From Guest writers Matthew Newgent and Glen Whitner
Matt and Glen are both former West Point officers where they were classmates from the Class of 1996. Glen spent 28 months over three combat deployments in Iraq both as an enlisted infantry scout and later as a logistics officer and achieved the rank of Major. Matt was enlisted as a linguist in Army Intelligence and later an engineer officer. He graduated from the US Army Ranger School and achieved the rank of Captain.
When Matt was a combat engineer officer in the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) at Ft. Bragg, NC, he was temporarily attached to the 1st Brigade of the famed 82nd Airborne Division for a massive mock-war exercise, where Colonel (at the time) Lloyd Austin commanded the 1/82nd. It was an honor even to be temporarily attached to the 82nd. The exercise took place at the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC), Ft. Polk, LA, where they conducted a massive airborne insertion into the training area. The climax of the exercise was the battle to liberate the town of Shugart Gordan from the opposing force (OPFOR) insurgents. The OPFOR consisted of hundreds of real-world actors who had roles from shoppers, to spies, to enemy infantry. OPFOR gear included armored vehicles, non-conventional weapons, and even the Russian Hind-D helicopter (like in the movie Red Dawn).
One of the regular JRTC cadre there said that the brigades that go to JRTC often fail to liberate Shugart Gordan and often fail to complete the mission. However, the 1/82nd typically successfully liberates the town and completes the mission, which the 82nd did in fact do again on this exercise iteration. During the after-action review (AAR) of the operation with Col. Austin and several dozen other officers and senior NCOs, Matt had the opportunity to see Col. Austin in action. To paint a picture of Col. Lloyd Austin, the man was huge at 6’2” and built like an NFL football player. He looked intimidating, commanded the attention of everyone in the room, and looked like he could knock you out or kill you with one punch. He was an articulate, tactically competent infantry officer and a West Point graduate. He was the commander you feared and respected–and you were glad he was your commander. Albeit an exercise, he did lead the 1/82nd to a victory, where other combat units had typically failed. In the words of a former soldier and officer, “Colonel Austin was the man!”
Based on Austin’s education, training, experience, and career of service to our country across many continents, he seemed like an excellent choice for Secretary of Defense for any presidential administration. In fact, the Senate gave a strong bi-partisan nod in its 93-2 decision for Austin to become Biden’s SECDEF. As West Point Graduates ourselves, we were hopeful for our national defense when Biden nominated Austin as the SECDEF and the Senate confirmed him.
So, why the failure in Afghanistan and in other areas of military leadership: teaching the anti-American Critical Race Theory (CRT), Forced Vaccinations, politically correct (PC) speech–the disease of concern about potentially hurting feelings rather concern about winning wars? With Austin’s experience, command of the greatest military in world history, and access to more 3-letter intelligence organizations than you can shake three alphabets at, there should have been no surprise about what to expect from the Taliban. At worst, it appears like this failure was planned. At best, this seems like gross incompetence. Austin was supposed to be the competent man-of-character and strength we depended on to stand in the gap. We expect Austin to stand up against a president who, let’s not kid ourselves, does not possess the presence of mind necessary to function as President or have a conversation without stammering incoherently. The SECDEF’s actions have been disastrous, not only on our military readiness and efficiency, but, to a greater degree, the reputation and integrity of our nation’s armed forces. Consequently, other nations will think twice before accepting our word that we will help and protect them.
Whether it’s Biden or Austin leading our armed forces, the CRT “education”, the sensitivity training, and the extreme pro-LGBTQ+ stance are in fact social engineering, which is distracting and damaging to our armed forces. Our armed forces should be focusing on preparing for war and defeating our enemies. The training under Biden and Austin is moving our military forces in the direction of becoming leftist, divided, anti-American, and ineffective. What we are seeing now in Afghanistan is the fruit of such training and their leadership.
