SAN DIEGO: After Monday’s closed-door Senate meetings, Gen Mark Milley trumpeted that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a “failed strategy, logistical success.” — however, this lack of strategy included a lack of logistical prep in the withdrawal and that is what led to our eventual failure in Afghanistan’s exit. Giving rise to terrorism, as in Iraq, and communism in Vietnam.
Prior to Milley’s disastrous withdrawal actions, Afghanistan was a success keeping the Taliban down. US and coalition troops kept known terrorists out of Kabul’s seat of democratic government. A lot due to careful strategy and solid logistical support to move strategies forward all over the country. Milley may claim it is all Biden’s fault, but the reality is that it is Milley’s command is to protect Americans and American forces with no holding back.
Before the Senate Armed Forces committee, Milley was grilled about mistakes in the Afghanistan withdrawal. Milley was quick to defend his alleged advocacy for leaving troops in Afghanistan saying Biden failed to follow his advice. Did he say that clearly face-to-face to Biden or was it on a piece of paper on a desk or even assumed? Was the recommendation in a daily presidential brief? Or do we just take the word of a general who dodges Senate Committee questions and keeps his conversations with Biden private?
What we all know.
Milley clearly implemented a “failed strategy” that went forward against better judgment. Surrendering so much of America to the Taliban. Bagram and all its treasures as well as the lives of the Afghan 13, the lives of Zemari Ahmadi and his family, including children, (DoD admits killing Ahmadi family after New York Times exposé).
Dead service members and civilians are never successful in any military book. Two wounded service members remain in “very serious” and “serious,” but stable condition at Walter Reed National Medical Center. American’s withdrawal strategy needed to be cunning, not cumbersome. We needed leadership that remembers history, versus repeating it. (Vietnam and Afghanistan: Different wars, similar endings?)
Military strategy and logistics are joined at the hip.
Military strategy is the tactical design and planning, implementation, means-to-an-end goal of a campaign. Strategy is the framework of the mission or operation. As well as contingency planning if the mission fails. The plans are backed with skill, confidence, a good conscience, and safety measures. A ‘nose’ to reach the desired outcome.
Military logistics is the discipline of planning and carrying out the movement, supply, and maintenance of military forces. In its most comprehensive sense, it is those aspects or military operations that deal with: Design, development, acquisition, storage, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and disposition of material. (wiki)
Ask those on the ground during the war about how important logistics play in combat.
“At every destination during his battlefield circulation, one functional area threaded all three sites near Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan – logistics,” wrote Jon Connor in 2011 who deployed to Camp Spann, Afghanistan.
Connor’s article published on DVIDS, talks about Command Sgt. Maj. David J. Vincent. Vincent saying logistics are “the key to success for coalition forces in Afghanistan. Not just to meet the 2014 withdrawal date, but to ensure continuous success for decades to come.”
Western militaries know the value of good strategies in war and American, coalition forces saw plenty of successful victories. But modern warfare is vastly different from an ancient tribal culture.
“Logistics is really new,” to the Afghan people, Vincent said, in a post site-inspection interview.
Vincent explaining that logistics was one of the last things coalition forces did in Iraq. Which was easier to implement, because Iraq had an infrastructure. But in Afghanistan, it’s a big challenge teaching logistics and implementing it because conditions are more austere.
“The ability to sustain and keep the momentum moving forward is critical,” Vincent said.
Milley and Austin failed to prepare the Afghan troops to handle modern warfare logistics.
John Sopko, inspector general for reconstruction in Afghanistan, said that “Logistics is the “Achilles’ heel” of any fighting force and the United States has either taken control of or heavily influenced the Afghan logistics system for most of the war,” he said, adding,
“Afghan troops and police need more than fighting capabilities: They need to develop other competencies including human resource management, budgeting, maintenance, procurement – and above all, logistics.”
Biden, Milley, Austin failed at their own execution of logistics during the haphazard withdrawal.
Things like the evacuations from the Kabul-Hamid Karzai airport. They quickly become hazardous to everyone – Afghans, Americans, and allies alike. There were no resources to supply logistical movement of getting people safely to the airport. Let alone getting troops outside of it to help them. ‘Winging it’, along with plenty of ‘oh s**t’ moments, became the norm during a dangerous volatile, panicked time. Quickly becoming a chaotic logistical nightmare.
