The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigation into the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal is under recent scrutiny after it emerged that the committee’s chairman had tried to protect the generals involved.
According to the Washington Examiner Jerry Dunleavywho recently resigned from his post as the committee’s lead investigator, Republican Representative Michael McCaul (TX) spoke with General Mark Milley and General Frank McKenzie before their testimony before the House. During that conversation, the congressman stated that he wanted to “protect” them and even went so far as to tell them the questions they would be asked.
McCaul’s conscious decision to distract from the failures of U.S. military commanders is perhaps best illustrated by a phone call McCaul made to Milley and McKenzie immediately before the committee’s public hearing.
“I’m trying to protect you a little bit,” McCaul told McKenzie on that phone call (while I was openly taking notes), alluding to the Gold Star families’ justified outrage at the military’s lack of honesty.
McCaul told the generals at the start of the conference call, which was conducted over speakerphone in his private office, that he had told the other members of Congress that he would “use the gavel” if any of the congressional inquiries “were not treated with due respect by Millley and McKenzie.”
The chairman also told the generals in advance all the questions he wanted to ask them – and told them he was doing so “so there would be no surprises.”
McCaul also provided the generals with talking points on some of the more contentious issues surrounding the withdrawal, and he made it clear that responsibility for the massive failure does not lie with McKenzie and Milley.
McCaul said he would question McKenzie about his decision to reject the Taliban’s offer in Doha on August 15, 2021, which Taliban to withdraw troops from Kabul and allow the United States to secure the city – a stunning decision by McKenzie that, in my view, gave the green lightweight to the Taliban’s eventual capture of the Afghan capital. McCaul immediately began feeding McKenzie excuses that the general could apply during the hearing, telling him, “I know you had a lot of limitations on the number of troops you could use. … My understanding is that you were so constrained by the orders you were supposed to follow that you simply did not have the troop presence to fulfill those orders even if it had been a serious offer.”
And McCaul made it perfectly clear to the two generals that he would absolve them of responsibility: “As I have already told you, General Milley, you know that the facts lead us to believe that this is not so much a failure of the Department of Defense – it was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the failure of the White House.” At the end of the call, McCaul told Milley and McKenzie, “I know that the responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan rests not on your shoulders, but on those of others in the administration.”
Both McKenzie and Milley have long been ridiculed by Republicans, with Milley’s behavior during the 2020 presidential transition being particularly egregious. In particular, the general called on his Chinese counterpart to promise to warn the opposing country if Donald Trump ordered any kind of attack.
SEE: Mark Milley promised the Chinese he would commit treason to weaken Donald Trump
Why McCaul wanted to absolve Milley and McKenzie of any blame for the Afghanistan withdrawal was not immediately clear after the release of Dunleavy’s report. While the White House bore and bears ultimate responsibility, many operational errors on the ground also required accountability, and both generals were at the forefront of these. McCaul should be expected to explain his conduct.
