Austin, the first Black defense secretary, ends his term marred by Afghanistan but buoyed by Ukraine

WASHINGTON — Minister of Defense Lloyd Austin bid farewell on Friday to the armed forces and personnel he led during a tumultuous term that included three major military crises, a global pandemic and a personal confrontation with cancer that became a flashpoint because of the way it was mishandled.

In an emotion-filled ceremony, Austin announced his troops as the “most lethal fighting force on Earth” and told the packed crowd at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall that “we have stood up to our rivals for the past four years.” . We have weakened our enemies, strengthened our friends, invested in our future and done right by our people.”

In a subtle note to his successor, he said the job as head of the Pentagon “requires calmness, judgment and humility. It tests you, it tempers you.” But he also warned against any plans by the next administration to fire so-called “woke” generals who support diversity programs, or to remove women from combat jobs and decommission transgender troops.

“We are not lowering our standards for our recruits. We take good people and make them even better. And those who want to join us must raise their game,” Austin said. “But any military that turns away qualified patriots eager to serve only makes itself smaller and weaker.”

Austin, 71, spent 41 years of his life in a military uniform. He retired as a highly decorated four-star general who earned a Silver Star — an award for gallantry in action — for leading troops from the front during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He is one of many Pentagon leaders who served in combat and has “dust on his boots” — something newly elected President Donald Trump chose as Secretary of Defense. Piet Hegsethhas falsely claimed is his distinction and why he is needed to restore an army hollowed out by ‘woke’ diversity initiatives.

“There have been a lot of stories about how capable and how weak our military is,” Austin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You just have to look at the things we have done and the things we continue to do. do, in an instant.”

Austin retired from the military in 2016, but was asked to return to the Pentagon by President Joe Biden in 2021, making history. the country’s first black secretary of defense.

He took the helm of the Pentagon at the height of COVID-19 and just weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. a gang of Trump supporters. The department continued to work in its first months a divisive COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the power and a deep dive to determine if there was any a broader extremism problem in the ranks. More than 230 people with a military background were arrested in connection with the deadly January 6 uprising.

Austin repeatedly said he believed extremism was not a problem. In fact, service members and veterans who become radicalized represent only a fraction of a percentage point of the millions who served honorably. an Associated Press investigation Last year it turned out that it was on the rise.

But it would be the shocking collapse of the Afghan government in the face of the Taliban that would forever mar Austin’s tenure. The American withdrawal had been before negotiated by Trumpand as a result, there were only 2,500 US troops in Afghanistan when Biden took office.

To this day, there is a deep sense of betrayal among some veterans over the loss of Afghanistan, which became a key part of Trump’s return to office.

Biden’s decision to proceed with the withdrawal led to two chaotic weeks in August 2021, when the Air Force more than 124,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan in just 17 days.

C-17s and chartered Air Force planes landed nonstop at Kabul airport, but then 13 American soldiers and 170 Afghans were killed by a suicide bomber just days before the last American soldier left.

All the hard-won achievements of women and democracy were dismantled by the Taliban.

“There was a lot of speculation about what would happen if we left Afghanistan. The world would end. We would be attacked every day, and that just didn’t happen,” Austin said. ‘Some terrible things have happened in the field of women’s rights. We’ll just have to keep working on those things.”

The Biden administration was still reeling from the withdrawal when it began warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin was amassing hundreds of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border. prepared to invade. In response to the invasion, Austin created the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of more than 50 partner nations that sent more than $126 billion in weapons and training to Kiev in the three years that followed.

Then Hamas launched it is October 7, 2023, the attacks on Israel.

Austin ordered two aircraft carriers to immediately sail to the region, and in the year since, the sprawling conflict has spread to the Red Sea, disrupting trade and drawing the U.S. Navy into the most intense naval battle since World War II.

In addition to deploying drones, the Navy has also deployed anti-ship missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and ballistic missiles fired directly by Iran at Israel.

Austin praised the U.S. performance on these challenges in his final remarks Friday.

“We have rallied the free world to help Ukraine fight for its freedom against Putin’s imperial aggression. We have led a NATO alliance that is stronger, bigger and more united than ever,” he said. “We have prevented all-out war in the Middle East, we have seen Iranian allies wiped out across the region and we have worked tirelessly to save Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”

On one of Austin’s last days as president, the Defense Department’s inspector general issued a report his mishandling of his prostate cancer diagnosis in late 2023, when he failed to notify the White House of his hospitalization and disability due to complications with his treatment.

Austin is known as a deeply private man, and that desire for privacy came to a head his diagnosis and hospitalization.

“I don’t want my health to be a media circus,” Austin texted his chief of staff while in the hospital. It became just that, and after revelations that he had not notified Congress of his disability for days, new processes were put in place to prevent the lack of notice from happening again.