state-of-the-art air bases - and creating the first official terrorist state. 

At least when he wasn’t indoctrinating America’s fighting men and women in Critical Race Theory. 

But there was nothing American about Milley’s decision to go along with Biden’s abandonment of Americans, not to mention Afghan allies who held SIV visas, while importing tens of thousands of Afghans who had not been vetted, had not received visas, and who might be terrorists. 

The same general who claimed to be studying “white rage” to a congressional committee20, and who instead of properly planning the Afghanistan withdrawal had ordered a two-month stand down to hunt “domestic terrorists” in the military ranks, replied to a question about future coordination with the Taliban terrorists by curtly saying, “It’s possible.”21 

Milley notoriously compared President Trump to Hitler, but was ready to trust Islamofascists. 

“We do not take an oath to a country, a tribe, or a religion,” Milley had boasted in a speech delivered during the Trump administration. “We take an oath to the Constitution.”22 

In rejecting President Trump’s lawful orders to curtail the violent attacks on the White House and federal buildings by Black Lives Matter mobs, Milley violated his oath to obey “the orders of the president of the United States.” He violated the Constitution by imposing political tests on members of the armed services during the “critical conversations” on racism in 2020 and the “stand down” on extremism in 2021 which were used as pretexts for purging conservatives. 

And finally, Milley violated the part of the oath that represents the primary function of his service, defending America “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” when he collaborated with the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies, the Haqqani Network, while leaving Americans behind. 

Gen. Milley repeatedly lied about what was actually taking place in Afghanistan. 

In July, he falsely claimed that a “safe, orderly and responsible transition” was taking place in Afghanistan, and that the 600 U.S. military personnel there were sufficient to “secure the embassy, to secure the international zone and secure HKIA, the international airport in Kabul.”23 

A month later, even 6,000 troops, ten times that number, would not suffice for the task. 

Milley assured reporters that “the Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight” and that “we’re always going to maintain the capability of self-defense.”24None of  these things were true. 

Next month, the United States presence would be reduced to a besieged airport surrounded by checkpoints manned by Al Qaeda’s allies, the Haqqani Network, due to the disastrous decisions of the Biden administration and Gen. Milley. 

Milley’s options to “fully protect our force in Afghanistan”25came to nothing when a terrorist attack by ISIS-K with Haqqani complicity at Kabul airport killed 13 American military personnel. 

Instead of challenging Milley’s lies about Afghanistan, the media asked him about an account in an anti-Trump book which claimed he had prevented an imaginary Trump “coup,” and about “white rage.” 

As the Taliban began wrapping up their conquest of Afghanistan, the media stopped asking Milley about Trump or white rage. But Milley went on defending the “deliberate and responsible drawdown of U.S. forces” which added up to overseeing a shameful surrender. 

Three days before this press briefing, Gen. McKenzie, who would command the botched retreat on the ground, met with the Taliban leadership in Doha. 26The Taliban leaders had offered to let the United States control Kabul until August 31st. McKenzie reportedly conveyed to the Taliban that they could take over Kabul so long as the U.S. was allowed to use the airport. It’s unlikely that such a decision would have been made without taking it all the way up to the White House through the chain of command, through Milley and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. 

The mission, Milley laid out in his press briefing, was “to establish and maintain security at the Kabul International Airport. Defend the airport from attack. Evacuate all American citizens from Afghanistan” and “evacuate personnel with State Department-designated Special Immigrant Visas.” 27 

Milley and his brass failed at all of these tasks. They failed to maintain security around the airport, outsourcing the job to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network, leading to the deaths of 13 Americans. And they failed to evacuate all Americans and most Afghan SIV visa holders. 

While Milley boasts about the scale of the evacuation, few of the evacuees were Afghan allies who had visas allowing them to enter the United States. Bloomberg summed up the scale of the disaster with the headline, “U.S. Struggles to Learn Who’s Who in Afghan Airlift of 124,000.” 28 

Whom did Milley evacuate? Terrorists and rapists—a number of whom were trafficking underage girls. 

That was Milley’s America. 

Milley had failed to fulfill his own defined tasks. And yet he was taking a victory lap at Ramstein Air Force Base as if he had won a war, instead of losing one. 

“We fully intend to successfully evacuate all American citizens,” Milley had lied. “They are priority number one.” 

It was also lie number 2. Americans were such a priority to Milley that he left them behind in Afghanistan and brought terrorists “home” instead. 

“[We] have American citizens and Afghans who supported us for 20 years also at risk. This is personal, and we’re going to get them out,” Milley told the press. 29 

This was lie number 3. 

During the evacuation, Milley dismissed all questions about everything from his failure to predict a rapid Taliban conquest to the decision to shut down Bagram Air Base by referring to any criticisms as suitable only for an “After Action Report.” The action is long over and it’s time for accountability. 

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Milley bears direct responsibility for the disastrous decisions that handed Bagram Air Base and Kabul itself over to the Taliban. 

He is responsible for betraying his fundamental commitments to protect Americans. 

Gen. Milley is responsible for allowing the Taliban and Al Qaeda to decide which Americans and Afghan allies would be evacuated. 

He is responsible for undermining military readiness by focusing on critical race theory and studying “white rage” instead of preparing for the Taliban conquest. 

“There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days,” Milley insisted at the press briefing.30 

But intelligence reports had warned of a rapid collapse. And, as an article noted, “On Sept. 27, 1996, Taliban forces captured Kabul overnight, flooding in from all directions after a 15-day sweep of the country.”31Milley keeps claiming to be a student of history, yet the only history that he seems to be interested in is fake critical race theory revisionist history. 

Gen. Milley can claim that he was just following orders, but during the Trump administration, he had made a point of boasting that he would defy orders he considered wrong. An act of treason. Even as the Taliban were accelerating their conquest, a book containing a leaked story about Milley preventing an imaginary “coup” – and committing treason in the process - was all the rage. Milley had no problem defying President Trump, yet he enabled Biden’s disgraceful surrender in Afghanistan. 

Milley betrayed his country. He betrayed his oath to defend the Constitution. He should be court-martialed and sentenced to a long term in federal prison. Everyone, civilian and military, responsible for America’s most humiliating defeat since Vietnam is guilty of the same betrayals and ought to face impeachment and court martial and jail time. Sending them to prison won’t bring back the dead, but it will provide the fallen and their families with some measure of justice. 


4. Impeach the Vice President

“Were you the last person in the room?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked Kamala Harris.32 

“Yes,” Harris nodded. 

“And you feel comfortable?” 

“I do,” she replied. 

The subject under discussion was Biden’s disastrous decision to pull out of Afghanistan. 

Kamala had boasted of being the ’last person in the room’ when Biden makes big decisions. When Biden decided to betray Americans and aid the Taliban, it was no different. Afterward the ‘last person in the room’ was also the last person to want to answer questions about her role in the fateful decision that killed 13 American military personnel, created a terror state, and revived Al Qaeda. 

After the Taliban seized Kabul, leaving Americans stranded behind enemy lines, Kamala ducked questions and left the country for Singapore. When a reporter tried to ask her about the Americans left behind in Afghanistan before her flight, she giggled and replied that they couldn’t be a “higher priority.”33 

And then she flew off to Singapore where she toured flower gardens and had an orchid named after her while Americans were being beaten by the Taliban in the streets of Kabul. 

Kamala also took time out to meet with Halimah Yacob, Singapore’s first female Muslim president, selected in a rigged election with no opposing candidates in which only Malaysians could compete, and to show off another outfit by leftist Singaporean fashion designer Prabal Gurung who had falsely claimed that “anti-blackness... is woven into the DNA of America.” 

After having done her part to disgrace America in Singapore, Kamala tried to duck questions about what was happening to the Americans and the Afghan allies she had left behind as hostages in Afghanistan. 

Despite Singapore penning up reporters in a separate room and forcing them to ask questions remotely, she still had to face questions about what was happening in Afghanistan. Kamala tried to avoid responsibility, assuring the press that “we are singularly focused on evacuating American citizens, Afghans who worked with us.”34But when Biden pulled out, many of the Americans and the vast majority of the Afghans had been abandoned behind enemy lines by the Biden-Harris administration. 

While Kamala Harris was happy to take credit for Biden’s Afghanistan policy and to put her stamp of approval on it when it seemed like a good idea, she’s been running from it ever since. Whether it’s dodging reporters or flying off to Asia, she doesn’t want to be the last person in the room anymore. 

