August marks the solemn four-year anniversary of the American failure in its tragic withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden. On Aug. 15, 2021, the Afghan capital of Kabul fell into the hands of Taliban control. On Aug. 26,, thirteen military members disastrously lost their lives at Abbey Gate; and by the end of the month, the last American soldier ingloriously stepped onto a C-17 to complete the U.S. withdrawal. It was the low point in American power and prowess in my adult lifetime, providing images that have been seared into the American consciousness like the withdrawal from Vietnam had been two generations prior.
The situation in August of 2021 in Afghanistan was the biggest operational failure of the United States in decades. It provided striking images of incompetence that emboldened adversaries and embarrassed allies. It set off a chain of events that can be directly tied to Russia’s reckless invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and Hamas’s unthinkable terrorist surge into Israel in October of 2023. With American weakness on full display, adversaries around the world were enticed to fill the void.
President Donald Trump and Secretary Pete Hegseth have been unequivocal in their calls for complete accountability. Their staffs have echoed these same commitments to the American people. Several months later, Americans eagerly await results, and the anniversary offers the ideal time for the Administration to unveil its findings and to finally close this gut-wrenching chapter in American history.
The voters have already held President Biden and the Vice President Kamala Harris accountable at the ballot box, with the results of the 2024 election being informed by this tragic geopolitical misstep. America’s confidence in their lackluster leadership rightfully never recovered from this self-inflicted wound.
Similarly, two senior military leaders with unique influence on the withdrawal – Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mike Milley and U.S. Central Command Commander General Frank McKenzie – have since retired. Their absence from the force is almost enough to put this operational blunder behind us.
Yet, there remain a slew of senior leaders with complicity in the Afghan withdrawal who were a part of the insular senior staff of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) at the time. Accountability remains undone until the American public learns of their fate from the Trump Administration.
There are two primary elements of the Afghan withdrawal that warrant robust questioning – the strategic decision to withdraw and the operational decision about how to withdrawal. From my position in Iraq as our nation’s Senior Defense Official during that time, it was clear that U.S. Central Command ruled both decisions with an iron fist, with little room for discussion, dissent, or even boots-on-the-ground perspective from those stationed in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region. And while the buck stops with the President, the strategic recommendations and operational planning from U.S. CENTCOM were pivotal in the final determination for the withdrawal and its details.
U.S. CENTCOM includes a robust staff, with general officers responsible for operations, strategy, planning, policy, and security cooperation functions. They are charged with providing the best military advice to the President and the Secretary of Defense and are considered the unquestioned strategic and operational experts in their area of responsibility. In their role in this situation, these high-ranking officers stunningly and irredeemably failed their predecessors, the military community, and the American people. They also tragically sent a shameful signal to those who had sacrificed, bled, and died in Afghanistan that their service was in vain.
The U.S. population would be horrified to know that key leaders from U.S. CENTCOM from that time have been promoted and are serving in positions with even greater authority today. This is in spite of their substandard performance during the Afghanistan withdrawal that indicated that they had already been promoted beyond their maximum levels of competence and discernment. And unlike Biden, Harris, Milley and McKenzie, their continued service flies in the face of President Trump’s clear direction to remove them from our force. Until that happens, the anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan brings further shame to all of us while allowing the same military leaders to run a national security establishment that needs them immediately removed for our nation’s well-being!
United States Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert (ret) is a leading expert on foreign affairs and military strategy. He served as commander of Joint Base Andrews and Edwards Air Force Base, was the U.S. senior defense official to Iraq, and recently retired as the assistant deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for international affairs. A prolific author and speaker, he can be followed at johnteichert.com and on LinkedIn.
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