Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Milley & McKenzie throw Joe under the bus Date:   9/29/2021 1:33:13 PM

I watched some of the testimony yesterday, particularly about the advice that was given by the military.  There was more to it.  One Senator kept reading quotes by Biden regarding the Afghanistan situation, where Biden said one thing and the military generals were put on the spot to say if it was true or not.  Clearly, Biden lied and clearly the military was on the hot seat.  Another Senator from Tennessee insisted they answer her questions with a yes or no, which Milley did and Biden came out looking bad.  

I will offer this to you - when you are in a DOD advisory position and you provide a range of options to any leader, you learn pretty quickly that you are not the decider - you may present options and pro and cons for each, but at the end of the day, you are not the decider.  And once that decision is made, you are required to execute it, whether you agree or not, unless it is clearly illegal.   Yes, you can fall on your sword and die on the hill, but they will just replace you with someone that understands that the President or other leader is the decider.  

I think that Biden had already made up his mind before any options were presented - he was going to pull out of Afghanistan no matter what his military advisors opined.  I think that while the miliary provided security and the airlift, the State Department was running the operation, and clearly they didn't care who got on those planes - it was just a matter of filling up the planes.  I got the distinct impression that Milley and other military leaders were really comfortable with how it was conducted, but they understood it was not their show.  

Now, I fault them for not realizing that Afghanistan would fall so quickly.  I think they did know that, even if they didn't admit it.  One Senator- I believe it was Manchin, said he had been there several times, talking to the troops and theu expressed the truth - that the Afghanis were showing up, there were ghost troops, that they did not have confidence in the Afghani troops.  But it's not unique to the military that people engage in not wanting to speak the truth and go outside of the approved narrative.  Remember, in the military, there are no "problems", only challenges to overcome.  

Milley stated that they thought that the Embassy would stay open after the big airlifts and continue to work on extracting Americans and green card holders.  But it would appeard that State made the decision to close the Embassy and flee.  

I read an article today and I don't know if this is a direct quote or not, but somehow we went from not negotiating with terrorists, to "must negotiate with terrorists" and the question is how did we get there?  One Senator pointed out that Biden was not obligated to follow the lead of what Trump negotiated with the Taliban, yet Biden likes to blame Trump and say he had no choice.  

I have been a person who really thought that Milley overstepped his power, but I came away after yesterday's testimony feeling a little differently about him.  I think he was trying to navigate events that were beyond his control.  The only sure lie I heard come out of his mouth was when someone asked him about the authors he spoke to, who now have books out.  He admitted he had spoken to those authors, but that he hadn't read the books - well, that may be a partial truth in not reading the books that quote him in Toto, but, we known damn well that he has at least read the exerts where he was quoted and not having spoke up, we can safely assume that those quotes are true.  

I came away yesterday with an unchanged opinion of Austin.  Biden wanted to appoint the first black secretary of Defense and Austin was chosen because of his race and not because of his brilliance or articulation or his ability to lead.  Sorry, not trying to be racist, but that remains my opinion.