But it’s much too late for Kamala to pretend that she had nothing to do with it. 

As the “last person in the room,” Kamala Harris had made a point of taking a prominent seat at nearly every intelligence and security briefing. And though she only holds down the second spot, she is in some ways more culpable for the disastrous moves in Afghanistan than Biden. 

Kamala Harris had visited Afghanistan more recently than Biden as part of a Senate Intelligence Committee oversight trip.35As a Senate Foreign Relations committee member during the years that Biden was out of office, 36she had access to classified information that he did not and would have been seeing reports about the state of affairs in Afghanistan for four years before Biden. 

And, unlike Biden, she can’t plead dementia. 

Nor was Kamala just deferring to her boss. During her visit to Afghanistan in 2018 and during her failed presidential primary campaign, she laid out essentially the same positions as Biden. 

In 2019, Kamala Harris went on MSNBC’s leftist Rachel Maddow gabfest to attack President Trump’s withdrawal plan as irresponsible and fumed that a commander in chief has to “understand the seriousness and the severity of one`s decisions.” 

There’s no apparent sign that Kamala understands the seriousness and severity of turning the Taliban into the heaviest armed Sunni jihadist group on the planet or of betraying our allies. 

“I was in Afghanistan days before he made that decision, and, Rachel, when I was there, I spoke with generals and I spoke with troops. There was an active conversation happening around negotiating what should be the future of Afghanistan. And then out of nowhere, the president makes his decision. It was irresponsible,” she whined on MSNBC.37 

Did any of the troops tell her to cut and run while leaving thousands of Americans behind? 

Every promise that Kamala made, that the evacuations of Americans would be the “highest priority,” that she would bring American soldiers home “responsibly,” that she would “ensure that the country is on a path to stability, that we protect the gains that have been made for Afghan women and others, and that it never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists,” were broken.38 

Even as the Taliban were forcing young girls to marry their terrorists, Kamala was telling reporters in Vietnam not to worry because she had spent her “entire career on the protection of women and children.”39 

Considering she had actually spent her career covering for the likes of Willie Brown, Bob “Filthy” Filner, along with “one of her closest professional confidantes”40who was accused of sexually harassing his assistant, not to mention Joe Biden, that’s almost as implausible as her claim that Afghanistan was her highest priority even while being named godmother to an orchid in Singapore. 

When the Biden-Harris administration abandoned Americans in Afghanistan, the stranded included 8 San Diego families and 21 local students. A local school district went to work to help them. Kamala Harris ignored her former constituents as she had all the others trapped there. 

In September, after Biden fled and left Americans behind, and Kamala claimed that she could be trusted because she had built her “entire career on the protection of women and children,” a school liaison warned that, “we still have thousands of families, invisible families, who are still stuck in Afghanistan, who are U.S. passport holders, green card holders, SIV holders.”41 

The one politician working on the issue was a Republican congressman who declared, “The Biden administration left them behind and we didn’t rest until they were on their way home.”42 

A father who made it out with 5 kids thanked the Marines. He made no mention of Kamala. 

Kamala Harris had spent her career betraying the people she claimed to be helping. Afghanistan is just one more chapter in her disgraceful biography. It deserves to be the last. 

Biden claimed that Kamala Harris is “the last voice in the room and never fails to speak the truth.” 43What “truth” did Kamala speak when Biden made a series of disastrous decisions that cost the lives of American military personnel and the freedom of American civilians? 

When Biden allowed the Taliban to take Kabul and screen those Americans and Afghans who were allowed to reach the airport through their checkpoints, what did Kamala have to offer? 

When the Haqqani Network, allies of Al Qaeda, controlled Kabul, the checkpoints, and access to the airport for fleeing Americans, did Kamala utter a single word of protest to Joe Biden? 

She was “comfortable” with it. And she still is. 

Biden claimed that this would be the Biden-Harris administration. Kamala would be his partner in all things, handling calls with foreign leaders, leading diplomatic missions, and tackling crises. 

As his partner, she deserves an equal share of the responsibility and the accountability. 

“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors,” Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution states. 

Kamala Harris violated the trust and duty of her office by engaging in behavior whose consequences were foreseeable to a former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the second highest elected official in the country with access to classified intelligence. The collapse of the Afghan government, the Taliban takeover of the country, and the fall of Kabul were not unexpected developments, but ones that plenty of people, the vast majority of whom unlike Kamala had no access to intelligence briefings, predicted based on past and current events. 

Kamala Harris attacked President Trump’s Afghanistan plan as irresponsible and claimed that she had a better plan. The entire world has seen the Biden-Harris withdrawal plan in action. 

And is horrified by it. 

America’s enemies are gloating and our allies are fearfully backing away. China is threatening Taiwan, Russia is invading Ukraine, Iran is accelerating its nuclear program, and the risk of war is growing all over the world because of Kamala. 

The Biden-Harris administration’s military retreat became the nation’s worst hostage crisis, destroying our credibility, and disgracing our nation. 

“There is going to be plenty of time to analyze what has happened and what has taken place in the context of the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Kamala told reporters in Singapore.44 

That time is long since past. And the best way to begin is with an impeachment inquiry. 

The Biden-Harris administration has made it clear that it will not cooperate with an ordinary investigation. The media, which was briefly critical when its reporters were under fire, has gone back to carrying the corrupt administration’s water. Impeachment hearings will remind the public of what happened and an inquiry will help make it clear who in the administration knew what. 

And when they knew it. 

Dead American military personnel and American civilians trapped behind enemy lines deserve the truth. And they deserve an accountability that begins with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. 

Impeachment won’t bring back the dead, but it will ensure that Kamala and her boss don’t get any more Americans killed. 


5. Impeach Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin 

Americans are dead and our credibility is in ruins. Meanwhile, the man at the top of the military chain of command is blaming everyone else while using the dead for political cover. 

When Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he suggested that any criticism of his disaster in Afghanistan would impugn the heroism of American soldiers who fought and died in the war. It was a shameless performance in which Austin blamed everyone but himself while using the soldiers he had sacrificed as human shields. 

The ISIS-K suicide bomber who murdered 13 American military personnel at the Kabul airport had been released from Bagram Air Base by the Taliban. 

The decision to pull out of Bagram had been reached at a secret meeting in the Pentagon’s “extreme basement” attended by Austin, Gen. Milley, and Secretary of State Blinken. 45 

Any final decision would have been signed off on by Biden and by Austin. 

It’s understandable that Austin keeps coming up with excuses for the disaster that led to the death of more American personnel in one day than in the last two years of war in Afghanistan. 

The Secretary of Defense is at the top of the military chain of command and answers only to the man in the Oval Office. No one is more responsible for the military disaster in Afghanistan than Austin except for the man who gave him his orders. But it was Austin who promised Senate members that if he were confirmed, he would speak his mind and stand up to Joe Biden. 

“I certainly wouldn’t be here if I believed the last four years of my life left me too familiar with current operations to change course when needed, too close to scrutinize people with whom I once served, or too afraid to speak my mind to you or to the President,” Austin had assured the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing.46 

It was one of the many broken promises that Austin had made in his climb to the top of the military chain of command. The Secretary of Defense had promised to end the war in Afghanistan “on terms favorable to the United States,” had assured that, “Afghan security forces have the capability and capacity to project security and stability in Afghanistan in 2021 and beyond,” and that he would work to “ensure that the U.S. military and our Afghan partners have the capacity and capability necessary to protect U.S. personnel, our allies and partners, and our interests.”47 

Austin vowed to represent national interests, to be independent and flexible, and to keep American soldiers and civilians safe. 

As the Afghanistan disaster unfolded, Austin showed off all of his abandoned promises. 

He explained that he could not rescue the Americans trapped behind enemy lines. “I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul.”48Austin acknowledged that Americans were being assaulted by the Taliban. “We’re also aware that some people, including Americans, have been harassed and even beaten by the Taliban,” he admitted, but all he had to offer was a protest that he had registered with “the designated Taliban leader.”49 

In eight months under Austin’s leadership, U.S. military forces had gone from a dominant force to being unable to stop the Taliban from beating Americans in the streets of Kabul. 

This disgraceful betrayal was implemented by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. 

No single military figure had done as much to radicalize the military, undermine military readiness, shatter international alliances, and destroy America’s credibility abroad. 

