Sunday 12 September 2021

The Review Which Will Never Be Done

 I will occasionally read a page over at Defense One....which typically dwells on military issues.  Today, they had a chat with the present Army chief of staff (General James McConville).

So he says...from his own prospective, he wants a top to bottom review of all decisions that led to Kabul's situation and how the US military conducted the withdrawal.

Odds of a Army-sanctioned review?  I give it a one-percent chance of occurring. 

Odds of a Pentagon-sanctioned review?  Probably less than one-percent chance.

Odds of the Army War College allowing several (maybe 50 individuals) to conduct such a review as part of their master's degree thesis program?  I'd give it a 90-percent chance of happening.  

The odds of the White House or State Department providing data or reports to the thesis writers?  Zero.

The problem here is you have one of the five most stupid government concepts since the 1960s (Bay of Pigs at the top), and literally no one wanting to describe how they f**ked-up, nor wanting to describe how President Biden was 'out-to-lunch' when all of this occurred.

It's funny in a way to ponder upon the mistakes made, how they can't be attached to a review, and how the system seems to want to move on.  But if you asked people in 1970 what the Bay of Pigs was all about.....it became this 'mystery' very similar to Afghanistan's crisis.  

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