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Upset by President Joe Biden’s deadly, chaotic Afghanistan pull-out and vowing to prevent a future catastrophe, a group of former special military operators is forming a political action committee to help elect one-time Green Berets and a Navy SEAL to Congress.
Led by Green Beret vet Jason Bacon, a former GOP congressional candidate, the group launched Green Beret PAC on Monday, which will boost a number of U.S. Army Special Forces vets and other conservative former military special operators who are running for Congress during the 2022 midterms.
One of their objectives is to avoid another “travesty” like the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“It is no coincidence that we are launching on Memorial Day, less than a year after we witnessed the Biden administration’s failed leadership contribute to the loss of American lives in Afghanistan,” Bacon noted in a news release first reported by Fox News.
“It is imperative that we elect real leaders to Congress with the knowledge and experience to prevent this kind of travesty,” he added.
“Green Berets have spent years implementing U.S. Foreign Policy on the ground,” Bacon said. “They are warrior-diplomats, who have learned foreign languages, understand foreign cultures, and have lived among local populations. They have a breadth of experience that surpasses that of a typical Congressional candidate.”
“We are proud to support these outstanding candidates for Congress,” he concluded.
Fox News noted further:
The PAC is endorsing Christian Castelli in North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District, Pat Harrigan in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District, Derrick Anderson in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, Jay Collins in Florida’s 15th Congressional District, Tyler Allcorn in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, Joe Kent in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, Don Buldoc in New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race, Mike Waltz in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, and Eli Crane in Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District.
Each of these candidates is a Republican, and all are Green Berets, except Crane, who was a Navy SEAL.
The new PAC’s staff comprises mostly veterans, including Christopher Miller, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces Colonel and former U.S. secretary of defense. Miller will serve as the PAC’s chairman of the board.
Last year following the Afghan withdrawal — which was punctuated by the loss of 11 Marines, two U.S. Army soldiers, and a Navy corpsman to a suicide bomber who also killed around 160 Afghans — Biden defended himself, telling reporters in December that “no one’s come up with a way to indicated to me” how to withdraw “without anybody getting hurt.”
But critics ripped the president for breaking his own pledge not to leave any Americans behind, among other issues related to the pull-out.
“If there are American citizens left, we’re gonna stay to get them all out,” Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Aug. 16. However, on Aug. 31, just 15 days later, Biden marked the end of the Afghan war by admitting in a speech that “about 100 to 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan with some intention to leave.”
“We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. That number is more than double what most experts thought was possible. No nation — no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. Only the United States had the capacity and the will and the ability to do it, and we did it today,” he added at the time.
“What’s really troublesome and almost frightening to know is that we have a commander in chief who does not see the imperative of bringing the Americans home,” Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William “Jerry” Boykin told Fox News on Sept. 1. “That’s a longstanding ethos, not just of the military, but of America.”
He was one of several other retired military leaders who called for the resignations of Biden’s top military and diplomatic officials such as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan following the disastrous withdrawal.
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