Col. Craig Wilcox, Ret., Reflects of “Utter Failure” Afghanistan

Written a week ago and submitted to the Northwest Herald but not yet published, the following is from State Senator Craig Wilcox:

As a people who enjoy freedom and democracy, I join the vast majority of Americans who are reeling from news that 20 years after brutal Taliban forces were removed from power, they have regained control of Afghanistan and of the Presidential Palace.

Knowing that the country’s admittedly fragile democratic form of government has crumbled, and that the Capital City of Kabul is now under the control of violent extremists known for their hatred of the United States and other free countries, is cause for global concern.

And like many others, I am experiencing a range of emotions, including equal measures of

  • anger,
  • sadness, and
  • disbelief.

I am a former U.S. Air Force Colonel who spent 24 years in service to this country, spent time on the Joint Staff in J3 Operations, was in Afghanistan and Iraq for quite some time, and was Chief of Staff to EUCOM J3 during Libya’s issues, so I have strong feelings about what has and is transpiring.

I am appalled over our government’s handling of Afghanistan.

It is an utter failure of leadership and a failure of the United States that will have ramifications for years to come.

I support the United States’ structure where we elect civilian leaders and have a separate but supporting military, but when elected leaders do not heed expert military advice-especially in times of war or conflict, we are doomed for failure.

This is not a single administration critique, but the withdrawal chaos in Afghanistan rests solely with the current administration.

The American people deserve answers, and those who sent their sons, daughters, and loved ones into military service in the volatile middle east definitely deserve answers.

If we were going into Afghanistan, or Iraq, or anywhere, why were we not fully committed to rooting out the evil that existed and forcing unconditional surrender? 

Was there intelligence that the Taliban were likely preparing for this day since last November’s election? 

Was there military advice for how to effectively remove our troops and civilians from the area, or recommended options to disrupt or destroy the Taliban’s surface military potential before it could be used to topple the Afghan government?

And were those recommendations dismissed by the current administration?

The actions we have witnessed over these last few weeks and especially over the last several days do not unfold unexpectedly.

They result from ignoring or discounting sound military advice.

I implore Congress and the media to ask exactly what the President was asked to approve, when, and why military recommendations were not followed.

I believe military officials should explain what they knew, what they expected, and what they planned in a detailed timeline to Congress, and someone needs to explain why actions were not taken.

On a larger scale, I can only imagine how emboldened Russia and China are feeling right now in the wake of this massive American failure.

Perhaps now Americans have an inkling of the fear felt in

  • Taiwan,
  • Ukraine,
  • the Kurds in Turkey,
  • Iraq,
  • Iran,
  • the Uighurs in China, and
  • every other population living under authoritarian rule around the world.

The United States used to stand up to bullies, and hold them accountable, but I have seen none of that from the U.S. in far too long.

Are we ready to ask our newest generations to defend freedom again soon?

Are they ready to selflessly respond as our Greatest Generation once did?

Based on the debacle in the handling of the withdrawing of troops and American civilians in Afghanistan, should they even be asked too?


Comments

Col. Craig Wilcox, Ret., Reflects of “Utter Failure” Afghanistan — 38 Comments

  1. ‘ISIS suicide bomber’ kills 13 at Kabul airport: Multiple casualties – including children and three US Marines – as two explosions tear through crowd, hours after Westerners were warned to stay away because of ISIS attack

    WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT

    There was an explosion at the Abbey Gate in Kabul airport shortly before 6.30pm local time Thursday

    At least 13 people have been killed and at least three US troops were injured in the explosion

    The blast came hours after officials warned of an ‘imminent’ bomb threat from ISIS-K

    US troops closed airport gates on Thursday after the threat was reported while rushing to remove citizens
    America’s top diplomat in Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, claims it is still ‘safe’ to go to the airport

    The Pentagon has insisted it will not withdraw troops in the next 36 hours and will stay until August 31 at least Canada, Britain, Holland and Poland are winding down their evacuation missions in light of the growing threat

    There are at least 1,000 Americans in Afghanistan who the State Department have not been able to evacuate

    Wilson claimed on Thursday his office was making ‘phone calls’ to find them all and save them
    President Biden, who has refused to take responsibility for the shambolic evacuation, is not due to speak about the crisis publicly today

    Biden has been briefed on the explosion and is now in the situation room

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9928133/Car-bomb-threat-forces-Kabul-airport-CLOSE-citizens-345-seater-plane-leaves-empty.html

  2. How long will it be until VP Harris takes over? Could she possibly be any worse than Joe?

  3. Like the veteran who served two terms in Afghanistan said, anyone who tells you this wasn’t inevitable is lying to you.

