We learned this week that then Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen, while chatting with a group of soldiers during a December 2009 visit to Afghanistan, was asked about the desertion of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. His response indicated that he was fully briefed on the circumstances surrounding Bergdahl’s disappearance.
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan recalled Admiral Mullen’s acknowledgement of the Bergdahl desertion circumstances, causing questions about when the president knew. (outservemag.com)
It prompted many to speculate that he surely informed the president of what he had learned. Four years later, President Obama walked out of the White House with his arm around Bergdahl’s mother (below) and proudly talked of the sergeant’s return.
A reading of the transcript, however, reveals the president carefully avoiding any overt praise for Bergdahl’s service leading one to believe Mullen had briefed him. Yet, unbelievably, he still thought it was wise to stage the Rose Garden appearance.
Six months later, however, Susan Rice, the president’s national security advisor, told a TV audience that Bergdahl “served with honor and distinction.” When she speaks, you know she is speaking for the president.
On a number of occasions I have written about then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s selection of Admiral Mullen and Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering to co-chair her Accountability Review Board (ARB), convened to examine the facts and circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on our Benghazi compound.
To refresh your memory, the retired Mullen and Ambassador Pickering were to investigate the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, the first ambassador to be murdered in over two decades, and Americans Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
It is not my intention to rehash the ARB findings, though there were many, I find it important to again remind you that the ARB found that while “certain senior State Department officials within two bureaus in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability,” the Board “did not find any individual U.S. Government employee engaged in misconduct or willfully ignored his or her responsibilities …”
I trust you remember that Clinton, who ignored five months of clear warnings, was not interviewed by either Mullen or Pickering. Job well done.
If you need further recognition that the president had succeeded in politicizing the office of the Joint Chiefs, it became clear with Mullen’s surprising testimony before Congress in support of the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It was the single achievement Obama could point to during Mullen’s retirement ceremony, otherwise filled with platitudes about having a stronger military and a more secure nation.
I understand the lack of trust we have learned to expect of the Obama-Clinton team, but it disturbs me to see our military leaders succumb to the “star-dom” of the Pentagon.
Meanwhile, the headline across the top of Friday’s USA Today read, Army morale startlingly low. Surveys have revealed a diminished respect for superiors and a lack of leadership from Washington.
