Latest news with #PentagonRundown
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Is it possible to have ‘accountability' for the War in Afghanistan?
Well, it's Friday. This is a special edition of the Pentagon Rundown in which we will look at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's promise that the latest Defense Department review of the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan will finally lead to 'accountability' for the debacle. On Aug. 26, 2021, 13 U.S. service members and around 170 Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The bombing was the final attack on U.S. troops in a war that claimed the lives of more than 2,000 American service members since it began on Oct. 7, 2001. But what does accountability for the withdrawal from Afghanistan actually look like? And what about accountability for the handling of America's longest war, one plagued almost from the outset by mission creep, nebulous goals, a lack of accountability and transparency, and no clear exit plan? Accountability for that is long overdue, but it's unclear if yet another review of the final moments of a decades-spanning war will achieve it. John Sopko, then serving as the U.S. government's top watchdog for Afghanistan reconstruction, told Congress in January 2020 that U.S. government officials had an 'incentive' to lie about progress in Afghanistan. Yet there have been few, if any, consequences for those who kept claiming Afghanistan had turned the corner — claims made by senior leaders in the military and officials from presidential administrations of both parties. Neither Hegseth nor any other civilian or military leaders have said what types of actions the U.S. military might take as a result of the review's findings — a review that focuses just on the withdrawal and not the totality of the war and its management. And if it were to extend to the broader conflict, any real form of accountability would be hampered by the fact that so many of the key decision-makers in the 20-year war have since retired or otherwise left government service. A defense official queried about the matter by Task & Purpose had no additional information to provide. Another question is who exactly should be held accountable for America's defeat in Afghanistan. The chaotic retreat from Kabul in August 2021 was far more than a military failure. Every presidential administration between 2001 and 2021 bears some responsibility, as does Congress, which ceded its authority to declare war to the executive branch shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Let's not forget the State Department, which did not order the non-combatant evacuation from Afghanistan until the day before the Taliban captured Kabul. The United States' NATO allies and its former partners in the now defunct Afghan government also bear a degree of culpability for the final defeat, said Jonathan Schroden, an Afghanistan expert who works for CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization in Arlington, Virginia. 'The finger of blame for the outcomes we observed in Afghanistan point at every actor involved,' said Schroden, who previously served as research director for the Afghanistan War Commission, which was established by Congress to conduct a comprehensive review of the conflict. 'It was both a systemic failure of many organizations and the collective failure of many individuals.' Although there have been some previous assessments of failed military missions — such as the Holloway Commission's examination of the 1980 attempt to rescue Americans held hostage by the Iranians — the Afghanistan War Commission marks the first time the United States has attempted to conduct a non-political appraisal of a major war, Schroden said. For the Defense Department, the task of holding people accountable for the failures in Afghanistan will be an uphill climb, especially since the military has a long history of absolving itself from any wrongdoing. Another tried and true military tradition is finding someone to blame for a catastrophe, as the Navy did after an explosion aboard the battleship USS Iowa killed 47 sailors — and again in 2020 following a deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. The military can also be loath to discipline senior leaders, as was initially the case after four soldiers were killed in a 2017 ambush in Niger. Congress ultimately pressured the Army to withdraw a promotion to general for the colonel who approved the mission. In cases where there is no way to deny that a war has gone terribly wrong, another solution is to remove the senior commander by promoting him. Army Gens. William Westmoreland and George Casey were both named Army chief of staff after their strategies in Vietnam and Iraq, respectively, failed. Perhaps the accountability review announced by Hegseth will lead to a truly honest examination of the Afghanistan War, which defined a generation of service members and veterans. Or, it could very well be derailed by the military's inability to accept hard truths — the same thing that doomed the war to drag on until its tragic end. Regardless of how the review pans out, those who served there can and should take pride in the individual acts of sacrifice, bravery and service they participated in and bore witness to. Army to eliminate 2 Security Force Assistance Brigades, reassign experienced soldiers Why the Army's new XM7 rifle reignited a debate over volume of fire Air Force delay on separation and retirement orders isn't 'stop loss,' defense official says F-35's close call over Yemen raises questions about how it's used An Army unit's 'extreme use of profanity' was so bad, they made a rule about it
