{"id":16178,"date":"2022-03-07T20:58:11","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T20:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/03\/07\/niger-syndrome-goes-mainstream-abbey-gate-attack-shows-commanders-are-failing-to-assess-risks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T02:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T02:02:23","slug":"niger-syndrome-goes-mainstream-abbey-gate-attack-shows-commanders-are-failing-to-assess-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/opinion\/2022\/03\/07\/niger-syndrome-goes-mainstream-abbey-gate-attack-shows-commanders-are-failing-to-assess-risks\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger Syndrome goes mainstream: Abbey Gate attack shows commanders are failing to assess risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I once observed retired Marine Maj. Gen. Lawrence Livingston say: \u201cI will use every god d*#! round I have to save the life of one Marine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During 1990-1991, I served under Livingston, then a colonel, both before and during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm<\/a>, when he commanded the 6th Marine Regiment<\/a>. I loved Livingston. He was brutally honest, guided by integrity, tactically proficient and used every asset at his disposal to maximize the safety and success of his Marines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He epitomized the opposite of what I call the Niger Syndrome \u2014 essentially, commanders ordering military forces to execute a mission, but failing to properly assess mission risk and therefore failing to allocate adequate risk mitigation measures. The underlying factor creating the Niger Syndrome is a failure by the commander to view and therefore care for the members of the unit as brothers, sisters, sons and daughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Niger Syndrome was a fundamental cause for the deaths of four members of Army ODA 3212<\/a> and five Nigerien partner soldiers on Oct. 4, 2017, during an ambush near Tongo Tongo, Niger<\/a>. My youngest son, Bryan, was one of the four.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, the lives of those who loved Bryan have settled into a rhythm in which, while grateful for the grace and goodness of God, we yet live with the ache of loss. Often, that ache is unnoticed, but every now and then that ache pushes through the scars, and we again feel that intense, indescribable grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, that grief broke through on Aug. 26, 2021, when the news broke that 13 U.S. service members were killed by a suicide bomber at Hamid Karzai Airport during the Afghanistan evacuation. I grieved for the 13 killed, for their families and for their brothers and sisters in arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A U.S. Army carry team transfers the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Wright of Lyons, Ga., late Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017, upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base, Del. Wright was one of four U.S. troops and four Niger forces killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month. (Staff Sgt. Aaron J. Jenne\/Air Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In February 2022, the Pentagon concluded following an investigation into the attack on Hamid Karzai Airport\u2019s Abbey Gate<\/a> that, based on the tactical situation, the attack was \u201cnot preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After I heard this, I grew angry, because I realized that the Niger Syndrome had gone mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tactical force conducting the evacuation had been assigned a mission in which the risk assessment was inadequate, and therefore the mission assigned to the unit had not been configured with the assets necessary to prevent lethal attacks. The world\u2019s most powerful military failed to properly assess risk, and thus failed to plan and resource the mission to maximize both protection and success for the tactical force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had failed to \u201cuse every god d*#! round.\u201d If there had been multiple attacks, suicide or otherwise, the casualties could very easily have been much higher.<\/p>\n\n\n\t