JES

Pete Hegseth was reportedly handed a briefing card explaining why a highly decorated U.S. general was not responsible for security at the site of the deadly Kabul airport bombing. He glanced at it — and, according to The New York Times, replied: “I don’t care.” That is one of the most striking revelations in a New York Times investigation into the campaign against Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of the U.S. Army’s most experienced combat commanders. According to the Times, Hegseth believed Donald Trump wanted someone held accountable for the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and the suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed 13 American service members. Donahue was a senior commander at the airport, but his paratroopers were not responsible for security at Abbey Gate when the bomber struck. Marines were manning the gate. In other words, Donahue appears to have become a convenient target — partly because he was the general in one of the defining images of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The famous night-vision photograph shows Donahue boarding the final U.S. military flight out of Kabul, making him the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan. Hegseth reportedly became fixated on the image and repeatedly referred to it as a “selfie.” It wasn’t. The photograph was taken by an Army photographer. Donahue did not take it and did not distribute it. Hegseth’s then-chief of staff, Joe Kasper, reportedly tried to correct the record. On the way to the White House, Kasper handed Hegseth a card laying out several basic facts: the photograph was not a selfie, Donahue had not distributed it, and Donahue’s troops were not responsible for Abbey Gate when the bombing occurred. According to the Times, Hegseth briefly looked at the card, handed it back and said: “I don’t care.” Donahue’s military record makes the episode even more extraordinary. He served for roughly three decades, completed more than 20 combat deployments, commanded Delta Force and later helped develop new approaches to drone warfare after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. His supporters reportedly regarded him as a generational military talent. Yet the more senior officers and lawmakers tried to defend him, the more determined Hegseth allegedly became. An effort to arrange a meeting between Donahue and Vice President JD Vance was reportedly derailed after Hegseth learned about it. Senators were later told that lobbying on Donahue’s behalf was only hardening Hegseth’s position. On August 27, Donahue retired from the Army. The contrast is remarkable. When a congressman previously suggested that troops deployed to Los Angeles had not been properly cared for, Hegseth indignantly declared: “No one in senior leadership cares more about troops than this secretary.” But when his own chief of staff reportedly placed evidence in front of him showing that a distinguished combat commander was not responsible for the security failure Hegseth associated him with — and that the supposed “selfie” he had fixated on wasn’t even a selfie — Hegseth apparently did not ask for more information. He did not reconsider. He did not ask whether he might be scapegoating the wrong man. According to The New York Times, he simply handed the card back: “I don’t care.” Those three words say more about the episode than any congressional testimony ever could. P.S. I'm moving from Twitter/X to Substack. Join me there for independent journalism, investigations, and political analysis. Free and paid subscriptions are welcome. mykhailorohoza.substack.com