Impeach Lloyd Austin

| August 28, 2023


Leadership

We watched in horrified disbelief as the rout from Afghanistan played on the world stage. America fled leaving US citizens, allies, treasure and worst of all the innocent to the depredations of an implacable enemy. I’ll not belabor the point, we all get it.

The stunning military incompetence coupled with a massive indifference from the current administration is finally being addressed.

Florida representative introduces resolution to impeach Lloyd Austin over Afghanistan withdrawal

by Rachel Schilke

EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) introduced a resolution on Friday to impeach Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “high crimes and misdemeanors” related to the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Mills’s bill, obtained exclusively by the Washington Examiner, states that Austin engaged in a “dereliction of his duties and intentional abandonment of Americans in Afghanistan.

“Despite having nearly 8 months as Secretary of Defense to prepare for and execute a smooth and orderly departure from Afghanistan, Secretary Austin failed to adequately prepare for such a withdrawal, including through his decisions during the catastrophic events of July and August 2021, which initially resulted in as many as 9,000 American citizens being abandoned in Afghanistan,” the bill reads.

Republicans and former military members have long blamed President Joe Biden, who went against the guidance from his top military advisers to withdraw the entire U.S. military presence in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Mills, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee, is a veteran of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and was the only member of Congress to have rescued people from the Taliban after the withdrawal.

Washington Examiner

This must be perceived by the Dems as a vulnerable issue, as that bastion of unbiased reporting The Hill begins its article with, “Far-right lawmaker Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.)…”. The process will never pass the Senate of course. So, part DC kabuki theater? Of course, but sunlight is the worth the price of admission.

Category: Afghanistan, Big Pentagon, Disposable Warriors, Politics

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Old tanker

Noise and flashing lights to distract from real issues and that the repubs are factually unable to really mount a real effort to straighten any messes out.

David

Not unable, unwilling. It’s all a one-party show and no one wants to upset the applecart.

Odie

And that’s why they’re trying to keep Donald out of the white house. They can’t control him, and they don’t know what he has on them.

Next time around, he will bring in who he wants, and get more trusted advisors. Hard to say who he would go after first.

Blaster

Dems will just steal it again with the help from the bought and paid for republicans. All are one in the same now. Power and money is all they care about.

Maybe not all, but the one that are there for the right reasons are very few.

Not sure where Lauren Bobert (sp?) falls in the mix, but she’s easy to look at!

Odie

Agreed, she is easy on the eyes.

Glen CS

Washington Examiner….That’s not far right, that’s American. If you can’t recognize the disaster the Biden administration called a withdrawal then your head is further up your nether region than I imagined.

Name edited to guard PII.
AW1

CDR D

The term ‘far-right’, once a descriptor for people who were, you know, on the far right, now means ‘this is a bad person / group because I don’t like them and have a very limited capacity for meaningful descriptors.’

SFC D

See also “racist”, “bigot”, “homophobe”, “transphobe”, “sexist”, “misogynist”, etc. ad nauseum.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

You forgot Nazi and since I fit into that catagory, being a conservative, Maybe I’ll wear a Swastika along with my dog tag and star of David and see what my liberal neighbors have to say. Holy shit, I can imagine the blowback.

Blaster

And the confusion that you could be part of more than one group. 10-15 years ago, you’d of been considered a renaissance man! ( “person”, I apologize for assuming your gender!)😆

Tallywhagger

Get some extra lawn chairs and we can pull an all-nighter swilling down cheap beer and watching old reruns of bad “Hitler finds out…” improvisational video clips.

5JC

He is on the armed services committee so that would be a logical place for an impeachment to come from. He is far right because he has all these crazy ideas about freedom and liberty. I bet you 10 bucks he’s against the ceiling fan redesign and drinks more than two beers a week.

He is one of the few in Congress that I would go along with if he stays in his own wheelhouse. So if he is in favor I’m in favor.

Slow Joe

Wait…what?
Two beers a week?
Is someone trying to provoke a revolution?

5JC

Yeah, duh. Don’t get mad that the pres is on the take, get mad over the beer.

Blaster

2 beers a week because they’re trying to figure out how to get rid of all the surplus Bud-Light by spreading it out

MustangCPT

Dude, stay out of this. You really don’t have a dog in this fight. We’re talking beer, not swill.

Tallywhagger

Nah, it’s more like “I get paid $300 a day, twice a month”.

A 12 pack on Friday night is close enough to be 2 beers per day… not to be confused with derivative calculus!

11B-Mailclerk

“Calculatus Intoxicatus”

– The Cat With The Blatt’s

Veritas Omnia Vincit

If he’s all in on keeping gas stoves he sounds like my kind of candidate…

SFC D

There was a time when all you had to worry about the gubmint taking your guns. Now they’re after my stove, my ceiling fans, and my beer. At a time like this, you have to ask yourself: What would Sam Adams do?

Daisy Cutter

They need to set up a hotline so people can rat on anyone that exceeds two beers per week.