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Hegseth orders sweeping force structure changes for the military
Happy Friday! You may have noticed there was no Pentagon Rundown last week. That's because I was at the Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C., writing about various topics, including the Marine Corps' efforts to repair and refurbish its barracks. As always, it's been busy, and some of the biggest news has been Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's recent announcements about reshaping the military. On Monday, Hegseth announced that he had ordered a cut of at least 20% of active-duty four-star positions and National Guard general officers. The second phase of Hegseth's plan calls for an additional 10% reduction of general and flag officers throughout the Defense Department as part of changes to the Unified Command Plan, which assigns missions and responsibilities to the combatant commands, Hegseth said in a video posted on X on Monday. 'We're going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters,' Hegseth said in the video. Reducing the number of general and flag officers was one of the recommendations in Project 2025, a policy blueprint released by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, D.C., prior to last year's election. The project's chapter about the Defense Department says that although the military currently has more generals and admirals than during World War II, 'the actual battlefield experience of this officer corps is at an all-time low.' It also claimed that previous presidential administrations had promoted officers 'for reasons other than their warfighting prowess.' The Pentagon has implemented several other proposals in Project 2025, including reinstating troops who were separated for refusing to get vaccinated for COVID-19 with back pay, trying to separate transgender service members, and abolishing diversity equity and inclusion offices and staff. In a separate move, Hegseth has directed the Army to restructure itself, and that includes consolidating commands. The force structure changes that Hegseth ordered in an April 30 memo include merging U.S. Army North and U.S. Army South into a single headquarters, combining Army Futures Command and Training and Doctrine Command into a single entity, and divesting 'outdated formations, including select armor and aviation units.' The memo did not specify which units. In my nearly 20 years as a defense reporter, I've seen the military expand rapidly during the Iraq war, only to undergo draconian personnel and funding cuts as part of sequestration. Once again, the military is in a state of flux, this time as it prepares to deter and — if necessary — fight China. As things currently stand, change is the only constant, so it's a safe bet that more efforts to transform the military are coming. And on that note, here's your weekly rundown. Truman loses another Super Hornet. An F/A-18F Super Hornet crashed into the Red Sea on Tuesday after a failed attempt to land on the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Both aviators aboard were rescued after safely ejecting. This is the third Super Hornet from the carrier that has been lost since December. Yemen strikes on hold. President Donald Trump made a surprise announcement on Tuesday that the U.S. military would cease its air and missile strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen under a ceasefire agreement brokered by Oman. Between March 15 and April 29, U.S. forces struck more than 1,000 Houthi targets, according to the Pentagon. As of Thursday, the ceasefire appeared to be holding, but it was unclear for how long. Military daycares not telling parents about suspected abuse. A recent Defense Department Inspector General report found a lack of 'uniform requirements' across the military services for notifying parents and legal guardians about suspected abuse and neglect at military childcare centers. Task & Purpose reporter Patty Nieberg takes a look at the problem and what the Defense Department plans to do to fix it. Gaza pier injuries. A total of 62 service members were injured during efforts last year to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza using the Joint Logistics Over The Shore, or JLOTS system, which was only operational for roughly 20 days, a recent Defense Department Inspector General report found. 'Based on the information provided, we were not able to determine which of these 62 injuries occurred during the performance of duties or resulted off-duty or from pre-existing medical conditions,' according to the report, which found many problems that ultimately doomed the JLOTS effort. Army Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley died on Oct. 31, months after being injured while supporting the mission. Chechen strongman wants to step down. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said publicly that he'd like to be relieved of his post, but that decision ultimately rests with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After meeting with Putin on Wednesday, it looks like Kadyrov is staying put, at least for now. Maybe he can make use of his remaining time in office to work on his push-up form. Thank you for reading and have a great weekend! Jeff Schogol
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
When are classified war plans neither ‘classified' nor ‘war plans'
