Has the 82nd ABN commander told the SAS to stop making the US look bad?
The 82nd Airborne Division is the United State’s point until on securing and holding the Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan. As we know from multiple reports, the Brits, French, and even German military/police units in Afghanistan are sending teams out from the airport, into Kabul, to secure the safe return of their citizens. The US, the world’s pre-eminent and most powerful military force in all of human history, is…not.
The official US policy for several days now has either been “shelter in place” or good luck. As Biden said it just a few days ago, “Any American who wants to come home, we will get you home…I cannot promise what the final outcome will be, or that it will be without risk of loss.” In other words, you might be dead, but we’ll bring you home.
With the US sitting tight at the airport and “negotiating” with the Taliban for the safe passage of our citizens to the airport, the Brits, French, and Germans are making us look bad. We can all agree on this. Allegedly the commanding general of the 82nd voiced this concern to his SAS counterpart.
From the Washington Examiner;
Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army’s 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations, according to multiple military sources. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request.
I hope the SAS commander’s response was something like the response of then-Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe to the Germans at Bastogne. To paraphrase;
To the American Commander.
NUTS!
The Special Air Service Commander.
General Donahue, if you’re not familiar with him, has an impressive resume. He was commissioned infantry out of West Point in ’92, is a Ranger (both tab and scroll variety), attended Harvard University as a War College Fellow, and was selected for and served in the Army’s most elite unit, the Army 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment – Delta, popularly known as Delta Force. He’s deployed 17 times to all the usual shitholes over the last 30 years.
Here’s American Thinker’s piece on it.
Thanks to Poetrooper for sending in the tips on this one.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Afghanistan, Army, WTF?, YGBSM!!
General Donahue should not take it as a personal slight but a slight on the American leaders who started this shit show.
Any truth to the rumor that his British counterpart responded with “Elections have consequences”?
What a laughing stock we’ve become. And yet, Austin and Milley still have jobs.
Pathetic.
Word.
I wonder if the troops at Kabul are undergoing SHARP and “White Extremism’ training in their down time?
The transgender training.
Got to make sure the troops get their Annual Extremism trainings completed, and kick out all the non-vaccinated.
Like I said. Ya know. The important stuff.
It’s not the boys in the 82nd, its tweedled dumb (Milley) and tweddle dumber (Austin) receiving orders from Comm. McBragg (Biden) and Patrick Starfish (Abe Blinkin). This cartoonish response is being run by some two-dimensional fools. At least no mean tweets, and as always Orange Man Bad.
Honestly, spec ops officers should never be permitted to have any sort of major command in Big Army, the last time a long tabber reached the greater hights, we got the Stryker. They should all just be sequestered away in JSOC or some other random SPECOPS program until they retire.
After McRaven, I think the Navy Spec Warfare people will agree with you as well.
Why can’t we have field commanders like General Colt?
Or Buford?
Ditto on Buford. And also another person portrayed by Sam Elliott—Sam Damon in Once an Eagle.
Best Sam Elliot role is Sergeant Major Basil Plumley.
Yeah well, Milley is a long tabber too! He just started there, he did not hang out in the revolving door!
The Donahue seems to have had someone leading him by the hand to all his cush assignments! How do you get the one Company Command in Panama to come back in to Regiment?! Hang out at Benning that is how!! This looks like the first time this modern Major General had to actually make a decision for his troops…maybe he should have read the plan!@#!!!
Don’t worry Chris your WPPS will help you get through it and still get the next star. They can just blame your failures on Biden…not any of the YESmen on the chain of Command between you and him!
Is part of the promotion process to GO being de nutted these days? Where dahell is James Gavin? Somebody needs to go check his tombstone, it has got to be knocked askew from all the rolling in his grave that Jim is doing.
What a full blown cluster this has become.
When Colin Powell was Sec of State, I remember reading a quote from him that went along the lines of “When I was in Vietnam, if we only lost 6 soldiers country wide in a single day, it was a good day, now, if 6 soldiers die in a single day (in Iraq/Afghanistan), we have to have a news conference and produce pictures and complete bios of them”, or something to that affect. Officers at every level are, in my opinion, paralyzed by the risk of so much as a single soldier under their command killed, you know, IN COMBAT, so yes, they are “de nutted” in that they fear for their own career being killed along with one of their soldiers.