Austin’s opening statement at his confirmation hearing made no mention of Afghanistan or the Taliban, or even Al Qaeda, ISIS, and terrorism. Instead, he vowed to fight the “enemies” that “lie within our own ranks” and “rid our ranks of racists and extremists” by which he meant anyone who wasn’t on board with critical race theory and the rest of his administration’s radical leftist agendas. 

At his first press conference, Austin had assured that, “I told our allies that no matter what the outcome of our review, the United States will not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.” 

NATO allies were promised that, “There will be no surprises. We will consult each other, consult together and decide together and act together.” 50As the British and other NATO allies have made clear, there was no consultation and there were no joint decisions. Instead, Biden and Austin made disastrous unilateral moves while leaving our allies uninformed and holding the bag. 

Austin was spending far more time fighting conservatives in the military than fighting the enemy. 

While white military personnel were being told that they were oppressors, and minority personnel were encouraged to believe that they were the victims of white racism, the planning for a full evacuation from Afghanistan was being pushed off as if it were an unimportant matter. 

Defense Secretary Austin kept sloganeering about “a responsible and sustainable end to this war” and promised, “we want to do this methodically and deliberately.”51Instead, he abandoned Bagram Air Base, cutting off the only safe evacuation route, and pulled all but 600 military personnel out, only to rush troops back at the last minute for a hasty and disorderly withdrawal. 

Austin had also assured that U.S. military weapons wouldn’t fall into the hands of the Taliban. 

“We’re going to responsibly retrograde all of our capabilities,” Austin had falsely promised. “We’re going to account for all the people and resources that are working with us.”52 

Instead, Austin made the Taliban the best armed Sunni jihadist group on the planet. 

While Austin was vowing to fight all the “racists and extremists”53in the U.S. military, he was ignoring a report to the Pentagon’s Inspector General which warned that “Al Qaeda is gaining strength in Afghanistan while continuing to operate with the Taliban under the Taliban’s protection” and that “Al Qaeda capitalizes on its relationship with the Taliban through its network of mentors and advisers who are embedded with the Taliban, providing advice, guidance, and financial support.”54 

In response to Senate questions, Austin wrote that the “Taliban have agreed to take concrete steps to ensure that al Qaeda never again is able to use Afghanistan’s soil to threaten the security of the United States or our allies. If confirmed, I will review the Taliban’s progress toward implementing their commitments with regard to al Qaeda.” 

The Taliban implemented their commitments to Al Qaeda, not to Austin. 

“We are committed to a responsible and sustainable end to this war while preventing Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorist groups that threaten the interest of the United States and our allies,” Austin had said. 55But the report to the Pentagon IG had already made it clear that Taliban control over Afghanistan would mean the return of Al Qaeda. 

What happened wasn’t a surprise: it was inevitable. 

“This all occurred in a span of about 11 days. Nobody predicted that, you know, the government would fall in 11 days,” Austin whined during an ABC News interview.56 

There were plenty of intelligence estimates warning of a rapid Taliban takeover. But Austin didn’t have to wait until there were only 11 days left. What had he been doing since Kamala Harris swore him in on Jan 25? Where were all those “responsible” and “methodical” plans he had been promising all along? 

Instead of planning how to keep Americans safe, Austin spent those months waging war on the military. Instead of meeting the Taliban and Al Qaeda threat, he was focused on the threat of “racists” and “extremists” which he and his boss had invented in order to solidify their political control over the military. 

And when 13 American military personnel died because of his actions at the Kabul airport, the dead heroes proved to be men and women, white and Latino, who represented the spectrum of heroes that Austin was trying to divide with the big lies of critical race theory and a hunt for “extremists.” 

The real extremist had been Austin all along. 

Like most leftists, Secretary of Defense Austin could not take the idea of an external enemy seriously. 

While Austin was fighting enemies at home, he enabled enemies abroad. He made fellow American military personnel into his enemies and they died at the hands of true enemies. 

The betrayal in Afghanistan began with a betrayal at home. 


6. Fire Marine Corps Commandant David Berger 

11 Marines came home in boxes after the bombing at Kabul airport carried out by an Islamic terrorist freed from a prison near Bagram Air Base that had been abandoned by Biden and his military brass. Other Marines were seriously wounded and hospitalized for months after the attack. 

All across America there are recruiting billboards for the Marine Corps with the message, “For Marines There Are Only Battles Won.” But in the run-up to the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, the leadership of the Marine Corps didn’t care about winning battles, only wokeness and race. 

In April, Biden announced that he would be pulling all American forces out of Afghanistan. That same month the Taliban launched their offensive that would end with a takeover of the country. 

When General David H. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps, testified before the House Subcommittee on Defense at the end of April, he did not refer to Afghanistan. Even while a skeleton force of hundreds of Marines remained in Kabul, Berger made no mention of them.57 

Instead, Berger spoke about racism. 

Bizarrely enough, Berger began his presentation, not with the threats to the United States that the Marine Corps existed to fight, but by declaring that, “our nation has engaged in a long overdue conversation on race and social justice sparked by several visible incidents of institutional racism.”58By that, Berger meant that Black Lives Matter mobs had torched a number of cities and their leftist allies had purged everyone who disagreed with their agendas from every institution. 

Berger assured House Democrats that he was happy to lead the purge of dissenting Marines. 

“We have and will continue to actively work to identify recruits and Marines who hold extremist views and we look forward to participating in the Secretary of Defense’s new Countering Extremism Working Group to develop additional methods of keeping extremists from within our ranks,” Berger vowed, declaring war on fellow Marines instead of on America’s enemies.59 

“In this era of profound ideological division within our nation, some individual Marines regrettably bring with them, or fall victim to while in service, misogynistic, racist, and homophobic/transphobic ideologies driven by hate, fear, and ignorance,” he promised. “I have instituted even more rigorous policies than previously existed to ensure we identify such individuals during enlistment and accession screening, I remain committed to identifying and holding accountable any Marine unable to uphold our core values.”60 

These new cancel culture values borrowed from college campus safe spaces were all about punishing political dissent and had nothing to do with the task of actually winning battles. 

Berger’s presentation mentioned social justice as often as China. He did not mention Afghanistan, Iran, or Al Qaeda. 

Nearly 400 Marines had been killed and nearly 5,000 wounded in Afghanistan. 853 Marines had died and over 8,000 had been wounded in Iraq. And yet the Commandant of the Marine Corps felt no need to even mention the wars or the cause they had sacrificed their lives for. 

What enemy was the Marine Corps tasked with fighting? Instead of fighting Al Qaeda, the Marines were “confronting issues of inequality.” And if that wasn’t impressive enough, Islamic terrorists could tremble at the thought of the new “gender-integrated training” in Parris Island. 

“Structural racism and sexism exists within our current system,” Berger falsely claimed and promised new diversity initiatives to promote more black personnel to higher ranks. 

Even though that actually is structural racism. 

In July, Berger appeared to leap to the defense of the Navy’s decision to promote Ibram X. Kendi’s racist tract, How To Be An Anti-Racist. 

“There’s some places on Earth, maybe more than a handful, where you’re not allowed to read books. ... You’re only allowed to read this, and you’re only allowed to espouse that,” Berger dishonestly argued. “We want our service members to read widely. We want them to actually think, not be programmed.”61 

Except that programming them was the entire point of the Navy’s decision. 

That same month, Bagram Air Base was abandoned, cutting off the only secure escape route for Americans from Afghanistan, while liberating thousands of Taliban, Al Qaeda, and ISIS-K terrorists, including the suicide bomber who would go on to kill 13 Americans at Kabul airport. 

While Berger was defending critical race theory in the military, the bloody road to the murder of 11 Marines was being paved. After the horror, he claimed that he wanted an “honest, open critique” of what happened in Afghanistan. But when Lt. Colonel Stuart Scheller offered an honest and open critique and demanded accountability from the brass, he was relieved of duty. 

Among the points that Scheller made when criticizing Biden and the military brass was, “you said it didn’t matter when you withdrew troops... perhaps one of our generals could have advised that in the winter the Taliban don’t fight. You planned a withdraw from April to September. That is literally the peak fighting season. If you could have planned better, or been advised better by the generals, there might be less body bags.”62 

The day before Berger’s call for an “honest and open critique,” he showed what would happen to any officer who dared to offer honest and open critiques. Then to further incentivize honest and open critiques, Scheller was placed under a gag order and then confined to a brig when he continued to speak out. 