    But then, as Abe said, you can fool some of the people all the time.

  4. Not a SINGLE American Military person had been killed in Afghanistan in the last 18 months of President Trump’s term in office.

    Unfortunately today, August 26, 2021, 4 U.S. Marines were killed and 3 were injured in a bombing attack at Kabul, Afghanistan.

    The current U.S. Administration, led by Joe Biden, has been grossly incompetent in its lack of strategy and planning for a safe withdrawal of Americans, Afghanis who were loyal to the U.S. Military and U.S. Troops from Afghanistan.

    The incompetence of Biden and his Administration also includes ZERO planning for the removal of tens of Billions of Dollars worth of sophisticated military equipment including helicopters, aircraft, weapons, etc. This equipment has been captured by the Taliban.

    President Trump talked about exiting Afghanistan BUT with an orderly and well-planned phased withdrawal. This is what he said about it on August 17, 2017:

    “The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable.

    911, the worst terrorist attack in our history, was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that Country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists.

    A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists, including ISIS and Alqueida, would instantly fill just as happened before September 11th.’

    The tragedy and debacle currently in Afghanistan would not have happened if Trump were our President today.

  5. Sadly, unfortunately, the death toll of U.S. Military personnel has risen to 10 as reported in the news at 1:04 PM on August 26, 2021.

  6. Here’s my response to Col. Wilcox:

    Bush should have been impeached for the phony Afghan War!

    He should ask why this was yet another unconstitutional war with Congress failing to declare war.

    He should ask why the CIA needed to reverse the complete eradication of opium under the ‘evil’ Taliban, and why the CIA restarted massive opium production under the American occupation and puppets like Karzai.

    He should ask why the puppet military we set up of degenerates, crooks, and monsters was so hated by the Afghan population.

    He should ask about what Snowden exposed by the Deep State spying on US citizens…. conservative US Ciitizens!

    He should ask what was accomplished in the 20 year nonsense war except the lining the pockets of bankers, ‘development pukes, and arms makers.

    He should ask why so many careerist wimps Command our military…. traitors like Miley and Poodle Peter Pace, for example, or the cokehead McCrystal, or the Mossad honey-trapped Petraeus. These are good questions. Answer them bantam-colonel!

    He should ask why the faggot flag was flying on so many American bunker bases and why our taxpayer money was funding weird transgender programs in Afghanistan since 2005.

    He should ask how many Afghans were involved in the false flag op called 9/11. And if he says the Taliban ‘harbored’ the CIA operative Osama, I rejoin him asking how the US/NATO military had the dastardliness to harbor the Taliban for all 20 years of the occupation.

    He should ask how many Afghan ‘refugees’ he’ll be allowed to take in in his property tax free house in an expensive section of Glacier Ridge.

    And that’s just a little start.

    Yes, Col., the Taliban decided to be free of invaders, but our own border is left undefended.

    Explain that to me Colonel!

  7. SNOWFLAKE NATION WE HAVE BECOME WITH O’BYDUMB AND REGIME ….

    IMPEACH!!! now…needs to be implemented..

  8. Time for dementia Joe to resign

    11 Marines and one Navy medic were killed on Thursday by the attacks at Kabul airport

    President Biden has canceled his meetings to meet with Pentagon and defense chiefs to discuss the attacks

    At 3pm EST, General Kenneth F. McKenzie, the commander on the ground, spoke to reporters

    He said the evacuation would continue but that there were ‘active’ threats of ‘additional attacks’

    The first bomb was detonated in a suicide vest and the bomber was being searched by Marines

    It’s unclear how he got past Taliban check points before the airport to get close enough

    Gen. McKenzie said the US would retaliate against ISIS when they find the exact people responsible

    Other NATO countries begged Biden him to extend his August 31 deadline to get out but he refused

    Norway, Poland, Canada and Holland have now all stopped evacuating citizens from Afghanistan

    Biden is adamant he can get everyone out by August 31 but has offered no plan for how he will do it

  9. At a White House briefing on Aug 25, 2021, a reporter named Peter Alexander, asked Biden a question about the evacuation in Afghanistan:

    “What will you do if Americans are still there after the deadline?”