Would leaving 2,500 troops in Afghanistan have solved some logistical problems? Yes, could have helped secure evacuations, but certainly that number not enough to fight and win over the Taliban advancing grip. Like Milley, CENTCOM’s Gen. Frank McKenzie doesn’t reveal what he actually said to the president about leaving troops to secure all evacuations needed.
“I won’t share my personal recommendation to the president, but I will give you my honest opinion and my honest opinion and view shaped my recommendation. And I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan,” said McKenzie.
The revelation of ‘we told Biden so,’ came long after Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “No one said that to me that I can recall.”
So our Armed Service Committee members ask – who is lying, Biden or the Generals? Or is Biden’s ability to recall recommendations when making decisions lacking? Either scenario is chilling.
If Milley and McKenzie knew it was a bad idea to pull out all troops, how come they did not stand up to protect Americans under their watch?
“…for some reasons we still don’t quite understand, the Pentagon failed to plan for the potential collapse of security forces or the collapse of the Afghan government, despite there being quite a lot of warning,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) who slammed the contradiction throughout the hearing.
Then they turned one huge advantage over to the enemy.
During Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Milley’s first briefing on Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul, a reporter asked this question.
“Why [did] the military command choose to abandon Bagram Air Base in the month prior to the fall?”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hesitated as if he did not understand the question. Milley blamed Biden for being unable to carry out operations. Logistical problems plagued Karzai airport as was evident in the chaos caught on cameras and cell phones.
The question being asked is that if Bagram had two operational runways while HKIA (Karzai) only has one, why was Bagram given to the Taliban, along with the billions of dollars of equipment and “stores” that should have been left for the Afghan fighters? (Inside Afghanistan’s looted Bagram airbase after US departure – in pictures)
Additionally, the second runway at Bagram could have been used to double the evacuation throughout. Bagram could have fortified its perimeter and used combat aircraft to protect airlift evacuation operations.
Had Biden and the Generals not left Bagram to the Taliban, the terrorists being held would have remained behind bars. Had we left 2,500 troops, the terrorists would still be imprisoned. If we had not given Bagram away, the suicide bomber that killed the Afghan 13 would still be locked away.
Leaving Bagram cut off logistical supply for Afghan forces at the mercy of the Taliban.
President Ghani and the U.S. exiting in the dark of night left the Afghan military incapable of pushing back hard against the Taliban’s advance.
Instead, Milley left the Afghan counterinsurgency fighters who stood by them for 20 years, caught unaware. There’s enough blame for everyone. The core of the matter is that people who died that should today, except for the failures of Biden and the Generals, be alive.
Providing the Afghan military with solid logistical support US and coalition forces kept the Taliban in chaos.
Nine years into Operation Enduring Freedom, solidifying logistical support for the ISAF Afghan mission remained a concern in Washington. Look what it took for the military to run a war in 2010,
“The logistical scope of resupplying western forces in Afghanistan is immense. According to ISAF spokesman Colonel Wayne Shanks, there are currently nearly 400 US and coalition bases in Afghanistan, ranging from the massive Bagram airbase down to camps, forward operating bases and combat outposts. According to the Pentagon, there are now 87,000 US troops in Afghanistan alongside 47,000 ISAF troops from 44 other countries. When the Obama administration surge is complete, by 2011 Afghanistan will host a total of 102,000 US troops.” (Railways of Afghanistan)
Much of that supply came through Pakistan until violence increased on those routes. The supply chain then moving through Central Asia. With the Taliban now occupying Kabul, there are no supply routes in or out.
“Though [U.S.] officials felt confident in the Afghan security forces’ strategy of consolidating in the cities to defend the urban population centers,” reports Politico.
Come on, the urban centers were the targets of the Taliban offensives and our military went against what they knew from years of fighting this enemy. Contributing to the Taliban’s success.
Whether 2010 or 2021 – without reliable, sustainable logistics you cannot effectively mount combat operations.
Logistics fuels movement, marks the outcome.
Milley’s Pentagon failed to carry the torch of a history robustly-filled with strategic and logistical success in Afghanistan. Instead, producing a nation falling into enemy hands after 20 years and billions of dollars of American money and American lives. And a bunch of Americans and Afghan allies trapped, filled with dread, and those left behind still in hiding.
The American military is gone but left a footprint of running to the fight. Biden and his Generals left a different set of footprints, running from the fight.
