Typically, that General is Removed
Do general officers have an obligation to publicly tell the truth?
I have an interesting perspective on this question.
Currently, the Marine Corps teaches my story at the E-8 seminar (senior enlisted school). If you remember, I was the Marine officer who, via video, made a plea for accountability from military leaders who purposely abandoned Bagram airbase, American citizens and American military sacrifices. Shortly thereafter, I was fired, placed in solitary confinement and kicked out of the military short of my retirement. My story is not used to discuss leadership failures and operational mistakes during the Afghan withdrawal, but as a case study on why not to publicly criticize leadership.
Military culture clearly signals: Making leadership look bad is far more dangerous than obediently failing. To date, not a single military leader assumes accountability for their failures at the end of Afghanistan.
CNN recently published an article titled, “New evidence challenges the Pentagon’s account of a horrific attack as the US withdrew from Afghanistan.” It offers new video evidence and first-hand accounts of a significant gunfight following the suicide bomb attack in Kabul, during the American withdrawal. The article illustrates more facts contradicting the current political administration, and, by extension, the current military leadership’s version of events. The U.S. military conducted multiple investigations on the Abbey Gate incident, but somehow missed the evidence CNN uncovered, concluding that any gunfire was only a result of warning shots, and not part of a complex attack.
Why would military leadership want to convince parents of killed service members and the rest of the American public that ball bearings from a suicide vest were the only lethal hazard during the attack, despite video evidence demonstrating the opposite?
Objectively, because the American military failure was so complete, a singular suicide bomber not affiliated with the Taliban was less damaging to an already fragile political narrative. The “extraordinary success of this mission,” as the President called the Afghan evacuation five days after the suicide attack, was only marginally credible when echoed by obedient military leaders whom Americans still believed were capable of public honesty.