Scheller’s treatment made it clear that Berger’s call for “diversity of thought” was as hollow as his solicitation of honest and open critiques. Promoting Ibram X. Kendi was a pathway to promotion, but demanding accountability for the deaths of 11 Marines was unacceptable. 

“Freedom comes at a cost,” Berger’s statement read after the deaths of those Marines at Kabul airport.63 

The cost of freedom isn’t a hollow cliché: it’s accountability and integrity from officials. 

Last year, General Stephen Neary, a two-star general in command of Marine Forces Europe and Africa, was removed from duty by Berger due to a “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to serve in command” because he had allegedly used the “N” word.64Neary hadn’t been trying to insult anyone. Instead, he had repeated the slur only to complain about the inappropriateness of playing music containing the slur at a Marine Corps training event. But in a woke military leadership where campus cancel culture trumps honor and tradition that didn’t save him. 

While a top general was fired for a slur, no one has been fired for the deaths of 11 Marines. What does it say about Berger that a slur is worse than the deaths of 11 American heroes? 

The only man to face a court martial has been a critic of the leadership over the Afghanistan retreat. 

“You have to be ruthless in rooting it out,” Berger had said of “extremism” in the Marine Corps.65 

He was just as ineffective in the face of the real extremists of the Taliban and Al Qaeda as he was ruthless toward Marines accused of political incorrectness or just of criticizing a woke leadership. 

During the George Floyd riots, Berger had warned that “there is no place in our Corps for racists – whether their intolerance and prejudice be direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional.”66 

Much like on campus, being accused of unintentional offense was a hanging crime. 

Like the rest of the military brass, Berger initiated divisive “conversations” about race in which officers were expected to listen and accept any accusations of bias from minority personnel. 

“We all have unconscious biases, admitted or not,” Berger told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz, parroting the corrosive racial psychoanalysis of critical race theory that says all white people are evil. 67 

While Berger was ordering officers to “listen” to false accusations of racism, he refused to listen to the much more substantive criticisms of Marine Corps dysfunction, gender and racial ideology, and the disastrous policies that led to the deaths of 11 Marines in Kabul. 

General Berger has failed the Marine Corps and the United States of America. 

Instead of focusing on the fight ahead, Berger decided that what the Marine Corps needed was to get woke, to dismantle its warfighting readiness by purging political incorrectness, lowering standards for the sake of diversity, and imposing cancel culture for the slightest offenses. 

Firing Berger would be the first step to rebuilding a Marine Corps that wins battles instead of building woke safe spaces. That’s what America and the fallen heroes in Kabul deserve. 


7. Fire Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Brown 

Chief of Staff Charles Brown made diversity and wokeness into the core of the Air Force’s mission. 

And the planes won’t fly. 

Brown has spent the past few years unleashing worthless diversity reviews to try and blame the Air Force for a supposed lack of diversity, even though it now has a black chief of staff and the first top Asian female enlisted leader. The military justification for Brown’s divisive shenanigans was that diversity equated somehow to military readiness. How is the Air Force’s readiness? 

The latest numbers show that the Air Force has made no progress in improving the readiness of its planes with a rate of 71.5% or 7 out of 10 planes in 2021. 68 

The United States Air Force is supposed to have mission capable rates of 75% to 80%, 69but about the only aircraft that meet that criteria are the unmanned drones. The high ratings of the drones disguise the fact that the actual numbers, when broken down by aircraft, are worse.70 

The F-35As, the fifth generation fighters that would be crucial in countering any sizable aerial engagement with Communist China, dropped catastrophically from 76% to 68.8%. 

Last year, the Biden administration boasted about the largest deployment of F-22 stealth fighters in the Pacific. Unfortunately, their readiness hovers at around 50%. 

Deploying fighters with the readiness rate of a coin flip won’t impress Communist China. 

The F-15E’s, the workhorse fighter we rely on in every theater, is down from 69% to 66%, the F-15C are down to below 70%, and the situation is expected to worsen due to parts shortages. The C-130 Hercules, a backbone of our operation, has slipped below 70%. The CV-22 Osprey fell from 54% to 50%. The B-1 Lancer fell from 52% to 40%, and, at its worst, was at 10%. 

All in all, only one Air Force aircraft actually met mission- capable goals: the venerable UH-1N Huey which is three years older than Chief of Staff Brown. 

That’s not just a disgrace; it’s a catastrophe waiting to happen. 

The United States is at risk of entering a military confrontation with China that we are not ready for. The Chinese have built up their own air force using stolen American technology. Meanwhile, after generations of dream planes and endless billions spent, the Air Force still remains reliant on outdated aircraft that are over 50 years old in some cases and which are harder to support. 

The next generation aircraft have not panned out. Their repeated failures have been met with an aggressive push by the brass to ignore the problems, punish critics, and junk the older aircraft. Older planes are being cannibalized for parts to repair other aircraft of the same generation leading to shrinking squadron sizes and brass congratulating themselves for saving money. 

Rather than bootstrapping its way to military readiness, the newly woke Air Force is jettisoning readiness and focusing on diversity. 

During the nomination of Brown, Biden’s disastrous pick, he provided worthless and misleading mission capable rates on the F-16, the F-22, and the F-35. 

Most notably, Brown claimed that the “F-22 mission capable rate achieved a high of 68% in April 2019.” That would be impressive, except that the actual F-22 yearly rate fell to 51%. 71 

More significantly, Biden’s Secretary of Defense Austin decided to drop even the expectation of a 75% to 80% readiness rate.72Brown is on board with that which means we are not ready. And the military leadership has decided to stop even trying to hit those basic readiness targets.Instead of having at least 3 out of 4 aircraft ready, the brass have decided to take “a more holistic view of readiness.”73 

Communist China is not taking a holistic view of winning wars. 

While Biden’s brass expect us to accept a “holistic view” of readiness, in which we aren’t actually ready, they have set the gold standard for diversity with conversations on race and hard diversity quotas. If Brown and the Air Force had the same attitude toward aircraft readiness quotas that they do toward racial quotas, we would have total military readiness at all times. 

Instead, we have the first black Secretary of Defense and the first black Air Force Chief of Staff, and an Air Force full of planes that don’t fly. 

During his nomination, Air Force Chief of Staff Brown released an unprofessional video complaining that he had been a victim of racism because someone in Korea once questioned whether he was entitled to a parking space when he was out of uniform. 

Now Brown has his woke parking space and a whole lot of our planes are parked on it. 

Stripes magazine described a speech in which Brown “seemed to barely contain his rage” and argued “that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution that I’ve sworn my adult life to support and defend have not always delivered ‘liberty and equality’ to all.”74 

It’s not the job of Brown to lecture us on the ideals of the Constitution, but to defend the United States. Brown, who has advocated purging personnel based on their social media,75has no idea what the ideals of a nation built on freedom of speech even are, and he has no idea how to do his actual job which is to oversee an air force that is ready to take on America’s enemies. 

Nor does he care. 

Not satisfied with junking the physical equipment, Brown and his allies are seeking to purge the Air Force of anyone they deem to be “extremists” while lowering standards and replacing merit with racial and gender quotas. As bad as the readiness rates for the planes may be, the readiness rates for woke promotions are bound to be much worse. 

When asked during his hearing whether the Air Force was ready, Brown replied, “To an extent.”76 

Should an Air Force Chief of Staff who thinks and speaks this way be fired? To an extent. 

This year, with the Air Force doing even worse than before he took over, Brown is talking about a mission for “equity.” It’s shamelessly irresponsible for Brown, who has failed at his core duty, to put his racial politics ahead of his mission at a time when the Air Force is not ready. 

The Pacific theater was always more challenging than Europe. In any confrontation with China, the Air Force would be key to maintaining supply lines stretching over 7,000 miles, and ready to counter Chinese incursions across another 3,000 miles. In an actual war, there would be no room for holistic views, for equity, racial quotas, or rants about systemic racism. 

There would only be the cold hard realities of the enemy and the contest in the battlespace. 

The good news is that our pilots, for now, remain qualified, talented, and highly motivated. Unfortunately, the brass has done everything possible to change that. And our men struggle with outdated aircraft that their fathers and even grandfathers were flying, and with highly expensive, erratic, and unstable new fighters that enriched defense contractors and the retiring brass who lobbied for them. The brass are well aware of the crisis. That’s why, like so many corporate monopolies who go woke to cover up their brokenness, they focus on identity politics. 

Winning at identity politics is a lot easier than winning a war. Just ask Brown. 


