National Security Leaders for America | Copyright 2024

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National Security Leaders for America Statement of Support for Vice President Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris is the best—and only—presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief. She has demonstrated her ability to take on the most difficult national security challenges in the Situation Room and on the international stage, from rallying our allies against Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine to standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the Indo-Pacific against China’s provocative actions, to advancing U.S. leadership on space and artificial intelligence. She is a steadfast supporter of service members, veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. She has met with our service members all around the world, from NATO’s Eastern Flank to the Korean DMZ. She has spoken repeatedly about the extraordinary skill, discipline, and dedication of our armed services. And she will make sure the United States honors its sacred commitment to those who defend our freedoms and our way of life, including protecting the benefits they earned when they return from service.

Frankly stated, Donald Trump is a danger to our national security and our democracy. His own former National Security Advisors, Defense Secretaries, and Chiefs of Staff have said so. He continually disrespects those who serve in uniform, including wounded warriors, prisoners of war, and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. He disparaged fallen heroes as “suckers” and “losers” and insulted the heroic service of the late Senator John McCain. At his core, he does not understand selfless service and sacrifice, and he should never be allowed to again serve as commander-in-chief of the greatest fighting force in the world. He repeatedly fails to take responsibility for his own role in putting service members in harm’s way. Without involving the Afghan government, he and his Administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield. Then, he left President Biden and Vice President Harris with no plans to execute a withdrawal, and with little time to do so.

This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris Administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk. Nevertheless, President Biden with the support of Vice President Harris ended America’s longest war, oversaw the largest airlift in U.S. history, and brought our troops home. Our service members and their loved ones deserve a President with the temperament and track record to serve as commander-in-chief. One who is willing to make tough decisions, who takes accountability, and who always has our back. That leader is Kamala Harris.

Admiral Steve Abbot, USN (Ret) Brigadier General Steven M. Anderson, USA (Ret) Major General Peter S. Cooke, USA (Ret) General Larry R. Ellis, USA (Ret) Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps John L. Estrada, USMC (Ret), former Ambassador Major General Randy Manner, USA (Ret) Vice Admiral Dennis V. McGinn, USN (Ret), former Assistant Secretary of the Navy General Lloyd W. Newton, USAF (Ret) Major General Marilyn Quagliotti, USA (Ret) Rear Admiral Michael E. Smith, USN (Ret)

When it comes to the sheer numbers of living active and retired flag officers, 10 is a drop in a bucket.

There are Generals and then there are generals.



We kind of lost our way!

How would you know? You know squat about the military AND generals

Patton was actually authorized to wear 7 rows of ribbons but routinely only wore the ones shown in the photo above.

Patton wore what he wanted to and didn't think that uniform regs applied to him.  the 2nd GEN is Mark Millay, retired from Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff and not a favorite of Trump.

Not a show-off, eh? Good for him.

That is why I asked you.

Thank you Sir.

lol. Who falls for this?  

the  former military officials making this silly  are the same type of officials  who signed the “hunter Biden laptop is russian propaganda” letter.  

Worse, actually, because the proof of their dishonesty is  already public.

How do you explain so many former Trump defense and security officials, the top people, saying he is unfit for office. This is unprecedented in our history. 

But keep saying "Harris was in the room" as if that means something significant. 

It is nuts. 

Another nothing burger. It reads just like a paid political ad, lots of lies and obfuscation, and devoid of facts.

devoid of facts.

You are aware that trump DID negotiate the withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, right? 

You are aware that it was predicated on him winning the election and that he, unfortunately, obviously left it in severely incapable hands.

You are aware that Biden was president and fucked it up right? 

Why could Biden end trumps stay in Mexico, end trumps removal from the Paris accords, remove trumps tariffs on China, Biden ended trumps UN sanctions on Iran but somehow Biden had to follow this? is that seriously what the claim is? Is there anyone that believes that? 

You are aware that trump DID negotiate the withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, right? 

Maybe the Biden Admin. misinterpreted the terms and took it as license to fuck things up. 

And didn't the Biden Admin. change the negotiated withdrawal date?

You are aware that it was predicated on him winning the election and that he, unfortunately, obviously left it in severely incapable hands.

Hey man, whatever you have to tell yourself. It wasn't Biden that freed the leader of the Taliban from prison. 

Dated, but true. 

You are aware that it was predicated on him winning the election...

In 2013 Trump said “We should leave Afghanistan immediately. No more wasted lives", however, upon becoming president he sent an addition 3,000 soldiers into that morass. He then let the war continue for another 4 years during which 48 Americans died, hundreds were wounded, and more than $400B were squandered - for nothing.

