Retired military leaders are rallying behind Vice President Kamala Harris, while pointing fingers at none other than Donald Trump for the messy Afghanistan withdrawal. Yeah that Silent 2021 withdrawal of U.S. Army from Afghanistan.
In a letter, a group of retired officials voiced their support for Harris, calling her the only candidate in this race fit to serve as commander-in-chief.
Why? They say she’s taken on some of the toughest national security challenges, both behind closed doors in the Situation Room and on the global stage.
From rallying allies against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to standing firm in the Indo-Pacific as China flexes its muscles, Harris has shown she’s no stranger to high-stakes situations.
But let’s not pretend this letter came out of nowhere.
Republicans are busy issuing reports, accusing Harris of being right there with Biden, pulling the strings for the Afghanistan exit.
They’ve even started using “Biden-Harris administration” to make sure Harris shares in the blame.
But these retired generals? They’re not having it. Instead, they’re placing the blame squarely on former President Trump.
According to them, he set the stage for disaster by striking a deal with the Taliban, releasing 5,000 fighters, and leaving the Biden administration without a solid plan to manage the exit.
Basically, they claim Trump handed Biden and Harris a mess with no roadmap on how to clean it up.
Remember, Biden had always pushed for an Afghanistan withdrawal, even back when he was Obama’s vice president.
He pushed hard for fewer boots on the ground, though Obama didn’t follow his lead, choosing instead to surge troop numbers before starting a drawdown.
Fast-forward to Trump, and he was also itching to get U.S. forces out. His administration locked in a deadline of May 1, 2021.
But once Biden stepped into office, he moved that date, hoping to avoid the kind of chaos that haunted U.S. troops fleeing Vietnam in 1975.
Yet, despite Biden’s attempts to manage the optics, the Afghanistan withdrawal became an image he couldn’t shake.
We all saw it: Afghans clinging to military planes in desperate attempts to escape, and the tragic suicide bombing that claimed the lives of 13 American troops and nearly 170 Afghans at Kabul’s airport.
It was brutal, and those haunting images are now etched into the history books—exactly the scenario Biden was trying to avoid.
But the fallout didn’t stop at images. The political blame game kicked into high gear.
Republicans accused Biden of recklessly demanding a withdrawal at any cost, while Democrats pointed right back at Trump, arguing his deal with the Taliban set this disaster in motion.
Even Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s former national security adviser, didn’t shy away from placing part of the blame on Trump.
Three years later, the politics of the withdrawal still linger. During a recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery to honor the Kabul airport bombing victims, Trump’s campaign stirred up even more controversy.
Staffers reportedly clashed with a cemetery worker who tried to prevent them from taking photos in a sensitive section—right near the graves of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
Trump’s campaign fired back, insisting no laws were broken. A scuffle in a cemetery over campaign optics? Seems like par for the course these days.
Harris didn’t hold back either. When asked about Trump’s campaign tactics, she shot back, saying Trump can only think about “service to himself.” And that’s where things stand—politics as messy as ever.