8. Impeach Secretary of State Antony Blinken 

The Clinton administration was very surprised by the Taliban in 1996. A memo from the State Department’s Afghanistan office warning that the Taliban were going to take Kabul never reached Secretary of State Warren Christopher.77Nine days later, the Taliban were in charge. 

History repeated itself when 23 staffers at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul signed a memo warning that the Taliban were about to take over Kabul and that evacuations needed to begin. The date was July 13, 2021.78There was still a month left until the Taliban would enter Kabul. And that should have been plenty of time to conduct an evacuation and get American civilians safely out. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, unlike Christopher, did see the memo. But it contradicted the narrative that he and the rest of the Biden administration had been peddling to the public. 

“No one, starting with the Taliban, has an interest in going back to a civil war, because I think what everyone recognizes is there’s no military resolution to the conflict,” Blinken absurdly told ABC News in April after his boss had announced the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan.79 

The Taliban not only believed that there was a military resolution, they were winning it. 

Weeks after the memo, Blinken was still insisting, all evidence to the contrary, that, “No one has an interest in a military takeover of the country by the Taliban, the restoration of an Islamic emirate.”80 

After China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, praised the Taliban as “a pivotal military and political force,” and mocked the United States, Blinken responded by celebrating Communist China’s involvement. “If China and other countries are working on that interest, then it’s a positive thing,” he suggested. 

Blinken’s insistence that China didn’t want a Taliban takeover was as treasonously wrongheaded as his parallel narrative that the Taliban weren’t really trying to win a war. 

The memo from Kabul was dismissed because it contradicted Blinken and Biden’s narrative. 

Blinken’s State Department was deeply invested in the fairy tale that the Taliban were just fighting a war as leverage for peace negotiations and would form an “inclusive government.” Even after the Taliban took Kabul and formed a government consisting of its own leadership and Al Qaeda allies, Blinken has idiotically gone on babbling about the need for an “inclusive government.” 

Blinken’s commitment to this imaginary inclusive regime was so total that he had agreed to provide the collapsing Afghan government with a bulk shipment of dollars if it peacefully turned over control to the Taliban which would have put the money into the Islamic terror group’s hands. 

It was not the first time that a Democrat administration appeared convinced that what the Taliban really wanted was international recognition, not an Islamic emirate. But the Clinton administration didn’t have the benefit of historical hindsight when it made the same mistakes with the Taliban. Nor did it leave thousands of Americans trapped behind enemy lines in Kabul. 

That was uniquely Blinken and Biden’s accomplishment. 

Blinken’s conviction that the Taliban would settle for a peaceful solution led him to maintain a full diplomatic presence even as much of the military had pulled out. Instead of urgently trying to get Americans out of the country before it was too late, the State Department created the illusion of normalcy by acting as if the conflict wouldn’t reach the cities, let alone penetrate Kabul. 

The Taliban, Blinken and his people kept insisting, would stop the fighting and negotiate. 

Military officials had wanted to plan for the emergency evacuation of the embassy, but the Biden administration refused. Blinken’s State Department meanwhile kept an embassy with over 1,000 Americans running in the heart of a city due to fall to the enemy. That was when the memo warning about an imminent Taliban takeover was sent. But only ten days before the fall of Kabul, did the Biden administration finally discuss whether to evacuate the embassy.81 

And only days before the fall of Kabul was a military evacuation finally authorized. 

It didn’t take a memo to warn Blinken what was going to happen. The possibility that the Taliban would quickly take over the country was not only there; it had already happened while Blinken was serving on Clinton’s National Security Council. And yet Blinken had learned nothing from the experience. 

In June, as the Taliban conquest was well underway, Blinken testified in Congress that a quick collapse would not happen. “If there is a significant deterioration in security, that could well happen – we have discussed this before. I do not think it is going to be something that happens from a Friday to a Monday,” he had argued.82It turned out to be a Thursday to a Sunday. 

Days before the evacuation, State Department spokesman Ned Price had declared, “Let me be very clear about this: The embassy remains open.”83 

Despite the lessons of history, his personal experience, and warnings from Kabul, Blinken was completely unready for the collapse and the evacuation of Americans. The Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau created under President Trump for just such a crisis had even been shuttered in June.84 

Diplomats who fled the country said that an earlier evacuation could have averted Blinken’s disaster. 85 

Instead of a diplomatic evacuation preceding a military withdrawal, Blinken had reversed the order so that the military had to go back and evacuate the diplomats. Had the State Department evacuation preceded a military withdrawal, most Americans would have gotten the message that Afghanistan was no longer safe and would have begun leaving on their own. 

Blinken played a key role in the disaster by clinging to an imaginary diplomatic solution with terrorists, ultimately endangering Americans, costing American lives, and humiliating America. 

But Biden brought in Blinken because he was a reliable rubber stamp for terrible policies. Afghanistan proved to be a rerun of Blinken’s disastrous mishandling of Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq which had allowed the country to fall into the hands of Iran and ISIS. 

A few months after Obama’s Iraq pullout, Blinken had insisted that, “What’s beyond debate is that Iraq today is less violent, more democratic and more prosperous—and the United States more deeply engaged there—than at any time in recent history.”86 

That summer, ISIS began the first wave of attacks that would put it on the path to declaring a caliphate. 

Long before Blinken was pushing an alternate reality from Afghanistan, he was trying to sell an imaginary Iraq in which “violence has declined and remains at historic lows,” where predictions of sectarian war “proved wrong” and whose government would not be under Iranian influence. 

In Afghanistan or Iraq, Blinken’s first priority was peddling a phony administration narrative. In Iraq, it led to the rise of ISIS, and in Afghanistan, to the Taliban takeover of the country. 

While lying to Americans about the consequences of Biden’s retreat in Afghanistan, Blinken falsely claimed that, “The terrorism threat has moved to other places.”8713 dead American military personnel and the resurgence of Al Qaeda and ISIS-K in Afghanistan prove otherwise. 

The “Taliban is also committed not to allow al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups that might target the United States to re- emerge,” Blinken had claimed. 88The Haqqani Network and other Taliban leaders allied with Al Qaeda have become part of the new Taliban government ruling the country. Blinken and 

his boss turned over Afghanistan to Al Qaeda’s allies in time for the anniversary of September 11. And they did it by telling outrageous lies about the consequences. 

Blinken, more than any single administration figure, was the hack at the heart of the Biden betrayal which abandoned Americans and their allies to the enemies of our nation. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken should never have been nominated or confirmed to his current role. Now that the Taliban have taken Afghanistan, 13 Americans are dead, and our international stature is shattered and ruined, he should be impeached and removed. 

After lying about Iraq and Afghanistan with horrifying results, what will Blinken lie about next? As the United States faces confrontations with China and Iran, it cannot afford to have a liar who wrecked our national security and empowered terrorists heading up our foreign policy. 


9. One Year After Afghanistan 

We are approaching a year after Biden began the process that led to the fall of Afghanistan. 

In our previous pamphlet, Disloyal: How the Military Brass is Betraying Our Country, the David Horowitz Freedom Center had warned that the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group imposed by the Biden administration and headed by Bishop Garrison, a racist who constantly accused Republicans of racism for the most frivolous reasons, was preparing to purge conservatives from the military. 

Instead of rebuilding the military after that disgrace and focusing on winning wars, the Biden administration and its military brass have acceded to the next stage of Garrison’s Countering Extremist Activity Working Group which developed a new definition of extremism to target conservatives. 

Under this definition, liking a Facebook post or donating to a church that believes in traditional marriage can be considered “active participation in extremist activities.”89 

Members of the military who are interested in the revelations about Islamic terrorism at sites like Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch, those who are opponents of abortion and question women being forced to compete against men in sports, could all now be branded as extremists who have no place in the military. 

What have Republicans done about this? What are they willing to do about it? 

There has been no accountability for the political leaders and military brass who wrecked the military. And none for those who were responsible for our defeat in Afghanistan. Patriots are being driven out while the disloyal leaders responsible for purging them and enabling the Taliban remain in charge. 

This cannot stand. 

The military leaders complicit in this disgrace are the products of Democrat and Republican administrations. If conservatives don’t firmly demand and hold presidential and congressional candidates accountable for undoing this, the radicals will take over the military the way that they control academia, the media, and the corporate spheres. That means ignoring the happy talk, the virtue signaling, the empty distractions, and demanding that the politicians actually do it. 

