One former senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that under President Biden, top officials held meetings on “culture war” issues every week, and sometimes more. The roster of those attending included Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the secretaries of all the military departments, that official said.
“They never met once on readiness. But they met every week on transgender issues, extremism, racism, sexual assault, sexual harassment, et cetera,” a former official said, adding that that the focus likely distracted from Afghanistan planning.
“There’s only 168 hours in a week. They were spending all their time on these things, particularly early on. Yes, they were distracted,” an official said.
The U.S. military was slow to adjust its withdrawal plans even as the Taliban began taking the country piece by piece throughout the summer, culminating in the fall of Kabul and the seizure of billions of dollars of U.S.-supplied military equipment.
“The political leadership are unfocused on mission. They’re focused on just waging a culture war against our service members,” an official said.