McChrystal: ‘Impossible to Argue’ War on Terror Was Worth It
In November 2020, as he deceitfully insisted he had won re-election, Donald Trump gestured at ending the Afghanistan war. He purged several senior Pentagon appointees and installed as acting defense secretary a thematically apt choice.
The new acting secretary was a longtime counterterrorism figure named Chris Miller. A Green Beret colonel before he entered the vast security bureaucracy, Miller personally gave as much to the War on Terror as anyone has. He was among the advance deployment of special operators who arrived in Afghanistan ahead of the October 2001 invasion. His official biography describes “numerous follow-on deployments” to both Afghanistan and Iraq; the precise details are classified. Miller’s last-minute elevation to the penultimate position in the chain of command had bypassed the Senate-confirmed deputy defense secretary and was legally questionable.
Speaking in the Pentagon briefing room for the first time, Miller hailed Trump for having arrived at a “successful and responsible conclusion” to the United States’ longest foreign war. He hailed the sacrifices of American troops and left after eight minutes without taking questions.