Leadership, or lack thereof, has been the crucial difference in the Middle East in the last 20 years after 9-11 when fighting the enemy and withdrawing our troops. For example, Obama’s 2011 failed withdrawal of U.S. troops led to the formation of ISIS (1) and a massive refugee crisis in the Middle East and Europe. When initially asked about the formation of ISIS in its early stages, Obama referred to ISIS as “the JV team.” However, ISIS with its videos of beheadings and other executions proved to be not as “JV” as Obama presumed it to be. Consequently, by May, 2015, ISIS occupied approximately one-third of Iraq and approximately one-half of Syria (2). Two months later, July of the same year, Obama addressed the nation and said, “This is not simply a military effort,” and added later, “Ideologies are not defeated by guns. They’re defeated with better ideas” (3). Obama’s failure led to a refugee crisis of mass proportions. Due to ISIS, over 13 million Syrians (4) and over 3 million Iraqis (5) were displaced, and millions of refugees were resettled in Europe.
Obama’s reference to “not simply a military effort” is a screen for his inadequate application of force and his restrictive rules of engagement (ROE) for U.S. and coalition forces, which denied U.S. Forces and our allies the freedom of action they needed to do what they were trained to do: fight and win the nation’s wars. Why did Obama apply inadequate force and require restrictive ROE? That’s an important question for another day.
When President Trump became president in January of 2017, he did things differently than did Obama in dealing with ISIS. President Trump used less restrictive ROE and, working with our allies, used massive force and power to bring the “generational struggle” of ISIS to its knees six months after becoming POTUS. Six months. How many US deaths? Zero. That is how a true leader gets it done.
As former Army officers, we can tell you that defeating an enemy in six months with zero deaths when the previous leader said it would take 20 years is a military achievement of historic proportions. It’s no wonder U.S. Troops love President Trump.
Here are some takeaways: Leadership matters, especially when fighting and winning our nation’s wars. While ideas are important, you don’t use “better ideas” as a primary weapon to defeat barbaric religious zealots.
President Trump’s success in northern Iraq and Syria against ISIS was not an isolated success. By October of 2020, Trump led the U.S. in yet another successful campaign against a different terrorist group in another country: the Taliban in Afghanistan. After pushing back the Taliban, President Trump negotiated a treaty with the leaders of the Taliban for peace in Afghanistan and set up a successful plan for withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Afghanistan. The withdrawal plan had conditions based on the activities of the Taliban (6). This means that if the conditions are not right for withdrawal, there is a pause in the execution of the withdrawal. If the conditions require more troops, more troops are sent in to prevent the destabilization of Afghanistan, i.e., the chaos we are seeing today in Afghanistan. Executing a successful withdrawal is a complex operation, but not a new concept. Well-known examples are Japan, Germany, and Korea. In all cases, nearly all troops were withdrawn, and a U.S. contingency force remained.
When Biden came to office in January 2021, he quickly eschewed or scrapped many of Trump’s successful policies and programs: the Keystone Pipeline, the Southern Border Wall, the agreement with the Government of Mexico, and apparently the Afghanistan withdrawal plan. Rather than building effective policies to strengthen our military, Biden and SECDEF Austin chose to introduce and endorse CRT in our nation’s service academies and in all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. SECDEF Austin literally stood down the entire U.S. Military to teach CRT, which in fact is Marxist propaganda. Imagine being in a combat zone on a lone outpost in Afghanistan. A helicopter comes in, reveals your position, and a guy comes out to give you a PowerPoint presentation about white privilege. If you are a veteran and reading this, you probably have a few choice words for this kind of “training”…
We grew up in an Army where the drill sergeants told you that the only colors you needed to know are red, white, blue, and Army green, which set the tone for the unit. Consequently, the most important judgment you made about a fellow soldier was if he would cover your six in a fight. Contrarily, CRT creates victim and oppressor classes. Because the young soldiers and officers respect their trainers, they take the CRT victim-oppressor characterization of our society to heart, which has created massive riffs and discord in military units and lowered morale.
Here are a few thoughts on Afghanistan. The Afghanistan conflict was doomed at the beginning when President George W. Bush basically declared war against all terrorists in the world and started what is basically nation-building. All terrorists cannot be wiped off the face of the earth, but terrorists can be kept at bay. In a war against terror, as in any war, objectives need to be specific, coalitions need to be built, the force and power need to be extreme, and the duration needs to be short. The Allies did it when the U.S. entered WWII, we did it in the first Gulf War in 1990-1991 against Saddam Hussein, and President Trump did it against ISIS in 2017.