At the end, Trump withdrew the majority of US soldiers from Afghanistan leaving only 2,500. Trump also released 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison. Trump could have done his job and gotten us out in the first year of his presidency, but there was no way he would ever take responsibility for an extremely risky, but necessary action that could damage his chances of being re-elected. All Trump did was make it harder for Biden.

1.1 million Afghans helped us in our 20 year war effort. We can’t take a million refugees, or 500,000, or 250,000. Republicans complained that the 76,000 we got were too many. With 1 million at risk of Taliban retribution, the airport was going to be impossible for a long time.

We were unlucky that ISIS-K choose the exit to bomb. Had we taken two weeks, three weeks, etc. to exit, we would have ended up with vastly more refugees and given ISIS-K two, three, … times as much time to bomb.

Biden took the reigns and the risk to end the waste of blood and treasure. Our military failed him by not realizing that the Afghan Army was a joke that had already negotiated its surrender to the Taliban. Our military did not seem to have any intel on ISIS-K. Preventing a terrorist bombing when hundreds of thousands of desperate people are converging on the airport with their belongings seems impossible. If someone were trying to bomb an airport here they would succeed because TSA doesn't screen people until they're near the gate. So it would have been incredibly stupid for Biden to send more soldiers back into Afghanistan.

"

On Tuesday, local English daily The News reported that Pakistani authorities released Baradar on the solicitation of the government of  Qatar , where the political office of Taliban is based.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani visited Islamabad last Friday and held meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Two unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials also confirmed that Mullah Baradar was freed “after high-level negotation,” AP reported."

aljazeera

You have to understand, trump is all powerful and can actually control other countries and what they do. The question we have to ask, is if trump was all powerful why can't Biden get anything done? and do we think Kamala will be any better? 

Projection.

John, these are non-issues for military personnel up and down the chain. Granted, as career servicemembers and veterans, we want the best for our servicemembers-enlisted and officer corps. But, as military personnel and veterans, we fully understand being in the military means lives potentially can be lost through hook or crook. Meaning, justified death or 'friendly fire' circumstances. 

Today, on my television set, I watched one of the news shows where a general spoke about losing 240 plus 'men' under his command alone, in the overseas war on terror. . . none received a congressional medal ceremony. I could tell that the general wanted us to 'read into that' but he kept a neutral facial expression and tone over it. . . then, he went on to say that the military, in so many ways, words, and times have ASKED the politicians to keep the military services OUT OF politics!

It can't be stated any plainer, Crooked Donald, the trumpist-Speaker of the House, and trumpists should heed the military's request to be left to be a fighting force and not an 'arm' of the GOP!

Deflection

Didn't Joe Biden win the election?  Wasn't Joe Biden the President?  How could Trump do anything after he was forced out of office?  Are we to believe that Donald Trump forced Joe Biden to order the generals to screw the pooch?  Sounds like the government hasn't had a leader since Donald Trump was forced out of office.

Military whining over the botched up 'fall of Kabul' really doesn't lend credence to their opinions about politics.  Why should we trust the opinion of military brass whose obvious incompetence botched up the end of a 20 year war so badly?  Just remember that these are generals whose incompetence denied Joe Biden his victory parade.  And it's Joe Biden who has paid the political price for that military incompetence.

Trump was "forced" from office? Must have occurred during one of those peaceful transitions I heard so much about.

OMG!  The alternate reality where some reside is unfrickingreal.

It's a chicken-egg yarn ... what came first, ignobility or ignorance?

To my knowledge, not one flag officer was punished for that botched withdrawal.

That sez it all ….

I thought my friends on the left hated the military industrial complex ….

I thought my friends on the left hated the military industrial complex ….

I did my time in the sand and most would consider me left of center. 

Me too! I don't know why or where some conservatives got that notion that liberals don't serve in the 'military complex' - which, by the way, is not what service in uniform is. The military industrial complex has more to do with suppliers, and administrators who make, research, and develop military hardwares and other service-related interests.

Even the military men and women aren't fond of the military industrial complex. They start wars for profit, not necessity. Vietnam was a useless war that never should have happened.

They start wars for profit, not necessity. Vietnam was a useless war that never should have happened.

Did they trick JFK?

Because he likes digital penetration??

Now I know why I only visit this site occasionally- it is so overblown with leftist false rhetoric and revisionist history that it isn't even funny. I have referred others here to see the dystopian world leftists live in (all things are Trump's fault- even when he had nothing to do with them); none have even chosen to become a site member.

First- Biden didn't follow the negotiated withdrawal that Trump made with the Taliban- he unilaterally delayed the US withdrawal from May 1st to September 11. What is significant of that- well April is near the end of winter for Afghanistan while September is the pretty much summer. Very little activity in April militarily speaking. Shitload of enemy activity in September.