The military is the most conservative branch of the government. The purge of conservatives from the military is a political coup. Under the guise of outlawing discrimination, the Biden administration is engaging in the most dangerous and pervasive discrimination imaginable. 

This is a critical threat. It’s one that the David Horowitz Freedom Center took the lead in warning against. Now that it’s embedded in the military, the career brass that the DHFC warned about will do everything possible to retain it even under another Republican administration. 

The leaders, as we’ve warned, have to go. 

New leaders must commit to a merit-based military free of discriminatory “equity” measures and political purges that is built from the ground up to fight and to win for America. 

They must commit to telling the truth about what happened in Afghanistan. 

Or else we will have lost the military and the war. 


10. He Called America Racist, Now He’s in Charge of Our Nukes

It was the summer of 2020. Black Lives Matter riots were terrorizing, destroying, and burning American cities. And the first black deputy commander of Air Force Global Strike Command told everyone in the Air Force that he was terrified that white people could kill him at any moment.

“Here I am as a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force,” then Lt. Gen Anthony Cotton whined to Air Force Magazine. “When I see what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks—and the list goes on and on.”

“That could be me,” he claimed.

Since Cotton was, unlike Breonna Taylor, probably not harboring an armed drug dealer who opened fire on police or, unlike George Floyd, overdosing on fentanyl during a struggle with police as the climax to a long criminal career, that was a disingenuous smear from a top officer.

The spectacle of successful black men like Obama, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, or Gen. Anthony Cotton falsely claiming that America is so racist that any of them could suffer the fate of career criminals simply because of an accident of skin color is pathetic and disgusting. The Merck CEO or the Air Force general are as likely to suffer the fate of George Floyd as their white counterparts are to end up like a dead white meth addict shot in a raid in Georgia.

But Cotton knew what he was doing. he was doing was dishonorable and self-serving.

And it worked.

Two years after complaining about police lights flashing in his rearview mirror and someone challenging his parking spot, Cotton has been nominated by Biden to head U.S. Strategic Command.

It’s been a rapid ascent for Gen. Anthony Cotton who had been appointed to head Air Force Global Strike Command last year, after being Deputy Commander of the same in 2019, up from the head of Air University in 2018. Air University, like a lot of Air Force and Navy educational institutions, had gone painfully woke. And Cotton earned his political stripes in the process.

Gen. Anthony Cotton is now likely to become a four-star general. The last few years of his career have some “firsts” attached to them, but that doesn’t seem to help.

Charles Q. Brown, Jr. is the Air Force’s first black chief of staff, and has been tipped to replace Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Milley. That hadn’t stopped Brown from crying racism and smearing the country he claims to serve.

In a speech in which Brown “seemed to barely contain his rage”, he ranted “that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution ‘that I’ve sworn my adult life to support and defend’ have not always delivered ‘liberty and equality’ to all.”

“I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force,” Kaleth O. Wright, the second black man to serve as the highest ranking noncommissioned officer, tweeted. “I am George Floyd…I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown.”

Cotton is following a familiar identity politics career model that’s bad for America, but good for unprincipled men who are willing to smear their country and play the victim.

Is America any less racist with the first black Air Force Chief of Staff, Chief Master Sergeant, head of Air Force Global Strike Command and now likely head of Strategic Command?

Somehow it’s only more racist.

Last year, Cotton claimed that “diversity, inclusion are tools for national defense” and that diversity is a “warfighting imperative”. Perhaps actually winning wars would be imperative.

Has the Air Force become any more lethal on the battlefield ever?

“This team is exactly what we are looking for,” Cotton said of the Diversity and Inclusion Council at Malmstrom Air Force Base. “It is a diverse and unified team that is having crucial conversations about diversity and inclusion.”

The Montana Air Force base near Great Falls now has a Pride Month and will be spreading “unconscious bias training” which claims that all white people are racist.

Malmstrom has had a number of issues. Its nuclear missile unit has failed safety and security inspections, and bungled a response to a “simulated hostile takeover of a silo housing a nuclear missile”. There was also a cheating scandal involving 34 missile launch officers during a nuclear proficiency test and many more who knew about the cheating, but didn’t report it.

This was part of a string of problems going back over a decade. Cotton had been in charge of ICBMs at Malmstrom from 2009 to 2011. And he’s gone on climbing the ladder ever since.

Malmstrom’s nuclear arsenal is there to deter a nuclear war or end it quickly if it begins.

Having “crucial conversations about diversity” is not its mission, maintaining security procedures and being ready to kill one hundred million people in China, if necessary, is.

Are woke missileers who have conversations about how racist America is better at their jobs?

As head of U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Cotton will have a leading responsibility in defending or going on the offensive against America’s enemies. But does he view America as the enemy?

Now that its leadership is “diverse” in the sense of being concentrated among members of a single race who agree that the country they claim to serve is a racist place that randomly kills black people on account of their race, is the Air Force any better for it?

FrontPage Magazine’s latest pamphlet, How Obama and Biden Destroyed the Greatest Military the World Has Ever Seen, documents how readiness rates for F-22 stealth fighters are at the halfway mark, CV-22 Ospreys are at 50%, F-35As are at 68%, F-15E’s are at 66%, and the B-1 Lancer is at 40%. The B-1s are under Air Force Global Strike Command.

Instead of cleaning house, the Biden administration is rewarding failure and doubling down on wokeness. The Air Force isn’t ready for a major war, but its diverse leaders are eager to fight one against other Americans.

In an interview with Air Force Magazine, Cotton was described as saying that he “hopes the U.S. can reach a point where he doesn’t have to talk to his adult children about how to stay safe every week” from what is apparently the lurking menace of evil white people everywhere.

Given the opportunity, you have to wonder whether Cotton would nuke Beijing or Texas.

“It’s time for our nation to really dive into this and get after it—once and for all. And hopefully, you know, I don’t have to have those conversations with my kids,” he complained.

Perhaps it’s time for the Air Force to stop having conversations about racism mandated by racists and for our nation to stop handing over our national defense to those who hate her.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Fellow of the Freedom Center and the Editor of the FrontPageMag.com daily blog, “The Point.” 

Copyright 2022  David Horowitz Freedom Center Sherman Oaks, CA 

www.frontpagemag.com


1 “Taliban’s Haul of US Military Gear Includes 2,000 Armoured Vehicles and 40 Aircraft.” The Independent, Independent Digital News and Media, 19 Aug. 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/taliban-afghanistan-us-mili- tary-equipment-b1905470.html. 

2Nazmi, Vikas Pandey & Shadab. “Afghanistan: Black Hawks and Humvees - Military Kit Now with the Taliban.” BBC News, BBC, 28 Aug. 2021, https://www. bbc.com/news/world-asia-58356045. 

3Taliban has billions in US weapons, including Black hawks and up to 600K rifles. (2021, August 20). New York Post. https://nypost.com/2021/08/20/us-left-billions- in-weapons-in-afghanistan-with-black-hawks-in-talibans-hands/ 

4Johnson and Biden appeasing China has a human cost. (2021, March 19). Reac- tion. https://reaction.life/johnson-and-biden-appeasing-china-has-a-human-cost 

5Biden dismisses Uighur genocide as part of China’s ‘different norms’. (2021, February 17). New York Post. https://nypost.com/2021/02/17/biden-says-uighur- genocide-is-part-of-chinas-different-norms/ 

6McCarthy calls Biden’s handling of Afghan evacuation “biggest” U.S. failure “in my lifetime”. (2021, August 31). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/mccarthy- calls-bidens-handling-afghan-evacuation-biggest-us-failure-my-lifetime-1624709 

7Presidential memorandum -- Promoting diversity and inclusion in the national security workforce. (2016, October 5). whitehouse.gov. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the- press-office/2016/10/05/presidential-memorandum-promoting-diversity-and-inclusion- national 

8Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s Loose lips. (2010, June 22). Los Angeles Times. https://www. latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-22-la-ed-mcchrystal-20100623-story.html 

9Army Directive 2017-06 (Promoting Diversity and Inclusion), 18 Jan 2017 https:// www.benning.army.mil/mcoe/eo/Content/PDF/AD%202017-06%20(Promot- ing%20Diversty).pdf 

10Military chaplains slam Obama admin directive on ‘Implicit bias’ training. (2017, March 27). The Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2017/03/27/military- chaplains-slam-obama-admin-directive-on-implicit-bias-training/ 