Another reason nation-building did not work in Afghanistan is that Afghanistan is not a unified people, but a collection of separate ethnic groups and tribes without a single national identity. For centuries, they have been bound together simply by whoever is the strongest or most brutal leader. Instead of destroying the enemy, we have attempted to overlay our American values and beliefs on top of an Afghani problem. Enough of the Afghani people have not demonstrated a strong enough desire to fight for the type of freedom that we are blessed to possess in the United States.
Bear with us here on this. Leadership, being a man, and freedom are things that can’t be granted. They have to be earned. On leadership. The lowest form of leadership, according to Dr. John Maxell, is positional leadership: someone is the “leader” because they are in the position of the leader. Company commander, wing commander, squad leader, it’s all the same. The position or rank lasts a short time before a leader either fails or proves himself.
On manhood. The great Denis Prager has shared many pearls of wisdom. One is that a boy becomes a man when he decides to become a man, not when he turns 18. A 15-year-old boy whose father died in a car accident steps up to protect and support his mother and siblings: this is a man. A 25-year-old male living with his parents and not diligently searching for a job: this is not a man.
On freedom. When you give the lives of over 4,000 of your own sons and daughters, spend $2.3 trillion (6) on infrastructure and cutting-edge military equipment (including Blackhawk helicopters, thousands of up-armored vehicles, hundreds of thousands of weapons, millions of rounds of ammunition, and much more), you train them for nearly 20 years and build them a 300,000-man army, then they give up against a smaller, lesser-equipped armed force with barely a shot fired, what does that tell you about a nation’s desire for freedom?
Take the Kurds in northern Iraq. They were given far fewer arms by the U.S., and they did much of the fighting to push back ISIS after President Trump gave them the needed support. Glen spent one year deployed in Northern Iraq with Kurdish forces. From his own observation of their repeatedly fighting against great odds, it was very clear that the Kurds have an intense desire to free themselves from the oppression of Iraq and to have their own country of Kurdistan. The Kurdish people are willing and are paying the price to get that freedom.
Conversely, the Afghani army barely shot a round and allowed the Taliban to take over Afghanistan literally in a matter of days. Clearly, the Afghani people were not willing to pay the price in blood and a stiff spine required to have freedom, despite the cost of over 4,000 American lives, many more casualties, and trillions of dollars the U.S. paid to help them.
There are many problems, but Afghanistan is more of a symptom than a problem. The real problem is Biden is a feeble man and an ineffectual leader. In fact, in a quote attributed to President Obama, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f… everything up” (we never thought we’d quote Obama.).” The rhyme of history shows that as long as Biden is in office, more will get “f… up” in the United States and around the world. This is why we needed someone to step in and where SECDEF Austin can make a difference.
But what happened to SECDEF Austin? Well, in the words of the first Delta Force Commander, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Gerald “Jerry” Boykin, “(Lloyd) lived next door to me at Ft. Bragg and he was a friend. I think Lloyd had a very distinguished career. I think that Lloyd was not prepared for the politics that he stepped into in Washington, and as far as I’m concerned Lloyd has compromised on issues that he knows are not in the best interest of our nation. And again, this I where I say when you take time away from the training and the preparation for winning wars and you go through stuff like CRT, you are wasting those soldiers’ time that they need to be ready to go prepare for war. And Lloyd Austin is advocating that and pushing that, and I think it’s a huge mistake, and I think he’s wrong about that, and I think he’s gotten caught up in the politics of Washington, and it’s had a negative effect on him” (8).
What would we recommend SECDEF Austin to do? Well, at West Point, we had the Cadet Honor Code: A cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, nor tolerate those who do. We also have a saying in the Cadet Prayer, “… choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” In the context of leadership, when you make a mistake, admit the mistake, make it right, and move forward. It’s not easy, but it’s the right thing to do.
Austin has a lot of power and authority as SECDEF. We see a few potential courses of action. Here are two.
Course of action one: Austin resigns quietly. It would be in disgrace, but he will be able to live in retirement the rest of his life or perhaps be on the board of a multi-billion-dollar corporation. But, if he really wants to honor the roots of his education at West Point and his brilliant career, then he will choose the harder right over the easier wrong, fix our armed forces.