Second- Biden damn well lied about the state of Afghan forces being able to hold off the Taliban. He also didn't warn US civilians in the country; nor special VISA holders of their unpreparedness to protect them.

nbcnews

In the months before the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from   Afghanistan , Biden administration officials “watered down” warnings about   crumbling security   and failed to launch an emergency evacuation of Americans and   Afghan   allies   until it was too late, says a new report by House Republicans.

The scathing report from GOP lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee accuses President Joe Biden and his deputies, especially the acting ambassador to Kabul, of botching the 2021 pullout by reducing troop levels while keeping a large embassy staff in place and failing to prepare evacuation plans. The report was based on internal State Department documents and testimony from officials.

“Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government," said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the committee's chair. "At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security."

usatoday

Less than four weeks before the fall of Afghanistan, President Joe Biden urged Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani to demonstrate a more capable military defense to change the "perception" as the Taliban made significant gains.

Biden relayed that message in a July 23 phone call,   according to excerpts reported by Reuters   that shed new light on Biden's thinking before the Taliban on Aug. 15 abruptly seized control of the Afghan government.

Neither leader discussed the threat of an imminent Taliban takeover in their last phone call, according to Reuters, but one theme was consistent from Biden: The situation needed to improve to change the optics in the final month before the U.S. was to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things aren’t going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban," Biden told Ghani  during the 14-minute phone call . "And there’s a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture."

Two weeks before the call, on July 8, Biden told reporters in the U.S. that it was "highly unlikely" the Taliban would take control of Afghanistan.

In the phone call, Biden advised Ghani to "put a warrior in charge," such as Afghanistan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, to focus on large population centers. He said Ghani should bring together other former and current Afghan leaders to show unity behind the Afghan army's strategy. He said these steps "will change perception, and that will change an awful lot I think."

"I don’t know whether you’re aware just how much the perception around the world is that this is looking like a losing proposition," Biden told Ghani, "which it is not, not that it necessarily is that."

A defiant Biden on Tuesday, defending his withdrawal, said his assumption that the Afghan army would hold off the Taliban "turned out not to be accurate."

Notice the part I bolded. "whether it is true or not". Biden damn well knew that Afghanistan was going to fall and did jack shit of nothing to get our people out of there. That is completely on him. Having the SoS officials stand on their desks and scream at each other that it is "time for everyone to leave" doesn't cut it. No official warnings were given. The Biden administration went on acting like nothing was wrong.

Hell even Ghani knew Afghanistan was cooked and told Biden as much.

"Mr. President, we are facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorists," Ghani said, "predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this, so that dimension needs to be taken account of."

Ghani told Biden that the Afghan army’s military pay hadn’t been increased in a decade adding, “We need to make some gestures to rally everybody together.”

He requested more U.S. assistance to support its air force and told Biden "the Taliban showed no inclination" of being willing to negotiate. 

"We can get to peace only if we rebalance the military situation," Ghani said, later adding, "We will be able to rally. Your assurance of support goes a very long way to enable us, to really mobilize in earnest."

Also, Biden turned down the Taliban's offer to hold their forces outside of Kabul so the US could complete their withdrawal. Biden turned them down. Why the hell would anyone trust the enemy, any enemy, to secure an area for a withdrawal? But hell, that is nothing as compared to his decision not to send out US forces to secure US civilian and special VISA holders safe passage to the airport. Instead Biden left it up to those stuck behind Taliban lines to make it to the Kabul airport. 

militarytimes

As the Defense Department continues to stick to its plans of not reaching out into Kabul to assist U.S. personnel and Afghan helpers evacuate, British and French forces have done so to rescue their citizens, multiple outlets report.

The Daily Mail reported that London deployed an additional 300 troops to Kabul specifically to extract trapped British nationals earlier in the week. Within hours of touching down in Kabul, the British troops retrieved some 200 British nationals from around Kabul, the Telegraph   reported . Prompting the mission were reports of Taliban hunting down former Afghan government officials, along with Britons stuck behind a web of Taliban checkpoints lining the route to the airport.

Additionally, France 24   reports   that the French military has been conducting similar operations since Monday. French President Emmanuel Macron thanked French security forces on Twitter for executing a ‘sensitive operation’ which evacuated more than 200 French and Afghans.

News of these operations by NATO partners in Afghanistan leaves some Americans asking for Washington to follow suit. Matt Zeller, who served in Afghanistan as an Army intelligence officer, and is now a member of the Association of Wartime Allies, a group dedicated to relocating Afghans who helped the U.S., expressed his frustration on Facebook.

“Some of our NATO allies have already figured out better solutions. Some, like the French, are just going out with their Special Forces and getting their people by whatever means necessary. Mr. President, if the French can do it, so can we,” Zeller   wrote .