Powell was a battalion XO in the RVN when he was a major. I don’t think he ever saw actual combat. For those who weren’t there, the XO stayed in the brigade or division rear in charge on the battalion’s REMF’s. Oh, occasionally they might be on the fire base when the LTC was on R&R or had to go to the rear.
The General is correct on the optics, but very wrong on assigning blame. Shelter in place, really? Easier to blame the Brits than his political masters.
Don’t like it, the honorable thing to do is resign.
I have yet to see a story on anyone resigning in protest of what has happened. Or being relieved for voicing their disgust of the nutless wonders running this shit show.
One would hope that in the General’s career he would have come upon the maxim that it is better to seek forgiveness than to try for permission. Is his almighty career worth more than the lives of American citizens in an area he is / was responsible for? I sincerely hope he launches some rescue missions. I have no doubt he would get volunteers to do so and secure his legacy as a fire breathing soldier as opposed to a mouth breathing nebbish concerned only with sucking up to the nutless administration.
Of course, McAulliffe’s “Nuts!” was more like…
I’d be embarrassed too. When you have other nations exercising INITIATIVE to go out and save lives, vice sitting on their hands and thinking about their careers first….yeah, it doesn’t ‘look good’.
This morning’s CNN.
Headlines with Trump outnumber headlines with Biden.
And then, there’s this.
[Taliban issue death sentence for brother of Afghan translator who helped US troops, according to letters obtained by CNN]
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/23/politics/taliban-death-threat-afghan-translator-letters/index.html
SAS is roughly equivalent to 1SFODD…
How the FK is the good ‘General’ sitting on his thumbs, KNOWING the gravity of the situation, and criticizing his Brothers for doing WHAT HE KNOWS IS THE RIGHT THING?
Is there more to this, or did this prick lose his balls to gain a star or two?
You’re a king Infantryman, General, if you ever harnessed the overwhelming desire to spilt open skulls as needed, clocks-ah-ticking. Less than 170 hours until Hell rains down upon y’all.
king=fking.
My computer might need to be threatened with the microwave treatment.
I threaten mine with a Functional Check Flight (FCF) on occasion 😬.
Generaly speaking, the above US General should have kept his mouth shut. He Has a great clean Mil record for his service which I do respect.
He apparently was laboring under the false assumption that he was in command of that SAS unit.
“Shelter in place” told to US Citizens there.
You understand, right, that the FICUS is going to run out the clock, say “they knew the risks” and/or “they chose to stay” and/or “we did all we could” .
And abandon them.
Disagree? What actions has he taken incompatible with that end state?
His crew didn’t lift a finger while Benghazi burned…
More:
Psaki: “I think it’s irresponsible to say Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.”
“…Americans who want to come home…”
“… want…”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/psaki-americans-stranded-afghanistan
Those who don’t make it to the airport through the hordes of heavily armed Taliban don’t really want to come home, now do they?
They don’t want to come home bad enough. It’s the Biden Administration’s idea for a new reality show, Taliban Survival. Contestants get to navigate through destroyed roads and bridges, Taliban checkpoints, and general mayhem. Those who do make it to the airport hope that their paperwork has been received and approved by the State Department employees, and then they fork over $2000 to get the chance to cling on to the landing gear of a military aircraft. The show is sponsored by The Democrat Party and George Soros.
Great theme for a pinball machine.
If you just happen to be in Bethesda Maryland picking up some outdated and overpriced Red Hat Software from a proud but humble woman owned business formerly located on Wilson, and you have the desire to play some pinball, there is a pizza joint named Vuk located on st. Elmo Avenue That has about 25 machines, Hack made it there only once. Popped two quarters into the Flash Gordon machine, and of course he won a bunch of games. That particular machine pops at 100,000, so a semi skilled pinball artist can get a free game on the first ball. Hack ended up leaving 15 free games on the machine.
