Yesterday’s hearing in the Senate regarding the Afghanistan “retrograde” was mildly partisan and staid, befitting that body’s reputation as “deliberative”. Today’s hearing in the House of Representative often resembled the movie Animal House with the role of Dean Wormer played by Representative Adam Smith (D-WA). Although there were many food fights, we are going to focus on Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his use of the new book Peril as a prop.

The Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Adam Smith, was a condescending peckerhead in his Dean Wormer role. Every time a Congresscritter brought up Joe Biden and his interview with George Stephanopoulos, Smith would say Biden didn’t say what you say he said. This is the relevant portion:

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no one told — your military advisors did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that”?

BIDEN: No. No one said that to me that I can recall. Look, George, the reason why it’s been stable for a year is because the last president said, “We’re leaving. And here’s the deal I wanna make with you, Taliban. We’re agreeing to leave if you agree not to attack us between now and the time we leave on May the 1st.”

Adam Smith would claim that the GOP was putting words in Biden’s mouth. Smith would read from the transcript and then interpret for the Republicans, what he thought Biden meant. He was a condescending peckerhead, Wormer-type.

In the video below, Smith “Wormer’s” Seth Moulton, a Democrat, and retired Marine Captain who served four tours in Iraq:

Yes, Seth, we are trying to have a meeting here.

Liz Cheney worked very hard to keep her Democrat knee pads and thanked Mark Milley for standing in the breach:

Addressing Milley during a House Armed Services Committee regarding Afghanistan, Cheney called out Republicans for whitewashing the deadly January 6 insurrection and enabling former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Cheney excoriated Republicans who’ve questioned Milley’s loyalty.

“General Milley you found yourself in your constitutionally prescribed role, standing in the breach. And for any member of this committee for any American to question your loyalty to our nation to question your understanding of our Constitution, your loyalty to our Constitution, your recognition and understanding of the civilian chain of command is despicable,” Cheney said.

“I want to thank you for standing in the breach, when so many, including many in this room, fail to do so,” she added.

Liz Cheney is such a Deep State, Military Industrial Complex Cheney. Typical.

Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI) got General McKenzie to admit that the suicide specialists group Badri 313 was guarding the gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport. What?

In a hearing before @HASCRepublicans, CENTCOM Commander Kenneth Mckenzie confirmed to Rep. Gallagher that the Taliban's Badri 313 unit, which specializes in suicide martyrdom, was guarding the Kabul airport prior to the suicide bombing that killed 13 American troops. pic.twitter.com/dhmkwkyNMj

— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) September 29, 2021

Who thought putting suicide bombing specialist in charge of security was a good idea? Milley? Austin? McKenzie? The parents of the 13 dead military personnel would love to know.

The award for best use of a prop goes to Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his use of the book “Peril” to confront Milley:

Rep. Matt Gaetz RIPS General Milley to shreds. pic.twitter.com/qU0STZ0ZxV

— Suburban Black Man 🇺🇸 (@goodblackdude) September 29, 2021

Standing ovation for Matt Gaetz. If you can’t watch the video in the tweet, here is the report from the New York Post:

“You really blew that call, didn’t you, General?” Gaetz said.

“You spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban, didn’t you?” Gaetz accused Milley, holding up a copy of the new book “Peril,” which claimed the general went behind then-President Donald Trump’s back to deal with China — assuring Beijing officials he would warn them of any planned military actions his commander-in-chief planned.

“Not even close,” Milley fired back.

“Oh really?” Gaetz pushed. “’Cause you said right after Kabul fell that no one could have anticipated the immediate fall of the Ghani government. When did you become aware that Joe Biden tried to get Ghani to lie about the conditions in Afghanistan? He did that in July. Did you know that right away?”

“I’m not aware of –” Milley began.

“You’re not aware of the phone call that Biden had with [then-Afghan president Ashraf] Ghani where he said, whether it is true or not, we want you to go out there and paint a rosy picture of what’s going on in Afghanistan? You’re the chief military adviser of the president,” the Florida congressman said.

But this next part is where Matt Gaetz achieved his zenith:

Soon after, Gaetz condemned Milley and Austin, saying he doesn’t believe they will resign, after the two, along with Gen. Frank McKenzie, told Congress on Tuesday that they have not submitted letters of resignation.

“You seem to be very happy failing up over there,” Gaetz condemned the military leaders. “But if we didn’t have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired because that is what you deserve.”

“You have let down the people who wear the uniform in my district and all around this country. And you’re far more interested in what your perception is and how people think about you, and insider Washington books, than you care about winning.”

But wait, there is more. Matt Gaetz got SecDef Lloyd Austin to say that he cannot judge whether someone has the will to fight. I have never trained for battle or been in a war. My experience is in advertising conference rooms, but I can look at someone and know whether she is committed to her work or not. Sheesh. It is evident that the Biden Junta looked all around and found people who were less competent than they were.

The three Pentagon Prats let us down. Our country has been defeated and humiliated by 10th century barbarians. We got few answers yesterday. The food fight in the House today was at least a little payback.

Featured Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)