“Trump’s transition team is compiling a list of high-ranking current and former U.S. officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, and is examining whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Trump’s transition team is compiling a list of high-ranking current and former U.S. officers who were directly involved in the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, and is examining whether they could be court-martialed for their involvement.
Source: NBC News, citing a US official and a person familiar with the plan
Details: Trump transition officials are considering creating a commission to investigate the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021, including gathering information about who was directly involved in decisions to withdraw troops, how they were made and whether military leaders could be held accountable for such serious charges like treason, the two sources said.
“They are taking this very seriously,” said a person familiar with the plan.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Matt Flynn, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, is helping to lead the effort, the sources said. This will be an overview of how the US first entered the war in Afghanistan and how the US eventually came out of it.
“Matt Flynn has nothing to do with the Trump transition team, let alone lead any military justice review,” said Mark S. Zaid, Flynn’s lawyer. In his statement, Zaid noted that “no one was interested in Mr. Flynn’s opinion on this hypothetical legal scenario.”
“The sources who are apparently pushing this story are typical self-serving insiders in Washington who are looking to get better positions for their own jobs in the administration,” said a person familiar with the matter.
President-elect Donald Trump condemned the withdrawal from Afghanistan as a “humiliation” and “the most shameful day in the history of our country.”
However, it is not clear what would legally justify the charge of “treason” because the military officers were following President Joe Biden’s order to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan.
A 2022 independent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction blamed the Trump and Biden administrations for the chaotic withdrawal of US troops in 2021.
In 2020, Trump first reached an agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, approximately 13,000 troops, and release 5,000 Taliban from prisons. The Biden administration has completed the withdrawal of troops and greatly overestimated the ability of Afghan government forces to fight the Taliban on their own.
Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Fox News host Pete Hegseth, criticized the withdrawal, saying the US had lost the war and wasted billions of dollars.
In his book War with Warriors, Hegseth wrote: “The next president of the United States must fundamentally change the senior management of the Pentagon so that we are ready to defend our country and defeat our enemies. Many people need to be released. The failure in Afghanistan is, of course, the most striking example.” .
According to a US official, the transition team is considering recalling several commanders to face possible charges.
It is unclear whether the Trump administration will pursue treason charges, and may instead focus on less serious charges that highlight the officer’s involvement in the crime. “They want to set an example,” said an interlocutor familiar with the plan.
Speaking on NBC News days before the election, Howard Lutnick, one of two advisers leading the transition team, said Trump realized after his first administration that he had hired Democratic generals and he would not make that mistake again.
Prehistory:
- In August 2021, in Afghanistan, the Taliban entered the capital of Kabul, the Afghan government announced a “peaceful transition of power”.
- Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left Kabul and headed for Tajikistan after Taliban forces entered the city.
- Thousands of Afghans and foreign citizens formed a stampede at the Kabul airport, trying to flee the country after the transition of power to the Taliban, control of the airport was taken over by US forces.
- At the beginning of September 2021, the United States completed the withdrawal of its military contingent from Afghanistan.