Not defending anyone – – but I read a post from aa retired senior Army that said he understands not going out. His reasons were that the Taliban could care less about the Brits, French or Germans. They want to kill Americans. If we go out there would be an ambush every 10 feet/minutes. Every street would be a kill zone. Maybe he is correct? Optics still bad.
“Every street would be a kill zone”
And?
That sounds like an infantryman’s paradise. An opportunity to use hard earned skills in combat.
Since when are we stopped by the enemy’s disposition of forces?
I just saw something on Fox that our troops a re now going outside the airport to rescue Americans. Can anyone confirm? This is over-due, if true.
If true, shhhhhhhhhh.
Pretty sure what is making 82nd Airborne look bad is the “leadership” coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Plent of senior military officers resigned when they disagreed with how President Trump was running things. These guys are still on the clock, so they must endorse Joe Biden’s policies regarding Afghanistan.
There is no way in hell that this story is true. Aside from the fact that the author provides no proof other than “I understand”, which is bad journalism speak for “I have reached an unfounded conclusion and will pretend that I have a source”, this is not how American Paratroopers and Rangers talk.
It is not how proven leaders in tough spots talk- do you think Donahue cares at all what anyone thinks of him? He’s been at war for 20 years (and probably seen more of it than his SAS counterpart here), and he isn’t paid based on opinion polls.
Second, this sounds like a British rumour, reported by a British reporter.
Third, and finally, it is demonstrably not true. The US has gone out and rescued civilians at least twice the we know of.
This author is himself an attention seeking leech who is making a truly bad humanitarian situation worse, and he should be ashamed of himself. There are American and British Soldiers and Marines putting their lives on the line as we speak, and it will most likely get worse before it gets better. No one needs this professional spectator’s opinion of what the real men are thinking and doing.
As a former member of the All American Division back during the Vietnam War, I hope you are correct, Colonel. Donahue has had a career most can only dream of, one that has surely groomed him for more and greater accomplishments, so I hate to see it tarnished by a Brit media weasel.
Regardless of Donahue’s actual behavior, the politicians in power have once again hamstrung our forces with unconscionable rules of engagement.
I’ve read elsewhere that Biden’s timidity is due to his fear of another Mogadishu scenario that the Taliban could then exploit for even more embarrassing propaganda points in the world media.
Ol’ Poe is firmly convinced that Biden and his puppet masters are the sole owners of this colossal cluster fuck…
Don’t disagree- once again, we seem to be learning exactly the wrong lessons from disaster.
The lessons from Mogadishu are really the Powell Doctrine:
1) Don’t back down from fights with terrorists. Doing so just emboldens other groups, alienates our allies, and guarantees the next, inevitable fight will be worse.
2). Set clear goals: We will stay and evacuate all Americans, citizens of allied nations, and our Afghan friends. Is the Taliban our enemy? That’s up to them. Until they decide we will treat them s enemies.
3) When you fight (and you will), do not hamstring your operational and tactical commanders or withhold capability. Go in with overwhelming force and combat power using the entire Joint Force and interagency.
4). Don’t leave until you are done, but when you are done, get out, leaving nothing but the promise that you will be back if necessary- but this time you will be pissed.
I’m picturing something like this: Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue is standing with his British counterpart, observing the festivities at the Kabul airport. There’s idle chitchat, Donahue says something to the effect of “Your lads are doing well with retrieving people, you’re making us look bad!” There is is quiet laughter. A reporter overhears, and the rest is history.
Exactly.
Those of you desiring to see what physicians not intimidated by federal bureaucrats really have to say about this phony pandemic and deadly vaccines, should frequently monitor this website, home of conservative, free-thinking doctors:
https://aapsonline.org/
This is a medical association that came into being after loony liberals took over the American Medical Association and turned it into a propaganda arm of the Democrat party.
Excellent find!
Yeah, but I put it on the wrong thread.
Sigh…
Remembering that for all of us, this story is “on the Internet”, so who really knows if it is true. Given Donohue’s resume, perhaps I prefer to live in a world where this is not true, or at at least much of it.
