Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford, right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets with Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., commander of the Resolute Support mission and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 15, 2016. DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando
Paul Szoldra, Task & Purpose: Does Gen. Dunford Actually Believe His Own Bullsh-t?
I often wonder whether four-star generals actually believe their own bullshit.
That thought has crossed my mind more than once after reading quotes from Gen. Joseph Dunford, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. You see, old “fightin’ Joe” has been in the news quite a bit lately, since he recently took a trip over to Afghanistan to learn firsthand how everything is shaping up.
Predictably, he returned and told us that, yes, there are a few issues here or there still to be worked out, but he’s “encouraged by the progress” in Afghanistan, some 17 years after the first American boots were on the ground.
Does Dunford actually buy this sales line of “progress” that has been offered ad nauseam by just about every general in Afghanistan for the past 10 years?
Or how about another DoD news item from a week ago, when Dunford talked up the “fundamentally different” strategy of advising and assisting Afghan security forces that was recently implemented by the Trump administration? He told reporters traveling with him that 2018 was “not another year of the same thing we’ve been doing.”
Really, Joe? I’d like to fact check you for a moment here if I could.
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WNU Editor: Paul Szoldra from Task & Purpose has been a harsh critic of the U.S.-Afghan military strategy and its leadership for a long time, and he does not disappoint here.