11Former NASA director says Muslim outreach push ‘Deeply flawed’. (2015, Janu- ary 27). Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/former-nasa-director-says- muslim-outreach-push-deeply-flawed 

12Male cadets say they were forced to wear women’s shoes. (2015, June 4). The SITREP Military Blog. https://military.id.me/news/rotc-male-cadets-we-were- forced-to-wear-high-heels/ 

13Susannah George, Missy Ryan, Tyler Pager, Pamela Constable, John Hudson,& Griff Witte. (2021, August 28). Surprise, panic and fateful choices: The day America lost its longest war. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost. com/world/2021/08/28/taliban-takeover-kabul/ 

14New Taliban security chief in Kabul is wanted by U.S. as terrorist. (2021, August 26). NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/new-taliban- head-security-kabul-wanted-u-s-terrorist-n1277700 

15ISIS branch poses biggest immediate terror threat to evacuation in Kabul. (2021, August 25). https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/us/politics/isis-terrorism-afghan- istan-taliban.html 

16Cullison, A. (2021, August 26). Inside the hidden war between the Taliban and ISIS. https://www.wsj.com/articles/isis-taliban-afghanistan

17Crilly, R. (2021, August 19). Biden snaps at questions about Kabul airport chaos. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9908591/That-four-five- days-ago-Biden-snaps-question-Afghans-falling-planes-Kabul.html 

18Townsend, K. (2021, September 4). General Milley inspects tent city for evacuees built in 48 hours at Ramstein: “This is America”. hotair.com. https://hotair.com/karen- townsend/2021/09/04/general-milley-inspects-tent-city-for-evacuees-built-in-48-hours-at- ramstein-this-is-america-n413836 

19Falconer, R. (2021, September 5). Joint chiefs chair: “Likely” Civil War in Afghanistan may lead to al-Qaeda revival. Axios. https://www.axios.com/milley-afghanistan-civil-war- likely-al-qaeda-threat-893db25a-5fdd-4980-b53b-d419b87fb175.html 

20Phoenix, F. 1. (2021, June 24). Gen. Mark Milley: ‘I want to understand white rage’. FOX 10 Phoenix. https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/gen-mark-milley-i- want-to-understand-white-rage 

21Milley: ‘It’s possible’ U.S. will work with Taliban to thwart ISIS-K. (2021, Sep- tember 1). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/01/mark-milley- taliban-isis-k-afghanistan-508334 

22Top general says military doesn’t take oath to any individual amid Pentagon shakeup. (2020, November 13). Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/top-gener- al-military-oath-individual-pentagon-shakeup-1547167 

23Secretary of defense Austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Milley press BR. (2021, July 21). U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/ News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2702966/secretary-of-defense-austin-and- chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mille/ 

24Kabul’s collapse followed string of Intel failures, defense officials say. (2021, August 16). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/16/kabul-afghani- stan-collapse-intel-failures-505101 

25Secretary of defense Austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Milley press BR. (2021, July 21). U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/ News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2702966/secretary-of-defense-austin-and- chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mille/ 

26CENTCOM Commander acknowledges he did not try to stop Taliban from entering Kabul. (2021, September 29). Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East. https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2021/09/centcom-commander-acknowledg- es-he-did-not-try-stop-taliban-entering-kabul 

27Secretary of defense Austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Milley press BR. (2021, August 18). U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense. gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2738086/secretary-of-defense-austin-and- chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mille/ 

28U.S. Struggles to Learn Who’s Who in Afghan Airlift of 124,000. (n.d.). Bloom- berg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-03/u-s-struggles-to- learn-who-s-who-in-afghan-airlift-of-124-000 

29Secretary of defense Austin and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Milley press BR. (2021, August 18). U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense. gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2738086/secretary-of-defense-austin-and- chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-gen-mille/ 

30Garcia, E. (2021, August 18). US joint chiefs chairman: No indication Afghan army would collapse in 11 days. The Independent. https://www.independent. co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/afghanistan-army-collapse-us-intelligence- b1904905.html 

31Taliban’s rhetoric echoes rise of past. (2021, August 23). Arkansas Online. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/aug/23/talibans-rhetoric-echoes-rise- of-past/ 

32Husebø, W. (2021, August 16). Kamala Harris claimed ‘Key role’ in Afghan withdrawal decision. Breitbart. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/16/ kamala-harris-claimed-key-role-afghan-withdraw-decision/ 

33VP Kamala Harris laughs when asked about tragedy in Afghanistan. (2021, August 23). New York Post. https://nypost.com/2021/08/23/kamala-harris-laughs-when-asked-about- tragedy-in-afghanistan/ 

34Remarks by vice president Harris and prime minister Lee of Singapore in joint press conference | Singapore, Singapore | The White House. (2021, September 7). The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches- remarks/2021/08/23/remarks-by-vice-president-harris-and-prime-minister-lee-of- singapore-in-joint-press-conference-singapore-singapore/ 

35Senator Lankford provides oversight of US operations in Afghanistan. (2018, December 17). U.S. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. https://www.lankford. senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-lankford-provides-oversight-of-us-opera- tions-in-afghanistan 

36Kamala Harris has touted her role on Afghanistan policy. Now, she owns it too. (2021, August 18). Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/ story/2021-08-18/kamala-harris-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan 

37MSNBC “The Rachel Maddow Show” - Transcript: Interview with Senator Ka- mala Harris, Jan. 23, 2019 https://votesmart.org/public-statement/1322942/msnbc- the-rachel-maddow-show-transcript-interview-with-rep-kamala-harris 

38Kamala Harris in 2019: I will protect the women of Afghani-stan and keep ter- rorists out. (2021, August 20). National Re-view. https://www.nationalreview.com/ corner/kamala-harris-in-2019-i-will-protect-the-women-of-afghanistan-and-keep- terrorists-out/ 

39Kamala Harris says evacuating Americans, Afghan Allies is Biden admin’s ‘highest priority’. (2021, August 26). Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/poli- tics/kamala-harris-evacuations-americans-afghan-allies-biden-priority 

40Misconduct claim involving Kamala Harris aide came to agency months before she left office. (2018, December 14). Daily Republic. https://www.dailyrepublic. com/all-dr-news/wires/state-nation-world/misconduct-claim-involving-kamala- harris-aide-came-to-agency-months-before-she-left-office/ 

41Garske, M., & Staff, N. 7. (2021, September 2). ‘Darkest days of our lives’: El Cajon families rescued from Afghanistan talk about their experience. NBC 7 San Diego. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/el-cajon-families-rescued- from-afghanistan-press-conference-planned-thursday-with-locals-school-district- congressman/2708443/ 

42Rep. Issa says another San Diegan and his wife were evacuated from Afghani- stan. (2021, October 23). Times of San Diego. https://timesofsandiego.com/poli- tics/2021/10/22/rep-issa-says-another-san-diegan-and-his-wife-were-evacuated- from-afghanistan/ 

43Earle, G. (2021, April 13). Biden defends Kamala Harris as the ‘last voice in the room’. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9462791/Biden- defends-Kamala-Harris-voice-room.html 

44Phillips, M. (2021, August 23). Kamala Harris dodges questions on if mistakes were made in Afghanistan. Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ article-9919785/Kamala-Harris-dodges-questions-Biden-administration-mistakes- Afghanistan.html 

45Miscue after miscue, U.S. exit plan unravels. (2021, August 21). The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes. com/2021/08/21/us/politics/biden-taliban-afghanistan-kabul.html 

46Lawmakers question Biden’s Pentagon nominee on civilian control of the military. (2021, January 19). Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/ story/2021-01-19/national-security-cabinet-nominees-face-senate-tests 

47United States Commitee on armed services. (n.d.). United States Commitee on Armed Services. https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/download/austin_ apqs_01-19-21 

48Macias, A. (n.d.). U.S. forces can’t help Americans flee to Kabul airport, Pen- tagon chief says. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/18/us-forces-cant-help- americans-flee-to-kabul-airport-pentagon-chief-says.html 

49Austin contradicts Biden, says Americans have been ‘beaten’ by the Taliban. (2021, August 20). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/20/lloyd- austin-taliban-america-defeat-506475 

50A top democrat warns against a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (Published 2021). (2021, August 16). The New York Times - https://www.nytimes. com/2021/02/24/world/asia/afghan-troops-withdrawal-senator-reed.html 

51Video: Lloyd J. Austin discusses Afghanistan policy goals. (2022, February 1). The New York Times -https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000007614889/lloyd-j-austin- discusses-afghanistan-policy-goals.html 

