Joe Biden, Floyd Austin, Antony Blinken and General Mark Milley Individual people and nations live and die by their maxims. Maxims are gen...
Joe Biden, Floyd Austin, Antony Blinken and General Mark Milley
Individual people and nations live and die by their maxims.
Maxims are general truths, fundamental principles, and rules of conduct. The word has been around for at least 700 years.
An American maxim recently died. “No one left behind.”
In a literal sense, it was never fully accurate. Wars have unavoidable ways of leaving some combatants behind
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier testifies that the remains of not all KIAs are identified.
“No one left behind:” Sometimes circumstances require that only the memory is not left behind
The Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (AKA: Punchbowl Cemetery) contain the names of those who died in World War II, and whose remains were never retrieved.
One name etched in marble there is that of a Utah man, who was on-board the last, allied, crew aircraft shot down in the war with Japan. The Kalamidy Kat, a PBY-5A (flying boat) US Army Airforce rescue plane, crashed in Tokyo Bay the day before Japan officially surrendered.
Of the seven on board, only the Engineer survived. He spent two weeks in a notorious Japanese POW camp named Ofuna, before he was repatriated and returned home to Texas.
There is no more patriotic college in America than Texas A & M University. Adjacent to the campus is a hall dedicated to the memory of those who left A & M, and later died in one of America’s wars.
One remembered there was a young Army officer killed in the final assault on Nazi Germany. His remains were never found.
Decades later a German citizen happened upon his large gold class ring and thoughtfully returned it an American relative. The relative donated it to A & M. Today the ring is encased there, along with a picture of the Aggie who once wore it.
Sometimes circumstances require that only the memory is not left behind.
In a later war, an escaped American POW in Vietnam was debriefed in an East Coast military base. He personally knew of other prisoners who never made it home alive, and who remain missing.
Testifying before Congress, they each took zero responsibility for their failures
Later, in the Mekong Delta, two US Army personnel at a Province Headquarters followed a lead on the location of a U.S. soldier held prisoner by the VC. When they got to the site, all they found was a stake in the ground, a rope around it, and a short blood trail.
So, it is true, sometimes unavoidable circumstances dictate that the remains of missing military personnel are left behind.
Over time, this maxim, “No one left behind,” was expanded to include American citizens held captive by hostile nations.
You’re familiar with their stories, including the young man that was held captive in North Korea, and finally returned home in a semi-comatose state where he died.
Recent events surrounding the American surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban now require that the maxim, “No one left behind,” be retired. Declared inoperative. Defunct.
The United States Government left American civilians behind in Afghanistan.
No one disputes that. And, apparently, no one in government knows exactly how many were abandoned.
Recently, the maxim was laid to rest when the current Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State absolved themselves of any responsibility in destroying “No one left behind”. It is now stone-cold dead. Any use of it going forward would be hypocritically blasphemous.
Three senior Biden administration officials admitted to knowingly and willingly leaving American citizens behind in Afghanistan. Their excuses for doing so were, in a polite word, vacuous. More descriptive wording would be inappropriate here.
Testifying before Congress, they each took zero responsibility for their failures.
And, in so doing, they not only laid waste to an American maxim, they revealed themselves as men who act without shame, and lack honor.
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