I could actually believe that Donohue may have been given those specific orders by our sniveling National Command Authority. He may in turn have basically said to the Brits, “these are the orders I have been given”, fully aware and expecting the British and anyone else with shred of honor to ignore them.
But we just don’t know, do we? What we can know it that the problem is not at the Kabul level, it is at the Washington level.
Not quite.
Who decided things were bad enough where they had to resign, so they could speak out?
Apparently, no one.
Thus, all consented and complied.
Thus, they also own it.
Did anyone even protest officially? “F my career. My duty is …”
Hard? Oh, you betcha.
“Just following orders” is not always the right answer.
Donahue isn’t going to resign and leave his Paratroopers in contact with the enemy- that would be cowardice.
Quite the contrary, many of the stories of the rescues we have done read to me like he made the decision to go after Americans on his own.
This story could be based on false rumor (Brit Paras talking smack).
It could have been a misconstrued message (hey, Brits, let’s synchronize our ops so we don’t cause problems for each other/ this actually a Mogadishu Lesson Learned- the SOF guys didn’t tell the conventional guys or the UN force what they were doing, so no one was prepared to help when it went south).
it could even be something said in jest/. “great job SAS, you are making us look bad”, that this reporter deliberately spun out of context.
There is simply no way on this planet that this story is true as written, but it is a sign of how our allies view us now.
I think there are plenty of folks throwing bullshit around.
Plenty.
I also think there has been, for quite some time, malicious compliance. “Run out the clock” stuff. Endless “planning” . Outright lies about who is doing what.
It was obvious in the prior administrations. It hasn’t stopped.
I also think maybe we shouldn’t be talking about exactly what is going on at KIA, by the folks there.
At some point, however, those who went along have to accept ownership of the outcome. One can delegate authority. One cannot delegate responsibility. If you accept that delegated authority, and exercise it, you also become yourself responsible, and so on.
I am -hoping- some stories turn out to be bullshit. I am also hoping that the armed forces take a largish broom to those who went along to get along. Again.
“All these allies admit, however, that only the US military could provide the airfield defense and air traffic control capabilities now on display.”- Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner article.
The above is exactly right! The reason our allies are even able to do this is because of the air hub/perimeter we provide. A lot of this is other countries shoring themselves up at our expense because of their underwhelming performance during the wars(Uk/Australia/France/etc). This is a poor strategic decision make at the political level, not at the military command level-wokeness aside. We should be planning for a march out of the country in case the Taliban(like the Mujahdeen with the Soviets) make the Airfield position untenable through indirect fire and man pads.
We have the equivalent of a reinforced brigade there right now. I don’t think you could evacuate all the American citizens just in Kabul, a city of millions, under the nominal control of a hostile force, even if you knew where they all were. I don’t think the Brits are going to be that successful either. The Germans and French had far smaller numbers to remove then US/UK. There is also a horde of Afghan refugees would wish to be taken and no reasonable way to filter through them in time, forget whether American interests are served placing them in our nation.
Andy11m-Stryker was pushed by Shinseki(Red Leg) pre9/11 as part of the Army’s new medium deployment capability(96hour until ramp down), not do to Iraq or 9/11.
Rgr769-Powell was a battalion XO on his second deployment. He was an advisor to the South Vietnamese earlier in the war.
One of my comments got eaten or disappeared.
Donahue was my company commander when I was in A. Co 2/75. The first night I was there, I heard endless talk about the ‘n_gger Sergeant Major’ (CSM Roberts) and one Ranger then talks about Holocaust denial for about 30 mins… Sgt Neal Lynch called his Fire Team ‘Aryan Team’, I saw someone reading ‘The Turner Diaries’, the words, ‘k_ke’, ‘n_gger’, and ‘sp_ck’ were probably the most important words in the English language in the company, and on Foal Eagle 2020 in Korea in late 2020, the platoon sergeant SFC John ‘Heavy D’ Debusk got drunk and called the Koreans ‘gooks’, ‘slants’ etc. Either Donahue didn’t take the time and effort to know what was going on in his company, or he did know, and just didn’t care. Nonetheless, he went from a company commander in ‘2nd Aryan’ to the CG of the 82nd. Good job, Army.