Trump Team Weighs Courts-Martial For Officers Who Oversaw Afghanistan Withdrawal

Donald Trump’s transition team is making a list of senior military officers who oversaw the disastrous 2021 withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, and considering the possibility of court-martialing them for their failings, according to two sources cited by NBC News.  

“They’re taking it very seriously,” said a source who claims to have knowledge of the initiative. The most notorious incident of the chaotic withdrawal was the Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Thirteen US service members and more than 170 Afghan civilians were killed. In the following days, a US airstrike intended to kill the leader of the Islamic State instead killed 10 innocents. The rapid collapse of the US-sponsored Afghanistan government allowed enormous quantities of US weapons to fall into the hands of the Taliban. 

Trump repeatedly pointed to the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle during his 2024 presidential campaign, calling the day of the suicide bombing “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.” Now, his transition team is exploring the creation of a commission to probe the decision-making that accompanied the withdrawal and to assess whether leaders could be charged and court-martialed. The team is even said to be considering whether officers who’ve left the military might be recalled to active duty to face military justice.

Potential charges include treason, a notion that seems far more rooted in casual use of the term than any reasoned legal analysis. Perhaps one might try to make the case that the forfeiture of a vast arsenal to the Taliban gave “aid and comfort” to enemies of the United States, but it seems highly doubtful such an argument would prevail in a court-martial. Alternatively, charges could theoretically be brought under provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice covering dereliction of duty, conduct unbecoming an officer, or negligent homicide.  

Three years ago today, American service members enduring some of the most unimaginable conditions of the entire GWOT during our chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, were attacked at Kabul Airport’s Abbey Gate. pic.twitter.com/BSeB8YG1Dh

— Black Rifle Coffee (@blckriflecoffee) August 26, 2024

Pete Segseth, the Fox news host whom Trump wants to appoint as Secretary of Defense, has leveled his own withering criticism at senior miltary officers. In his book “The War on Warriors,” he wrote: 

“These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops, and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily…And, to this moment, they keep their jobs. Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values — by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas. They are an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.” 

According to NBC’s sources, the transition team’s Afghanistan accountability initiative is being led by Matt Flynn, who’d previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats. A North Carolina Army National Guard member, he has also held roles at the Department of the Interior, the White House, Department of State and Congress.

News of the potential prosecution of senior officers comes after earlier reports that the Trump transition team would establish a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel which would be granted the power to review three- and four-star officers and recommend any removals of those deemed unfit for leadership. Such a board would likely target generals and admirals who’ve embraced woke ideology and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.