Course of action two: Tell the troops that he made some grave judgment errors, that he knows America and the troops demand the best. Show a substantial and strong commitment to right the ship. Some examples would be to direct all forces to immediately cease all teaching of CRT or anything related to CRT. Cancel all contracts involving teaching CRT. Make a required reading list for officers that promotes patriotism and effective military leadership. Discourage books that create division (books not worth mentioning here!). Restore patriotic education to our service academies and educate our future leaders about how communism has destroyed nations and led to mass genocide, how communism creeps into societies, and how to identify and stop “communist creep.”
If he is directed to act in a way that weakens our military in any way, he should refuse, and initiate policies that only serve to strengthen our military and build American patriotism. If Biden fires Austin for taking steps to turn things around (which Biden may in fact do anyway), Austin would be redeemed and earn back the respect of many troops and officers. If Biden doesn’t fire Austin after making efforts to turn things around, then Austin as SECDEF would be good for our armed forces and for America.
Above all, SECDEF Austin should secure our Americans in Afghanistan and win our nation’s wars! Biden just sent several thousand troops to Afghanistan and, unfortunately, the Afghanistan conflict will continue to drag on. When it’s time again to execute an orderly withdrawal, Austin needs to execute it successfully.
Which is the more likely course of action Austin will take? The easier one is submitting his resignation. The harder is to right the ship. The SECDEF is responsible for America’s armed forces and ensuring they have what they need to fight and win our nation’s wars. SECDEF Austin, if he chooses the harder right, will be known as the man who led us to win our nation’s wars again, to earn back the respect of our allies, to heal the rift caused by the Marxist propaganda of CRT, and to restore the honor of the U.S. Armed Forces. We are praying for SECDEF Austin to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
God bless America, and God bless the Afghani people!
Matthew Newgent and Glen Whitner, along with Jason Mrocheck, are the three West Pointers who co-founded ConservativeEconomy.com, the free-speech alternative to Amazon. Please support them by shopping at ConservativeEconomy.com
- Ryan N. Mannina, Small Wars Journal, 12/23/2018
- Tan Khaerr, Wikimedia Commons, accessed on 08/21/2021
- Jon Schuppe, President Obama Calls ISIS Fight ‘a Generational Struggle’, NBCNews.com, 07/06/2015
- Syrian refugee crisis: Fasts, FAQs, and how to help, https://www.worldvision.org/refugees-news-stories/syrian-refugee-crisis-facts, accessed on 08/21/2021
- Iraqi Refugee Crisis Explained, https://www.unrefugees.org/news/iraq-refugee-crisis-explained/, accessed on 08/21/2021
- Major General (Ret.) Paul E. Vallely, REEL Talk Radio, episode aired on 08/17/2021
- The Dan Bongino Show, Bongino Brief, 08/21/2021
- Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Gerald Boykin, The Glen Beck Program, 05/13/2021
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I don’t care what he was. He went to the dark side. He knew what he was doing. He sold out.
Furthermore, if Austin was genuine and honest he’d simply resign – and be specific why he did so.
Exactly, he won’t take either course of action recommended. He will continue to do what he is doing. He probably already has his retirement location in China picked out
The bottom line is that this was never a ‘national interest’ war, this was a war for poppy’s and the opiods and the drugs derived therefrom, for military expansionism, for transfer of wealth to the MIC, the stopping of oil pipelines, etc. This was Never about the American people. And as far as ‘religious zealots’, why not abide by the First Amendment, why not just leave people alone – not just in foreign countries, but in the US as well.
No war in a foreign country is in America’s interest, and the Afghans are not terrorists, and never were… The Afghans simply wanted foreigners and their puppets out of their country, along with their poisonous advocacy of feminism and CRT….
It is obvious that we sold out to the Chinese many years ago. All of those who participated in selling America down the river are a disgrace to our country.
Critical race theory is a bad apple in the basket. When I served I don’t remember my feelings mattering for anything. You did what you were obligated to do or you received disciplinary action.
It is a distraction at this stage in the decline.
I am guessing the closer one gets to the President the more you compromise your principles to appeal to the unprincipled.
Any one who would be President or wants to be President shouldn’t be President.
Option #3, continue on fucking up what’s left of the military…….
This is what the worthless bastard will do. Count on it. He’s a REMF.
My bet…..
Money and power don’t CHANGE people, they UNMASK them. He was never a ‘good’ guy. He might have been competent but as an white officer in the Army I saw command bend over backwards to ensure women and blacks were ‘successful’. He had his ticket stamped from the get-go.
