Unverified report: US commanding general in Kabul told British SAS (Special Forces) officer to stop going out in city to rescue friendlies, because it makes the US look bad.

No, general, not going out to rescue friendlies makes us look bad, even if the Brits sat around playing cards. Not doing what we can always looks bad.

By the time people have stars on their shoulders, they are usually as much politicians as warriors, perhaps more. Politicians advance their careers, warriors fight wars. Sometimes these goals are parallel, sometimes they aren’t.

Under our Constitution, the military is under civilian control. And as they told me in the Army Reserve, you don’t have to like it, you just have to do it. It is highly likely that our troops in Kabul, and their officers, would like nothing better than to organize roving patrols to pick up Americans, Brits, French, and Afghans needing extraction. But if contrary orders come down from the Pentagon, theoretically from President Biden, they remain around the airport, no matter if the British SAS are patrolling and the French are evacuating their embassy.

Don’t blame our troops. Don’t blame their officers. Blame the politicians who evacuated most of our troops, abandoned secure Bagram Air Field, and THEN tried to evacuate civilians. The literal meaning of “preposterous” is putting your posterior forward. This describes perfectly the mess that the self-anointed policy gurus and chairborne politicians have cooked up for us.

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