Republican senator blocks promotion of generals involved in Afghanistan withdrawal, sources say

The promotion of a three-star general who was part of the 2021 American withdrawal from Afghanistan has been interrupted by Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, three sources familiar with the move confirmed to CBS News on Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue would be promoted to four-star rank and assume command of the U.S. Army in Europe. However, he was not included in a slate of nearly 1,000 promotions that passed through the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, despite receiving a recommendation from the Pentagon.

Mullin has stopped the promotion. The intention is to give the new Republican-controlled Congress and President-elect Donald Trump a chance to weigh in on the promotion given Donahue’s involvement in the Afghanistan withdrawal, two sources familiar with the situation said to CBS News.

Behind the scenes, there is an effort underway by the military and other allies to convince Congress to move forward and lift the clampdown, which appears to be politically motivated, sources said.

During the day the campaignTrump repeatedly reported his surprise that no officers were subsequently fired by President Biden over the chaotic withdrawal.

Military officers implement U.S. policy, but do not create it. It was the Trump administration that in February 2020 brokered the deal with the Taliban to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, but it was Mr. Biden who decided to carry out that withdrawal despite the Taliban violating the terms of that US agreement.

Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan in 2021. The U.S. evacuated about 125,000 people, including 6,000 Americans, during the course of the withdrawal, killing dozens of Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. in a suicide attack outside Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.

The US underestimated the speed at which the Taliban would capture Kabul, and the US’s well-documented logistical and planning failures have been a focus of multiple internal investigations at the Pentagon, the State Department and in Congress.

An extensive report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released last year found that “inadequate” planning, communication errors and an inability to understand “the scale and scope of the operation” contributed to the chaotic operation.

CBS News reached out to Mullin’s office but did not receive a response. It is not clear whether Trump is aware of the blockade.

contributed to this report.