I am a Democrat and Seth Moulton is my Congressman. I voted for him in every general election where he was the Democratic candidate. I read Joan Vennochi’s recent column in the Boston Globe regarding his criticisms of President Joe Biden closely. I found them disturbing.
Unfortunately, Vennochi’s column began with a factual error regarding Moulton’s military service. Moulton joined the U.S. Marine Corps a few months before 9/11, not after it and, to be clear, I would never denigrate Moulton’s war service. He signed up to serve and he served loyally in a war he could not have foreseen.
Most notably, Moulton served on the staff of Gen. David Petraeus, father of The Surge. The evidence suggests that none of his surges “worked,” if “working” means ultimate success.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in which Petraeus participated, were utter failures. With regard to the conditions in Afghanistan and why we failed, I would recommend the writings of Sarah Chayes. She arrived in Kandahar in 2001 as a reporter for National Public Radio and lived there for a decade.
She became a Pashtun speaker, created nonprofits to help Afghan women redefine their roles, and advised the U.S. military without becoming a bureaucrat. She is a reliable and well-informed source. Her views are at odds with those of Congressman Moulton.
Scott Ferson, a one-time consultant to Moulton, made almost perfect sense when he observed, “It’s the intelligence failure of the withdrawal that needs to be talked about amongst Democrats.” Actually, the intelligence failures and others began long before Biden’s decision to withdraw.
We spent almost 20 years lying to ourselves about the military situation in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The Military/Intelligence Complex, a partner of the Military/Industrial Complex that Eisenhower warned us about, started by lying to themselves. The lies were then passed on to the rest of us as facts. I’m not talking about the grunts in the field who gave loyal service. I’m talking about the professionals who are, by nature, and above all else, “gung ho” while also making sure to cover their backside. We saw this throughout the Vietnam War and then Afghanistan and the Second Gulf War which continues to this hour.
George H. W. Bush deserves to be remembered for the clarity of his wisdom in the First Gulf War. “Here is your mission,” he told the generals, “Get in, win, get out.” Perfect!
What’s happened in recent days in Kabul was created, above all else, by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Then, with the help of CIA Director George Tenet, they dragged poor Colin Powell into it.
The Powell Doctrine, generated by his experience in Vietnam, should have been the dominant one. It says that you should know what you are doing — its beginning, middle and end — before you make the commitment to start in the first place. Instead, we got the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Tenet Doctrine: “Lie and then build upon that lie.”
I’m not sure where Mr. Moulton’s loyalty lies but I’m afraid it may be to Gen. Petraeus and the Military/Intelligence hierarchy rather than to the person who has taken responsibility for doing what should have been done long ago. If so, that loyalty is misplaced.
There is no benefit to anyone by Moulton jumping all over President Biden. Mr. Biden took the very difficult situation that was handed to him and did what he knew must be done. There was no Gen. Petraeus assuring him of victory as he had to President Obama. He knew it was over. We all wish it had gone more smoothly but I’m not sure “going smoothly” was ever in the cards.
Almost 20 years ago, the precedent George H. W. Bush set was available and clear. His son ignored it. He decided to start us toward the abyss that the Military/Intelligence Complex assured us was not there. He should have known better. He should have listened to his father. Instead, he listened to Cheney and Tenet, who had never served in the military and Rumsfeld, who like himself, never participated in a military campaign. Moulton comes from a very different place. He was there and he fought. But his attacks on President Biden only obscure the righteousness of Mr. Biden’s difficult choice.
Jim Walsh is the chair of the Nahant Democratic Town Committee. This piece is his personal opinion, not that of the Town Committee.