A reported plan crafted by Donald Trump‘s transition team to court-martial military leaders is being criticized as “utter nonsense” by retired General Barry McCaffrey.
An NBC News report over the weekend said that Trump’s transition team is compiling a list of current and former military officials to potentially charge them with treason over the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The plan includes recalling retired officials to active duty to court-martial them, NBC News reported, a move McCaffrey said is unprecedented and unlikely to succeed.
“This is utter nonsense,” McCaffrey said during an MSNBC appearance on Monday. “What is not utter nonsense is this is a political attack of utmost hypocrisy.”
McCaffrey pointed out that Trump reduced troop levels in Afghanistan and negotiated directly with the Taliban, actions he said contributed to the challenges during the military withdrawal.
McCaffrey also criticized broader aspects of the reported plan, including proposals to review and potentially fire top military leaders, calling it “a terrible beginning to a new administration.”
“I think it is going nowhere, but it is a disaster signal to the armed forces,” he said.
Nesweek hascontacted the Trump transition team via email for comment.
McCaffrey is not the first public figure to criticize the reported plan. Tara Setmayer, a former Republican consultant, also condemned it, comparing the plan to tactics used by authoritarian regimes.
“This is what Donald Trump said he was going to do. This is what he has been telegraphing for years,” Setmayer said this past Saturday on MSNBC.
Setmayer also called the reported plan “chilling,” likening it to actions taken by regimes like that of Chile’s former President Augusto Pinochet.
In its report, NBC News cited unnamed sources familiar with Trump’s planning, including a U.S. official who suggested the effort could lead to a commission to review decisions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The report identified Matthew Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, as the person who would lead the initiative.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the Afghanistan withdrawal, describing it as a “humiliation” and blaming President Joe Biden‘s administration.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, has criticized the Pentagon‘s leadership for the withdrawal and called for widespread leadership changes.
In his book The War on Warriors, Hegseth called for overhauling the Pentagon leadership, writing, “Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example.”
The Trump administration initiated the withdrawal process by signing a 2020 agreement with the Taliban, setting the stage for U.S. troop pullout.
In 2022, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction released a report in that attributed the chaotic withdrawal to missteps by both the Trump and Biden administrations.
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