Obama Army Sec’y: Afghanistan Gold Star Families Deserve Accountability for Poor Planning, Failing to Learn from Iraq

On Wednesday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show,” former Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA), who also served as Secretary of the Army in the Obama administration, stated that the families of the American troops killed at the Kabul airport attack deserve a briefing and both the Trump and Biden administrations “need to hold themselves accountable” and “the proper planning was not done.” And lessons from the withdrawal from Iraq weren’t learned.

Host Brian Kilmeade said, “Just brief people. Brief the families about what happened.”

Murphy responded, “Yeah. To me, people forget about the fact that we’ve asked less than 1% to serve the longest wars in American history. … And when it comes to Afghanistan, I understand there [are] commissions and stuff like that, but you’ve got to get in front of it. You’ve got to let people know what’s going on, the lessons learned.”

Later, Murphy added, “I get it, exits are always — transitions are always tough, right? But I look at it like the proper planning was not done. And proper planning prevents piss-poor performance. It was not communicated…and we could have done a lot better as a country. And I think both administrations, because President Trump called for the withdrawal too…but both of them need to hold themselves accountable in both administrations. And I don’t think they were doing a good enough job talking to people, especially at [Abbey Gate], because they’re the families that are hurting.”

He further stated, “Secondly, we learned in Iraq that it’s important to leave a strategic strike force behind to make sure that you have — again, not in the middle of the city where you’re getting mortared and all that stuff.”

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