It's been a hell of a week. As such, this is a special edition of the Pentagon Rundown that focuses solely on the continuing debate within the national security community about whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth improperly shared classified information about pending air and missile strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, first reported on Monday that he had inadvertently been invited to join a group chat on the Signal messaging app that included Hegseth and other top officials from President Donald Trump's administration. Goldberg also wrote that Hegseth had shared 'war plans' with the chat group on March 15 about forthcoming strikes in Yemen. (The phrase 'war plans' has come up a lot lately. Don't worry, we'll come back to it further down, along with input from a former director of the CIA and NSA, as well as a military lawyer with decades of experience handling these kinds of cases.) The message began with the words 'TEAM UPDATE,' and it included details about what type of aircraft would be involved with the strikes, when planes would take off, when Tomahawk missiles would be launched, and the time when the first bombs were expected to drop, Goldberg wrote on Wednesday. Hegseth also wrote, 'We are currently clean on OPSEC,' referring to operational security. It's already become meme fodder and even a brand of hand sanitizer. Since the story first broke, Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have furiously argued that the information about the strikes was not classified and did not constitute 'war plans.' 'So, let's [sic] me get this straight,' Hegseth posted to X on Wednesday. 'The Atlantic released the so-called 'war plans' and those 'plans' include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information. Those are some really shitty war plans.' Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Hegseth appeared to confirm the authenticity of the message cited by Goldberg. 'My job, as it said atop of that, everybody has seen it now — 'Team Update' — is to provide updates in real time — general updates in real time, keep everyone informed,' Hegseth said. 'That's what I did.' But Mark Zaid, a national security attorney, said he is not persuaded by Hegseth's argument that the information about the strikes shared in the chat was too vague to be considered classified. 'Even if they had never happened, it still would have been classified for a period of time, without a doubt,' Zaid told Task & Purpose. 'They were planning this strike on that specific day, with those specific aircraft, at that specific time, which could give a window into future operations.' Zaid has decades of experience litigating Freedom of Information Act requests for classified information. He said he has 'no doubt' that the information about the Yemen strikes was classified at the time Hegseth sent it. 'It's dumbfounding to even contemplate an argument that this would not be classified,' Zaid said. 'It's reminiscent of the end of the 'The Wizard of Oz,' where the wizard is saying, 'Don't look over at the man behind the curtain,' when you're staring right at him.' While Hegseth has the power to declassify information, Zaid said he believes it is not realistic that he did so before sending the message about the Yemen strikes. 'Why in the world would the secretary ever declassify sensitive military and operational plans when he thinks he's discussing it with only his other principals?' Zaid said. 'If they want to say it's now not classified because they declassified it, that's a separate issue. But it's laughable to say he declassified it before or as he was sending it as part of a secret text conversation that no one in the public was ever meant to see.' Also, the Defense Department's declassification process involves determining when information will no longer be of any value to an adversary, which would logically be after a military strike has occurred, not before, a source with extensive knowledge of military operations told Task & Purpose. Retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, who led both the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, told Task & Purpose that he is convinced the information Hegseth shared before the strikes was classified, and perhaps may even have been Top Secret. Top Secret is a level of classification given to information that, if disclosed without authorization, 'reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security,' according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Classification Guide. If an adversary had obtained that information Hegseth shared before the strikes, it is possible that U.S. military forces could have suffered casualties as a result, Hayden said. 'They said this is going to happen,' Hayden said. 'They talked about drones and everything. They were naming the weapons, too. When I was CIA director, we have a lot of drones: I didn't talk about them on the telephone.' If Trump administration officials have been using Signal for the past two months, it is possible that Russia and China have already intercepted sensitive information sent on the messaging app, Hayden said, noting the NSA warned its employees in February that Signal is vulnerable to being exploited by U.S. adversaries. Hayden said he has spoken with members of the U.S. intelligence community, who are appalled by Goldberg's revelation about the Signal chat group. 'The president, the vice president, the secretary of defense, secretary of state, all of them are saying: 'Oh, it's OK' — it's not OK,' Hayden said. Those 'Hegseth bodyguards' are actually there for the When , they often end up in the brig The Army's Master Combat Badges will be coming to soldiers this month This photo of Air Force special ops pool training is chaos. 'Saving Private Ryan' didn't make the Army's list of most accurate movie portrayals
