President Joe Biden and a number of top administration officials have received sharp criticism in recent weeks for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
In addition to demands for Biden to resign or face removal from office, some prominent figures are beginning to call for the resignation of senior military leaders — particularly Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley.
“On Milley’s watch”
According to the Daily Caller, the chief complaints stem from the Biden administration’s decision to abandon the Bagram Air Base and draw down U.S. troops prior to the evacuation of American citizens and allies.
Calls for Milley’s resignation generally assert that he provided poor advice to the president.
That argument was laid out in one recent piece by the New York Post editorial board. The editorial asserted that Milley must be replaced because he was “derelict in his duty” as the top military officer in the administration.
If Biden is being truthful about the advice he received from the Pentagon, the editorial board concluded that “this disaster is on Milley’s watch.”
On the other hand, if military leaders actually offered contradictory advice to the actions taken by the president, then “Milley failed to do his duty and push back against a commander-in-chief who is making deadly decisions.”
“They should resign”
In either scenario, the gist of the editorial is Milley “is derelict in his duty — and must either take responsibility for what went wrong or tell Americans the truth about their president.”
Other critics in the media have expressed similar sentiments, including dozens of retired admirals and generals who signed an open letter calling for the resignations of Milley as well as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
The former military leaders wrote that both men “should have recommended against this dangerous withdrawal in the strongest terms” and if they did not “do everything within their authority to stop the hasty withdrawal, they should resign.”
If they fought to persuade Biden against such actions and he rejected their advice, however, the letter insisted that “they should have resigned in protest as a matter of conscience and public statement.”
Echoing the outrage of critics across the U.S. and around the world, the letter concluded that there “must be accountability at all levels for this tragic and avoidable debacle.”
The post Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman faces pressure to resign over Afghanistan debacle first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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