This is my 100th post, and I had planned to write something completely different. But things can change in the blink of an eye, so I hope you won’t mind my personal thoughts on what’s going on in Afghanistan as someone who grew up with Marines, and has been a military historian for 45 years.

First, let’s define the phrase “dereliction of duty.” Basically it’s either deliberately refusing to perform one’s duties, or being incapable on some level of performing his/her duties. If you want to read the specifics, take a look at Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. As Commander-in-Chief of the US military, the President of the United States is in charge of overseeing all diplomatic and military missions. My personal belief is that the President has been derelict in his duties in the drawdown in Afghanistan.

The problem is not whether or not we should leave Afghanistan. Presidents of both parties have wanted to leave, though keeping s small residual force to provide intelligence and avoiding a resurgence of al Qada. The problem is HOW we’re leaving. We are in the middle of an unmitigated disaster which the President brought on his country. Specifically, our military, our civilians in Afghanistan, the translators and other Afghanis who worked with the Americans, our NATO allies who fought (and died) alongside us. And the Afghan women and girls who have become doctors, nurses, journalists, teachers, lawyers etc., are now being send back into the Stone Age. (And if that weren’t bad enough, in the cut-and run orders, we left billions of dollars in in weapons from bullets to night vision goggles, to helicopters.) He received numerous intelligence estimates for months., and much the same from high-ranking officers in both the Pentagon and State Department.

He was tole that if he wished to draw down from Afghanistan, there’s a reasonable way to do so. You quietly start taking out our civilians first. Then you quietly start taking out the Afghanis and their families who worked with us. You make sure that our allies are getting their people out, then the few remaining embassy personnel. Only then does our military leave.

Instead the C-in-C has left tens of thousands of people stuck in Kabul and other parts of the country. The military was ordered to leave immediately–including Bagram Air Base–the safest and fastest airport to use. Then, when it became clear that the Taliban were in charge, the State Department told the Americans and Afghan partners to get to the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul. Of course, they would have to get through Taliban check-points and through the gates which are help by the Taliban. This entire debacle has little to do with military options. The decision was made for purely political reasons–and even that isn’t working out the way it was expected.

If you don’t believe me, ask a friend who’s spent time in the military. I did an informal pole this morning with several of them–including a Marine who’s been a second lieutenant for all of two months–and every one said that this drawdown was an obvious disaster from the beginning. Or take a look at the Wall Street Journal or The Washington Post or the Examiner. You can look at Reuters or the AP or the Daily Mail online. Maybe watch some of the discussions in the British Parliament on Wednesday evening. Go online and listen to what Emmanuel Macron of France, Angela Merke of Germanyl, or even Prime Minister Draghi of Italy. It’s the same everywhere.

Think about Wake Island. Chosin Reservoir. The burning of the Capital during the War of 1812. Americans have lost many times. But we have never run away. No president has ordered our men to leave. And that’s why I believe that he had been derelict in his duty, and should resign.