    Biden was at the lectern shuffling a paper and smiling at the end of the question. Biden answered:

    “You’ll be the first person I’ll call”, and then continued with his smile and smirk.

    A wise-a**, wise-guy, punk reaction and answer to a very serious question.

    This is our president. A buffoon, a plagiarist, a dope over the decades who has been displaying some kind of mental problem such as senility or dementia over the past two years.

    Waiting in the wings if there is a resignation or impeachment is another dope who, as VP, when asked serious questions starts cackling and laughing before giving a usually smart-aleck answer. This Nation is in for He** over the next 3.5 years.

  10. Sad new, but hardly unexpected.

    The prime fault is not the failure of an orderly safe withdrawal — that was never in the cards, whoever occupied the White House.

    The prime fault was going in there in the first place and then for two decades continuing to swallow the fantasy that it was a winnable conflict.

    Of course, someone (I’m bettin’ there will be lots of folks) immediately pops up and says, well, we could and should have prevented such a chaotic and sad exit.

    Really ?

    How ?

    (Remember Vietnam ?)

    Again, I agree with the veteran of two tours in Afghanistan who says anyone who pitches that narrative is simply lying to you.

  11. I’m sick of tin horn ‘patriots’ mewling about the current tragedy in Afghanistan.

    Another undeclared war for terrible pretexts was staged with the inevitable result.

    If 1/10th of the Moolah spent on that fool’s errand was directed to fortifying the southern border, our country would be in MUCH better shape.

    Can’t Wilcox fathom that?

    His cant sickens me.

    Hey Wilcox, put this in your crack pipe and smoke it awhile:

    https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-sheer-joy-of-afghanistan/

    I dare him or all the featherhead ‘patriots’ to soberly attack the fundamental premises of that piece. I dare him and them.

    Oh, and another thing: no afghan refugees should come here, not a single one. And one final thing Wilcox, I don’t give a flying fu.. about Uighers in Red China, and I will support no war against the Chinese for their benefit.

  12. The best part of this blog, is watching all these McHenry County ‘Harvard Grads’, descend into lunacy in real time.

  13. Terminator, you are absolutely right!

    Augustus, your article is right on, except for the parts extolling birdbrained Biden and his wire pullers. I curse Bush, Obama every day for prolonging and surging the war.

    I feel sorry for Trump.

    When he tried to get to the bottom of things and started asking the right questions, he was stymied by the rotten military brass and Deep State whores.

    Trump’s Mossad son in law Kushner also fouled things up.

    warning to Beijing Biden<<< Don't plan on relocating 500,000 Afghans in America.

  14. Bred, are you eating retarded sandwiches? Quit blaming the Taliban for 9/11. The Afghans had zero to do with it.

    Do you believe all the Cheney-Bush-Colin Powell fairy tales like Saddam having WMDs?

    Do you believe the Spaniards sabotaged the USS Maine in Havana harbor?

    Do you feel Noriega was an ‘existential danger’ to America?

    Do you swallow the ‘lone gunman’ tall tale about the coup which terminated JFK?

    Do you believe Biden won the last election?

    Do you think diversity makes nations stronger?

    If so, ask the Red Chinese, Japanese and Koreans why they won’t take any Muslims, Africans or Melanesians.

  15. I got a kick out of this excerpt from Augustus’ linked article:

    “The Taliban came into being in early 1990s, after the pro-Soviet government of Najibullah (many Afghans now say that he was the best ruler of the country in the 20th century) had been overthrown by the CIA-sponsored mujahedeen.

    “Against this background, the Taliban emerged as a grassroots movement for honesty, law and order, against the lawlessness of the warlords.