Now he is simply showing his true colors.. getting big bucks, promoting WOKE BS becasue he is black first, and an American second like most of these people.
I’ve seen and experienced the preferential treatment of race and sex in the military workspace as a former enlisted man. Certain people will be recognized more quickly. Those who do their jobs and fail to socialize or be “buddy buddy” with superiors distracted by the first pair of tits and ass walking by get overlooked for awards and promotions.
That’s the way it is because people allow it. I recognized this, didn’t want to compete, and decided to progress in a different direction.
I stayed in the same very small career field as a civilian for almost three decades. Occasionally I’d see the same people again and know who to avoid. Coincidentally, and thankfully, many of them I never saw again.
Yes, I suspect Austin benefitted from affirmative action, he doesn’t sound very bright to me…
I think the authors of this article are woefully naive. They believe the illusion that we have a government and leaders that are in charge. TPTB pull the strings, and those who want to survive in that sick environment, get on board. Austin got on board.
Wonder why the CFR is seldom mentioned?
Don’t mistake malice for naivety.
Austin: incompetent diversity hire. What did you expect?
Afghanistan was a diversion for the Saudis and a money pit for criminals.
Like people are going to behave morally when they don’t share anything in common.
Is there a way to look at a veteran’s military achievements/rank? My daughter’s military friend is a braggart. All conversations lead back to him and his military career.
Yes, ask to see his DD-214. That’s the overview. He’ll either shut up or show it to you. There are also people who can get a look at his military 201 file. Google it. That has the details. Another little “gotcha” is to ask him what his MOS was. Then look it up. His “Military occupational specialty” tells what his job was. It’s also on the DD-214 he might show you. The DD-214 is also what you show to get benefits.
Here’s the short version
Austin used to be great, looked like a football player! what a leader!
Race hustling and faggotry are new in the military
Trump defeated ISIS
We should have stayed in Afghanistan forever like we have Germany, Japan, and Korea (why won’t these ragheads stop shooting at us?)
The great Denis (((Prager)))…
muh Kurds
God bless the Afghani people!
What a load of typical normie conservative shit, they’re just pandering to shill their company.
The only relevant thing they said the whole time:
“The Afghanistan conflict was doomed at the beginning”
Yes, (((Prager))) is one of those “America is an idea” clowns….
Austin will take neither option. He will just carry on as if nothing happened. The authors should know by now that Dems are psychopaths, and psychopaths don’t do shame and remorse. A few other quibbles: the standard boilerplate that the US has the greatest military in history is not true. Other armed forces have been far more successful. As for Afghanistan, everything the authors say is valid. They could have gone further, however, and mentioned that going into A with a complete lack of knowledge about the national history, culture and tribal realities was exactly what they did in Iraq and Vietnam. Nobody sat down and read the history books before heading for Kabul. That is very scary.
This has been a real head scratcher for me; how does our military go from death before dishonor to CRT?
Here is my speculation:
I believe America for the last 20 years or so, has sold itself out to a rising, soon to be superpower. I believe it began when both political parties chose to ignore our increasing debt in favor of limitless spending on foreign aid that funneled back to the greedy hands of the politicians, while pouring monies into the pockets of third world countries as well as the soon to be rising superpower.
At some point in time the soon to be superpower was able to infiltrate the bleeding out US OF A and quietly began to invest in many of the third world countries of the world who will become silent partners when the time is ripe. By the time the politicians began to see the monster they created, it was already too late. Now that their little pet suddenly became the raging monster, there was nothing they could do. But the monster decided not to devour its owner, only to allow its former master to kowtow to its wishes with the threat of total destruction from within as well as without, if the puppet did not do as ordered.
I believe this is the condition we find ourselves in today. Politicians as well as military brass, when they rise to any national level of operation, are shown this powerpoint, showing that we as a nation ended many years ago and today we are the willing pawn of a greater soon to be superpower. If they play their cards right, they may come out of this with a title and income, if they don’t play along, they will be swept under the rug, where the rest of America will soon be swept under when the soon to be superpower becomes the superpower.
Real or fiction?
Bonus points: If your interested, consider Revelation 13:2, and see if the mythical creature mentioned there bears any resemblance to the soon to be rising superpower?
Real or fiction?