MustangCPT

If there’s a reward, I’ll rat out people I don’t like, looking at you Shitgenfeld, and use the money to buy BEER!💰💰💰🍺🍺🍺

Odie

Don’t give them ideas. Remember when the phrase “don’t make a federal case out of it” was just a saying?

The hotline would be staffed and run by nameless, faceless beaurocrats accountable to no one.

SFC D

As much as I want Austin out on his ass, I don’t like the ease with which “impeachment” is thrown around these days. Impeachment should be a last resort, not a knee jerk reaction. I’m not saying abolish it, not at all. The dems just made it an automatic “go-to” reaction when it shouldn’t be.

Prior Service

I agree with all you say, though I would add that I don’t think two years later constitutes a knee jerk reaction. If impeachment is warranted (which is a good debate), it’s probably too slow in coming.

SFC D

We’re on the same page. Austin needs a swift large boot in the ass, right out of DC.

timactual

*sigh*
You are indeed correct, sir, but that would mean denying myself satisfaction and immediate gratification in favor of long-term benefit and common sense. That would make me a conservative, and I certainly would not want to be one of those.

SFC D

Perish the thought!

11B-Mailclerk

I am more and more convinced that the root problem is too few impeachments.

If there was a long history of assholes impeached, thus forever barred from the grift, we would likely have far less swamp in DC.

ninja

Excerpts from Ole Brandon Boy on 31 August 2021.

“Remarks By President Biden On The End Of The War In Afghanistan”

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/08/31/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-end-of-the-war-in-afghanistan/

“The extraordinary success of this mission…”

“In April, I made the decision to end this war. As part of that decision, we set the date of August 31st for American troops to withdraw. The assumption was that more than 300,000 Afghan National Security Forces that we had trained over the past two decades and equipped would be a strong adversary in their civil wars with the Taliban. That assumption — that the Afghan government would be able to hold on for a period of time beyond military drawdown — turned out not to be accurate.”

“We were ready when they and the people of Afghanistan watched their own government collapse…”

“Secretary of State Blinken is leading the continued diplomatic efforts to ensure a safe passage for any American, Afghan partner, or foreign national who wants to leave Afghanistan.”

“Now we believe that about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.”

“And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out. Secretary of State Blinken is leading the continued diplomatic efforts to ensure a safe passage for any American, Afghan partner, or foreign national who wants to leave Afghanistan.”

“Let me be clear: Leaving August the 31st is not due to an arbitrary deadline; it was designed to save American lives.”

“The decision to end the military airlift operations at Kabul airport was based on the unanimous recommendation of my civilian and military advisors — the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all the service chiefs, and the commanders in the field.”

*Continue*

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ninja

*Continue*

“I take responsibility for the decision. Now, some say we should have started mass evacuations sooner and “Couldn’t this have be done — have been done in a more orderly manner?” I respectfully disagree.”

“Imagine if we had begun evacuations in June or July, bringing in thousands of American troops and evacuating more than 120,000 people in the middle of a civil war. There still would have been a rush to the airport, a breakdown in confidence and control of the government, and it still would have been a very difficult and dangerous mission.”

“The fundamental obligation of a President, in my opinion, is to defend and protect America — not against threats of 2001, but against the threats of 2021 and tomorrow.”

“I simply do not believe that the safety and security of America is enhanced by continuing to deploy thousands of American troops and spending billions of dollars a year in Afghanistan”

(Sideline note from the ninja family. Substitute “Afghanistan” with “Ukraine”)

“And here’s a critical thing to understand: The world is changing. We’re engaged in a serious competition with China.”

“This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It’s about ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries.”

“And let me be clear: We will continue to support the Afghan people through diplomacy, international influence, and humanitarian aid. We’ll continue to speak out for basic rights of the Afghan people, especially women and girls, as we speak out for women and girls all around the globe. And I’ve been clear that human rights will be the center of our foreign policy.”

“But the way to do that is not through endless military deployments, but through diplomacy, economic tools, and rallying the rest of the world for support.”

“Maybe it’s because my deceased son, Beau, served in Iraq for a full year, before that.”

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e.conboy

Gaaaaagh

11B-Mailclerk

And how fast did that morph into “its all Trump’s fault!” when folks didn’t celebrate the Charlie Foxtrot that Biden typically produces…

ninja

🙄😳🤔

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11B-Mailclerk

A randomly selected fire team of Rangers could have better managed that mess.

ninja

“Impeach Lloyd Austin.”

“Impeach Joe Biden.”

“Impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.”

“Impeach Anthony Fauci.”

“Impeach Hillary Clinton.”

We’ve Seen That Movie Too…

🤔🙄

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KoB

ninja, I think you mis-spelled “try and punish for treason and crimes against humanity”.

Nothing will be done.

Prepare

ninja

KoB:

Once again…You NAILED IT!!!