    “They managed to win in 1996, without bloodshed, triumphantly entering Kabul.

    “They stopped drug production and trade and practically eliminated the scourge.

    “This was their undoing.

    “The CIA wouldn’t allow meddling with drug supplies, for they wanted to keep the Americans in a narcotic-induced dream.”

  16. I’m trying to figure out what the hell Wilcox is babbling about with his ‘the Turks in Turkey’ living ‘in fear’ because of the Taliban taking their country back.

    Turkey is a NATO member ‘praising’ the Taliban takeover:

    “Turkey has praised Taliban since they captured Kabul, and has said it is open to engaging with them once a new government is formed.”

    https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/08/25/Taliban-ask-Turkey-for-support-to-run-airport-insist-on-full-military-withdraw

    Brazil, Argentina, Denmark, Finland, Japan, Switzerland and Italy have already recognized the Taliban govt.

  17. I’m with Lee and like what the Terminator asked.

    Will Wilcox answer any of it?

    I’m really tired of all the BS.

    Hey, I want St. Fou-chi and his CDC pukes, and The Prickster, to explain how the Taliban manager to do it so swiftly w/o any covid vaccinations or, omg, even w/o any masks

  18. Excuse me, but while you are all “buying” this latest Afghani story, you are being set up (once again) for another 9-1-1 type false flag event. This is how these scripted people get you hooked into their terror plots. Have you forgotten that Al Qaeda and Taliban are made up CIA entities? You are biting hard again and you will see their plot thicken shortly. They want the fear of their made-up entities to have you foaming at the mouth. Predictably, you are doing precisely what they know you will. Brace yourselves, because here we go again!

  19. On July 8, 2021, a reporter in the White House asked this question of President Biden:

    “Is the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan inevitable?”

    Biden responded:

    “No, it is not. The likelihood that there is going to be Tellybon overrunning everything and owning the whole country is unlikely.”

  20. 1. Why is Craig Wilcox lecturing us about “bullies” in Afghanistan when he won’t even stand up to bullies in Springfield as a state senator? This guy did absolutely NOTHING when Democrats met in a room to gerrymander districts for the next ten years, but now he wants to babble about showing bravery in a desert on the other side of the world? This man is completely backwards.

    2. He brings up the Greatest Generation. Maybe Wilcox is not a history buff, but from the time the U.S. got involved in WW2 until its end was less than 4 years. The Afghanistan occupation has been going on for 20 years! What Wilcox is arguing is to commit ANOTHER generation to a war that he admits has an unclear objective. There are people born after 9/11 who are in college or have kids now. How long does Wilcox want to keep sending our troops into harm’s way in an unwinnable war?

    3. Why is he commenting about foreign policy at all? This guy was elected to the Illinois Senate not the U.S. Senate. Maybe it’s because Wilcox is a completely ineffective legislator and he’s trying to distract us from that. This man’s presence would not be missed in Springfield whatsoever. And isn’t it strange how this state legislator jumps up to talk about keeping us in a war but had little to nothing to say about the 2020 election? It seems he is far more passionate about keeping us in a war than he is about federal elections or his own job as a state senator.

    4. Why is he bragging about his role in Libya? Does he think what happened there is a good thing? They went from a stable country to a civil war. They are now a hot spot for slavery and human trafficking and this guy Wilcox is bragging about his role in creating that? Their old dictator was deposed of through a CIA backed color revolution because he wanted to create a Pan-African bank, a Libyan gold backed currency, and trade oil for gold instead of U.S dollars. He literally wanted to make Africa great but some globohomo central bankers from America said everybody in the world has to do things our way or else face violence. Wilcox defends this rigged and barbaric system. He is not a hero — I don’t care how many medals from the transgender, critical race theory studying military this guy received.

    I have lost all respect for Craig Wilcox and I hope he loses his primary to a woman half his age. That would be funny and good.

  21. Cindy, I assure I’m not buying.

    9/11 was an an Israeli false flag op from top to bottom

  22. Just like the USS Liberty attack and the Lavon Affair…… if you care to research

  23. Correcting, Khadaffy, for all his faults, did prevent hundreds of thousands of sub Saharan Africans from descending like locusts in Europa.

