Retiring General Lloyd Austin received the Silver Star when he was a deputy commanding general for the 3rd Infantry Division during the initial invasion of Iraq. He went on to combat commands of the 10th Mountain Division, the XVIII Airborne Corps, and US-Forces Iraq (formerly Multi-National Force Iraq). It was in that role that the picture above was taken, as you can tell from the fact that he is wearing the USF-I patch on his left shoulder, indicating it is his current assignment. He received a number of other decorations and awards over a long career of service.

However, late in his career he had the misfortune of rising to the favorable attention of President Barack Obama.  He was the USF-I commander when Obama took office, and it was Austin who had to execute the President’s disastrous decision to abandon Iraq prematurely.  Obama appreciated his faithful attention to orders, and eventually promoted Austin to lead US Central Command, which oversees operations across the Middle East including Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.  Austin was thus in place at the time that the disastrous decision to abandon Iraq was taken, and when the Islamic State (ISIS) began to come to the fore.  As he is only now retiring, he has also been Commander, US CENTCOM through the period when ISIS has grown and flourished into a regional power.

As a consequence, he is the perfect candidate to take the blame for the President’s catastrophic strategy.  According to an interview given by President Obama to the Atlantic, his failure to take the threat of ISIS seriously was prompted by Austin’s advice that ISIS was just a “flash in the pan.”  Who could blame the President, who never elected to serve in the military and has no understanding of war or military science, for following the advice of his top general?

There are two problems with this argument.  The first is that Austin never gave such advice.  The general took the unusual step of denying through military public affairs that he had ever given the advice.  The US Secretary of Defense’s spokesman agrees that Austin never gave such advice.  The fact is that the President ignored Austin’s advice — just as he did when Austin advised him against the precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, recommending keeping 20,000 troops in Iraq to ensure the stability of that nation’s fledgling democracy.  Then, having ignored his advice, President Obama chose to slander him.

Austin’s tenure at CENTCOM has tried to be faithful to the President’s line as far as it was possible to do so.  Intelligence analysts say CENTCOM brass pushed hard against intelligence reports suggesting that the President’s policies were failing.  The most serious charges are that the analysts who wouldn’t go along with the President were sidelined, and that the atmosphere at CENTCOM’s intelligence section became increasingly poisonous as it became harder and harder to deny reality.

But it was Austin himself who went before Congress and admitted that the President’s plan to build a counter-ISIS force had failed completely.  Lawmakers were stunned to learn that the program, after the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars, had produced only a handful — “four or five” — fighters.

While trying to execute that plan, critical months were wasted by the Administration.  Austin cannot be blamed for having failed to try to faithfully execute his orders.  His advice seems to have been good, and he was honest to Congress even when it must have caused him intense personal humiliation in a public hearing.  Austin might have done more good by pushing back harder against his President, but it is worth remembering that he had sworn an oath to obey all lawful Presidential orders.  The orders were bad, they were unwise, but they weren’t illegal.

The fault lies with one man, and it is not General Austin.