[BPR] The president’s nomination for an ambassadorship was ripped by a former Green Beret as "just another slap in the face" to veterans following her role pertaining to the Afghanistan withdrawal.One need look no further than Vice President Kamala Harris to see that failing up has been a consistent theme from President Joe Biden’s administration. In keeping with that, the commander-in-chief also demonstrated his apparent disconnect with the views of the military community as he nominated career State Department official Tracey Jacobson, 59, as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Iraq.
While Jacobson’s record included previous service as U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kosovo among other positions, her role in charge of the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 was viewed by veterans as a massive failure for allies in the region.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Scott Mann qualified the performance in seeing to the needs of as many as 150,000 allies that were abandoned as a "colossal embarrassment."
"The U.S. State Department role in all of this has been a colossal embarrassment and this promotion is just another slap in the face to the veteran population," the former Green Beret told the Mail. "Instead of being held to account and relieved her duties [Jacobson] was promoted."
"900 days after the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, U.S. veterans are still maintaining the lifelines to our U.S. Allies who face retribution, torture, and execution," he detailed.
Following the withdrawal that had included the tragic bombing death of 13 U.S. service members at the airport in Kabul, the SIV program was supposed to help allies that included translators and military personnel escape the Middle Eastern country as terrorists regained control