Zeller’s frustrations stem from a   chaotic   scene around the HKIA that prevents potential evacuees from reaching safety. Earlier this week, Zeller told Military Times that the situation in Kabul was dire and shaping up to be “worse than Saigon.”

“There’s total chaos at the airport, this is the absolute fiasco we all learned about, and nobody listened to,” Zeller told Military Times. “They need to then begin establishing secure corridors in Kabul, so people can get to the airport because what’s happened is the Taliban have erected checkpoints everywhere.”

Yesterday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin   said   yesterday that despite the U.S. having at least 5,000 troops on the ground, he does not   have   the “capability” to reach out beyond HKIA.

“The forces that we have are focused on the security of the airfield. And you know how important that is, and you know what happens if we — if we lose the ability to provide that security,” Austin   told   reporters from a podium in the Pentagon.

What a load of fucking shit. I have friends that were serving in Afghanistan and they were pissed they had to sit on their asses at the airport rather than rescuing US civilians. They got to watch our allies send their troops out repeatedly all over Afghanistan to save their nationals. Think US forces are more incapable than British and French forces? 

You can thrown Biden not vetting a single damn person that made it into the Kabul airport- and just mass lifting everyone out. He was proud of his faux achievement. So damn proud that his administration force US civilians and special VISA holders that were rescued by private charities and operations wait in third party countries while the US vetted them; documentation they had be damned. 

cotton.senate

President Biden’s much-vaunted "airlift" evacuated fewer than half of approved Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders – Afghans who served alongside American troops. In fact, fewer than half of the 120,000 people that the United States evacuated from Afghanistan were American citizens, green-card holders or allies.

The Democrats, desperate to paper over the Biden administration’s failure, recently stuffed a budget bill authority to provide indefinite housing and welfare benefits to these evacuees, even if they never qualify for refugee status or an SIV. Insultingly, these benefits would last much longer than the eight months of benefits given to SIV holders who actually served alongside American forces.

I offered an amendment on Thursday to limit these benefits to just 18 months, a reasonable amount of time while we untangle the mess caused by the Biden administration. Sadly, every single Senate Democrat voted it down.

Setting aside the question of cost, there is still the more basic question of trust. There is no doubt that we can’t trust some of the people who made it on evacuation flights in the chaos, despite President Biden’s promise that we would rigorously vet every Afghan before letting them set foot on American soil.

Proper vetting takes months. Vetting during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan took place over hours, days or weeks; in some cases, it didn’t happen at all. This is an entirely inadequate and reckless way to screen people from a country with poor recordkeeping and a long history of extremism and terrorism.

There is a very real risk that terrorists and other criminals are hiding in the crowd. We know for a fact that dozens of Afghans "refugees" have been flagged as potential terrorist threats. Some made it onto U.S. soil before being discovered. It would be naïve to think that a slapdash vetting process was able to uncover all such threats.

Just as concerning, several Afghans housed on military bases across the country have already been indicted for crimes, including crimes against children and against American service members.

At Fort Bliss in New Mexico, a "small group of male evacuees" assaulted a female service member. At Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, one man was charged with trying to rape minors on the base – allegedly on three separate occasions. Another man at the same base was indicted for strangling and suffocating his wife. There have also been numerous reports of adult male evacuees bringing child brides with them to the United States, apparently including young women who had no relationship with these older men until they came to the airport in Kabul for evacuation.

apnews

A defensive President Joe Biden on Tuesday called the U.S. airlift to extract more than 120,000 Americans, Afghans and other allies from Afghanistan to end a 20-year war an “extraordinary success,” though more than 100 Americans and thousands of others were left behind.

nbcnews

The United States has evacuated only about 3 percent of Afghans who worked for the American government and  applied for special visas , leaving behind an estimated 78,000,   according to a report released Tuesday.

abcnews.go

defenseone

politico

Afghanistan was a clusterfuck that never should have occurred. How many lives would have been spared if Bush hadn't been so weak as to relent to nation building- which the US has proven repeatedly to suck at? Targeted operations were the best course of action; and could have been continued endlessly. Instead we got Vietnam part two- complete with a shit show withdrawal; and air lift from the US embassy in Kabul. 

The US "botched" (to put it lightly) withdrawal weakened our stance in the world and emboldened our enemies. Could Trump have done a better job? Who the hell knows he wasn't in charge was he? And Biden didn't stick with Trump's negotiated withdrawal deadline- nor his plan for withdrawal.

Harris was supposedly the "last person in the room" with Biden when he made his key decisions regarding Afghanistan. So she can't escape blame. She was the VP of the US; not some outsider like her campaign is trying to pretend.

"But Trruuummmmppppp!!!!!" still pathetic after all of this time; but it is all those on the left have.

Very well put but it will fall on deaf ears.    Useful idiot ears.