    If Wilcox had a small hand in removing that obstacle, he’s a war criminal.

  24. I would add to that the hubris of the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the tower of an aircraft carrier as Bush, wearing a flight suit, inaccurately announced victory and an end of combat in Afghanistan, presumably so he could focus on his new war in Iraq.

    As the Taliban had not attacked or threatened America, had no means of doing so, and were even willing to turn over “their guest” Osama bin Laden to US justice after the bombing of the USS Cole in late 2000, they were hardly a formidable foe.

    The Bush Administration refused the offer to surrender bin Laden on four occasions before 9/11 and once more five days after the attack because it wanted a war.

    Given all of that backstory, what Bush and his posse of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Tenet, Feith, Powell and Libby did was indisputably a war crime.

    And they followed up with fake intelligence to justify a second war against Saddam Hussein, who had also sought to avoid war by offering to go into voluntary exile.

    The Nuremberg tribunals considered aggressive war against an unthreatening nation to be the ultimate war crime.

    That would make it an ultimate war crime times two, not to mention the killing of civilians and torture that went along with it.

    And President Barack Obama added to that toll by subsequently destroying an unthreatening Libya.

    Unfortunately, many of those war criminals from the Bush and Obama cliques who are still alive are sitting fat and pretty in retirement or in lucrative private sector positions while the only ones who have been punished are the whistleblowers who tried to stop the madness.

    https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-evil-that-men-do-lives-after-them/

  25. Thanks for reminding me, Transplant.

    I had forgotten that point but it’s definitely a big one, and it reminds me of how the U.S. interferes in central America, the middle east, and elsewhere and then our “leaders” tell us, “We went there and made a mess so now we have an obligation to take their people in!”

    This is hogwash.

    Nobody ever gave us a vote to overthrow foreign leaders, but now we have to foot the bill for these people?

    Even if you succeed in voting bad guys out of office, it seems to be the same shady unelected bureaucrats, advisers, and lobbyists pulling the strings.

    For example, Obama and Clinton’s people in the Biden admin, Reagan and W’s people in the Trump admin.

  26. ‘Col’ Wilcox needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

    He figured out a way not to pay high property taxes….. he pays ZERO.

    But it would be nice if he at least stood up for the oppressed McHenry taxpayer FOR ONCE!

    Instead he tears up about Afghanistan!

    In the past, white elites cared about white masses. But white masses don’t matter any more. Elites found a clever way to deal with mass politics. They promote BLM. This gives the impression that the rich elites care about the poor and disadvantaged folks. But why only mention black people? What about white working class? What about brown peons? But that would be Class Politics, and that could threaten the elites.

    So, the elites like Trump, Pritzker, Biden, Zuckerberg, Soros, etc., have conflated people politics with the idolatry of blackness.

    And as the elites own the BLM slogan, they get to own ‘people politics’ even though most people are not represented by BLM. If anything, white and brown masses are made to kowtow to blacks who rape, rob, kick their butts and commit the most crime.

    Elites also push for mass immigration and claim to care about immigrants, but immigration undermines people power because More People means lower wages and more division and dissension among the diverse divided folks.

  27. It must be sad for people like Wilcox to see the country fall apart.

    But it was screwed up 50 years ago.

    All these military idiots couldn’t keep the country protected from Israeli false flaggers (9/11) or hordes of invading third worlders.

    If the Defense Department (sic) were actually to defend the country they would have built a concertina wire fence along the Mexican border from Brownsville, Texas to San Ysidro, California, first thing.

    A concertina wire fence, 20 feet tall, 20 yards deep would be easy to construct and maintain. It could be built out of DoD inventory with the Army providing the labor.

    That is why it was never done; because it would be cheap, effective and easy to implement.

  28. LeopardMan, are you saying Wilcox has used the disabled veteran property tax exemption?

    I assume he can walk with no help? What is his issue?

    I have friends from Vietnam and Mideast military adventures that take the exemptions, and they deserve it, they lost body parts and can’t walk.

  29. Leopard what you wrote…. I take to heart.

    It’s true.

    Wilcox ain’t so bad.

    I’ve talked to him.

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