Last week the White House released the After Action Report for the Afghanistan withdrawal with a 12-page talking point paper for the public. For those of us veterans and active military, we are familiar with the After Action Report, or AAR as it’s lovingly acronymized.
However, this report reads more like a whitewashing finger-point attempt at covering the Biden administration’s you-know-what to put to bed this dark chapter in our history before Uncle Joe finally dusts off his campaign for another round.
As a veteran, I wasn’t insulted by this maneuver, as I expected it from this administration.
It’s not just because Biden is a Democrat; in general, I think most politicians on both sides of the aisle tend to wax poetic about support for ‘the troops’ and ‘honoring our veterans.’ But it was the words that were uttered by former Pentagon turned White House spokesman John Kirby that had me yelling at my television.
John Kirby on the Afghanistan withdrawal: “For all this talk of ‘chaos,’ I just didn’t see it”
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) April 6, 2023
You Need A New Perch
The images burned into the memories of most Americans who watched the fall of Afghanistan in real time were the chaotic visages of Afghan mothers handing their babies to Marines over barbed wire, allies being hung from telephone poles, and desperate Afghans running towards American aircraft and falling to their deaths.
Let’s not forget the 13 American men and women who were needlessly murdered by a suicide bomber at Abbey Gate, and the drone-murder of innocent aid workers and children as Biden’s response.
The Biden Regime just released an “Afghanistan review” report and they wrongly blame Trump for the disastrous withdrawal. That’s such BS!
The American people know that Biden is to blame! He got 13 service members killed and left $85B worth of military equipment for the Taliban!
— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) April 6, 2023
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However, if you ask John Kirby, you’re just imagining things:
“For all this talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it. Not from my perch.”
What an excellent example you have become, Mr. Kirby, of what a bloated, out-of-touch military bureaucrat looks like. Not only do I not believe that lie that you tried to sell the rest of us, but based on your demeanor when you said it, I don’t think you even believed it.
Mr. Kirby went on to deploy the military’s principle tactic when backed into a corner, claiming a failure was a success thanks to work done by the lower ranks who get to live with the horrors of their leader’s incompetence:
“At one point during the evacuation there was an aircraft taking off full of people, Americans and Afghans alike, every 48 minutes. And not one single mission was missed. So, I’m sorry, I just don’t buy the whole argument of chaos.”
What does he “not buy,” exactly? The score of dead? The hundreds of Americans left behind enemy lines – over 100 of whom are still stuck?
RELATED: Biden Admin Admits Over 100 Americans Still Left Behind in Afghanistan
Have You No Shame?
Leave it to Fox News’ baby-faced Peter Doocy to hit Mr. Kirby with a valid zinger:
“There were children being killed. There were people hanging off of Air Force jets that were leaving. You’re saying you guys are proud of the way this mission was conducted? You’re proud of that?”
To which Mr. Kirby bit back somewhat incredulously:
“Proud of the fact that we got more than 124,000 people safely out of Afghanistan? You bet.”
Too bad for the close to 100 Americans still trapped in Afghanistan, but at least we have this:
“Proud of the fact that we now have about 100,000 Afghans, our former allies and partners, living in this country and working toward citizenship.”
RELATED: Afghan Reconstruction Inspector Believes US Destined to Repeat Mistakes in Ukraine
Except for all those we left behind and the countless others we didn’t vet properly that aren’t our allies but got a free ticket to the grand ole’ U.S. of A.
Mr. Doocy also asked the best question of all:
“Who is going to get fired over this?”
Unfortunately, this isn’t the good ole days when military brass would write up their resignation letters in advance of massive maneuvers in the event they went south, as Mr. Kirby essentially proved when he replied that the purpose of the report was “not accountability.”
John Kirby is “proud” of the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal.
Not a single person has been held accountable. pic.twitter.com/serxxJlfQ8
— Remember The Fallen (@44MagnumBlue1) April 7, 2023
Don’t Look At Me; It’s Not My Fault
The best part is that while this report wasn’t about accountability, according to Mr. Kirby, it was all about making sure any hint of blame was dispersed to everyone and anyone that isn’t the Commander-in-Chief. After all, the job title is a flourish for the President versus an actual job requirement.
In the White House summary, blame was shot toward the previous Commander-in-Chief, Donald Trump:
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor.”
Weird, last I heard, we were one of the most, if not the most powerful nation in the world; you’re telling me Uncle Joe had no other option once he took over the reins?
The truth is he did; in fact, the agreement brokered by former President Trump allowed the United States to call off the withdrawal if the Taliban-Afghan peace talks failed – which they did.
RELATED: Our Borders Are Open to Everyone… EXCEPT Allies
So to claim this wasn’t just a failed attempt at a political win is folly.
The report goes on to throw a little blame toward the military brass:
“To manage the potential threat of a terrorist attack, the President repeatedly asked whether the military required additional support to carry out their mission at HKIA. Senior military officials confirmed that they had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate the threats.”
If you ask the families of the 13 who were murdered at Abbey Gate, they might argue those senior military officials were horribly wrong; too bad this isn’t an accountability document, though.
CBS’s @EdOKeefe SLAMS the Biden WH & John Kirby for releasing a report on the Afghanistan withdrawal was sent to us “about 10 minutes before the briefing began, with little notice”: “It’s the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump…after months of requests” pic.twitter.com/GaZpssi6Ck
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2023
How Good Is Good Enough?
When are we going to start caring about winning? Now, all we ever seem to do is point out how while we f‘ed up, at least we didn’t eff up too bad.
As Mr. Kirby said:
“Nobody is saying that everything was perfect, but there’s a lot that went right, and a lot of Afghans are now living better lives in this country and other countries around the world because of the sacrifices and the work of so many American government officials.”
Are you referring to the veteran Congressmen who had to turn their D.C. and state offices into makeshift command centers to try to utilize retired veterans on the ground to get out our allies? Or perhaps you are referring to the pilots and aircrew that had to make tough decisions under the wire of a Biden-induced ticking time clock.
I guess we should all feel comfortable in the fact that while our allies in the world had their confidence shaken by our half-assed withdrawal from Afghanistan, Americans died who shouldn’t have had to, and our allies were massacred after we promised we’d be there for him – at least we got some people out of Afghanistan. And that’s about as good as it’s going to get, at least from Kirby’s perch.
John Kirby saw no chaos in Afghanistan… pic.twitter.com/1DT4AJwKQN
— Matt Couch (@RealMattCouch) April 10, 2023
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