👏👏👍👍👌👌

Thank You!

gabn/gabaf/hbtd/rtr

😉😎

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fm2176

We need leaders, not politicians, for our Armed Forces. Civilian oversight is a good thing–we have a lesser risk of some General staging a coup and establishing himself as President for Life than most countries. However, those in power should be focused on two things that are symbiotic: taking care of the troops and winning wars. Ideally, the former is all that most administrations have to deal with, though recent history proves otherwise. Take care of the troops and they are a better motivated and more cohesive fighting force if and when it comes to fighting wars. Win those wars and troop morale rises because they know they are part of the winning team. Look at WWI and WWII victory parades and the overall atmosphere captured in period film footage and pictures. Of course, I wasn’t there, so it may all be a psyop, but I envision post-1918 and especially post-1945 Veterans as proud of their accomplishments and their country.

One has only to look at the amount of effort put into caring for our troops to see that current leaders are failing. From the toxic company-level leadership that sets First Call at 0300 for a foot march and then holds the company until 2000 that night to clean weapons, to the senior leaders–military and civilian–more enamored with DEI and Woke agendas than ensuring that the rank and file has access to good food and barracks.

fm2176

To continue, post-WWII we’ve mostly had a very capable military, but one which over time has been increasingly politicized and affected more by who’s in office than by who’s in uniform. Anyone remember threads like this, about the military under Carter? Carters’s Army, or maybe BOHICA? : This ain’t Hell, but you can see it from here (valorguardians.com). Those of us who’ve been around awhile will recognize many of the commenters, though I wonder where many have gone…

Korea is the “Forgotten War” for a reason. Those who fought it were largely the same generation that fought WWII, coming home and integrating into society while “their war” was both regional and short, being sandwiched between the defeat of two of the most dominant world powers in history (Germany and Japan) and the 10+ years spent in Vietnam. Vietnam and Afghanistan are often compared due to their longevity, the fact that South Vietnam and Afghanistan both fell quickly after American troops withdrew, and the meddling by politicians who wished to upstage their predecessors by escalating the conflicts before their successors decided to deescalate.

I’ve read various comments on Austin, about how he was a great commander, but most of those comments go on to mention that he’s much different now. I get it, as you move up in rank and position you need to adapt, but so many of our senior leader adapt to meet the expectations of their political masters. A good leader respectfully challenges their senior and, if they disagree with orders, resigns from their position. A weak leader simply nods their head and sends the troops to their demise.

timactual

“the toxic company-level leadership that sets First Call at 0300 for a foot march and then holds the company until 2000 that night to clean weapons,…”

Well, it was usually a road march to our alert area, but that is a fairly accurate description of the alerts we frequently had as part of USAREUR. I hadn’t realized it was “toxic”, though.

fm2176

It gets toxic when you report at 0300 for a 0600 step to walk 11 miles to a blank fire training event, the Soldiers miss chow because of the step time, and the company doesn’t actually move out until 0900, when Fort Stewart is starting to get hot in June. The CONOP says the company is moving with full body armor, so you don’t downgrade for what’s essentially an administrative troop movement, not a tactical road march. You get multiple heat casualties affecting the training mission and arguably causing it to fail. This was my second stint as a Squad Leader, and while I insisted that I walk, my second hernia precluded me wearing kit. Besides myself (for obvious reasons, having more ability to cool down and not carrying the weight), I had one Team Leader and one Soldier complete the movement, while two had severe heat cramps and one stroked out with an internal temp of over 107 degrees. The latter Soldier ended up with a medical discharge after the heat stroke wasn’t properly documented and he had a couple of lesser ones during training.

I’ll admit, I was exaggerating a bit about the 2000 time; even the worst leaders I served under would usually try to avoid a 17-hour workday, and outside of field training or deployment (to be expected), and my time as a Drill Sergeant, most days were 10-14 hours, counting PT.

When training for battle, or prepping for alerts, it’s understandable to “work long hours in the field, day and night, to accomplish your mission”. At least that’s what every MOS video we had on our computers in USAREC said. Infantrymen patrolling, Admin Clerk at a field desk in a tent, Cooks unloading MREs from a truck, etc. 😃

timactual

“Toxic leadership” is not new, it wasn’t invented by Biden, Austin, or other current leaders.

USMC Steve

Think of it this way…if the socialist democrats are concentrating on defending their fellow fuckwits, they cannot cause as much damage to the republic.

Green Thumb

Austin is a fart knocker.

A Proud Infidel®™

IMHO a DEI quota as well, just like nearly every other member of the Biden Cabinet.

SFC D

There’s not a soul in the Biden administration that got there on their own merit and qualifications. And that starts with Biden. Competent people are too hard to control and must be avoided at all costs.

rgr769

Yes, it is hard to convince them to do stupid or unethical shit.

Roh-Dog

I wish it was just that simple.

A Cat 6 hurricane of corruption and stupidity running full-tilt into Daycaresville, Anytown USA on Mother’s Day.

Well, I do believe my work here is done!

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