52Pentagon chief says removal of all contractors from Afghanistan under way. (2021, May 6). Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/removal-all- contractors-afghanistan-underway-pentagon-chief-2021-05-06/ 

53Stewart, P., & Ali, I. (2021, January 19). Biden’s defense Secretary pick pledges to ‘rid our ranks of racists and extremists’. U.S. https://www.reuters.com/article/ us-usa-biden-pentagon/bidens-defense-secretary-pick-pledges-to-rid-our-ranks-of- racists-and-extremists-idUSKBN29O2II 

54Fontaine, R., & Serchuk, V. (2021, June 25). How the Afghanistan withdrawal costs the U.S. with China. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/ar- chive/2021/06/afghanistan-us-withdrawal-china/619286/ 

55Austin says Afghanistan, Iraq, China among topics at NATO meeting. (n.d.). Secretary of the Air Force International Affairs. https://www.safia.hq.af.mil/IA- News/Article/2513458/austin-says-afghanistan-iraq-china-among-topics-at-nato- meeting/ 

56Schnell, M. (2021, August 22). Austin says ‘nobody predicted’ Afghan govern- ment ‘would fall in 11 days’. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk- shows/568902-austin-says-nobody-predicted-afghan-government-would-fall-in-11 

57Fiscal Year 2022 United States Navy and Marine Corps Budget hearings - Thurs- day, April 29, 2021 https://appropriations.house.gov/events/hearings/fiscal-year- 2022-united-states-navy-and-marine-corps-budget 

58Staff, A. (2021, May 7). Navy leaders list climate change, extremism, diversity as priorities. AUSN. https://www.ausn.org/post/navy-leaders-list-climate-change- extremism-diversity-as-priorities 

59Ibid. 

60Statement of General David H. Berger, Commandant of the Marine Corps as de- livered to the House Appropriations Committee on Defense the posture of the Unit- ed States Marine Corps https://www.hqmc.marines.mil/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=- hOIpC6Hd2g%3D&tabid=10341&portalid=142&mid=21287 

61Toropin, K. (2021, July 1). Top leaders again reject claims that military is becom- ing too ‘Woke’. Military.com. https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/07/01/ top-leaders-again-reject-claims-military-becoming-too-woke.html 

62Daniel Greenfield. (n.d.). Free the Hero Locked Up for Telling the Truth About Afghanistan. Front Page Magazine. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/ free-hero-locked-telling-truth-about-afghanistan-daniel-greenfield/ 

63Athey, P. (2021, August 27). ‘Freedom comes at a cost,’ marine commandant says after
13 troops killed in Afghanistan. Navy Times. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-marine- corps/2021/08/26/freedom-comes-at-a-cost-marine-corps-commandant-says-after-deadly- day-in-afghanistan/ 

64ABC News. (2020, October 20). Top marine general removed after being investi- gated over use of a racial slur. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-marine-general- removed-investigated-racial-slur/story?id=73717785 

5Top marine says racism in the Corps has to be cut out ‘like a cancer, quickly’. (2020, September 24). Task & Purpose. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marines- corps-root-out-racism/ 

66Marine general removed after subordinates say he used racial slur (Pub- lished 2020). (2020, October 20). The New York Times - https://www.nytimes. com/2020/10/20/us/politics/marine-general-racial-slur.html 

67ABC News. (n.d.). ‘We all have unconscious biases, admitted or not’: Gen. David Berger [Video]. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/video/embed?id=71616447 

68US Air Force’s war capability tumbles to 70%... 50-Year-Old planes can’t win 

a war. (2022, February 18). American People Daily. https://americanpeopledaily. com/us-air-forces-war-capability-tumbles-to-70-50-year-old-planes-cant-win-a- war/ 

69Mission capable rates dropped in 2021 for every USAF fighter type except the A-10. (2021, December 1). The Aviation Geek Club. https://theaviationgeekclub. com/mission-capable-rates-dropped-in-2021-for-every-usaf-fighter-type-except- the-a-10/ 

70Losey, S. (2022, February 14). US Air Force fleet’s mission-capable rates are stagnating. Here’s the plan to change that. Air Force Times. https://www.airforce- times.com/news/your-air-force/2022/02/14/us-air-force-fleets-mission-capable- rates-are-stagnating-heres-the-plan-to-change-that/ 

71Insinna, V., & Losey, S. (2020, May 7). US Air Force bails on mattis-era fighter jet readiness goal. Defense News. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/07/ the-air-force-bails-on-mattis-era-fighter-jet-readiness-goal/ 

72Ibid. 

73US military aircraft readiness rates are in the toilet. Here’s how bad the situation is. (2020, December 2). Task & Purpose. https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us- military-aircraft-readiness-rates/ 

74Air Force’s top Black general offers emotional take on racial unrest over Floyd killing. (2020, June 6). Stars and Stripes. https://www.stripes.com/branches/ air_force/air-force-s-top-black-general-offers-emotional-take-on-racial-unrest-over- floyd-killing-1.632658 

75Gen. Brown on extremism in the Air Force and threats from China, Afghanistan. (2021, July 28). PBS NewsHour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/gen-brown- on-extremism-in-the-air-force-and-threats-from-china-afghanistan 

76Insinna, V., & Losey, S. (2020, May 7). US Air Force bails on mattis-era fighter jet readiness goal. Defense News. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2020/05/07/ the-air-force-bails-on-mattis-era-fighter-jet-readiness-goal/ 

77State dept. Becomes cooler to the new rulers of Kabul (Published 1996). (1996, October 23). The New York Times - Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/23/world/state-dept-becomes-cooler-to- the-new-rulers-of-kabul.html 

78Salama, V. (2021, August 19). WSJ news exclusive | Internal state department cable warned of Kabul collapse. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/confidential- state-department-cable-in-july-warned-of-afghanistans-collapse-11629406993 

79Secretary Antony J. Blinken with Martha Raddatz of abc’s this week with George Stepha- nopoulos. (2021, April 18). United States Department of State. https://www.state.gov/secre- tary-antony-j-blinken-with-martha-raddatz-of-abcs-this-week-with-george-stephanopoulos/ 

80China interest in Afghanistan could be ‘positive’, says Blinken. (2021, July 29). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58007517 

81Gordon, M. R., Lubold, G., Salama, V., & Donati, J. (2021, September 5). Inside Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal plan: Warnings, doubts but little change. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-biden-administrations-push-to-exit-afghan- istan-11630855499 

82Rep. McCaul presses Secretary Blinken on evacuation plan for afghans awaiting special immigrant visas. (2021, June 7). Committee on Foreign Affairs. https://gop- foreignaffairs.house.gov/press-release/rep-mccaul-presses-secretary-blinken-on- evacuation-plan-for-afghans-awaiting-special-immigrant-visas/ 

83Pentagon sending thousands of troops to Kabul to help evacuate U.S. embassy. (2021, August 12). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/12/penta- gon-kabul-afghanistan-evacuate-us-embassy-504207 

84(2021, August 18). Biden state dept moved to abolish crisis response bureau months before Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Washington Free Beacon. Kredo, Adam. https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-state-dept-moved-to- abolish-crisis-response-bureau-months-before-taliban-takeover-of-afghanistan/ 

85Biden administration embroiled in internal blame-shifting amid Afghanistan chaos. (2021, August 17). KESQ. https://kesq.com/video/2021/08/17/biden-administration-reverts-to- internal-blame-shifting-amid-afghanistan-chaos-2/ 

86Congressional record, volume 160 issue 155 (Tuesday, December 16, 2014). (n.d.). govinfo.gov | U.S. Government Publishing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/ content/pkg/CREC-2014-12-16/html/CREC-2014-12-16-pt1-PgS6886.htm 

87Blinken says of Afghanistan drawdown: ‘The terrorism threat has moved’. (2021, April 18). POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/18/terrorism-threat- blinken-afghanistan-drawdown-482803 

88Afghan president vows US withdrawal will not cause his government to fall to the Taliban. (2021, April 19). Washington Examiner. https://www.washingtonexam- iner.com/policy/defense-national-security/afghan-president-vows-us-withdrawal- will-not-cause-his-government-to-fall-to-the-taliban 

89Daniel Greenfield. (n.d.). Biden bans conservatives and Christians from the military. Front Page Magazine. https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/12/biden-bans-conservatives-and- christians-military-daniel-greenfield/