Commentary
Looking back into my archives, I found that I commented several times on the suicide bomb that took the lives of 13 U.S. service members and nearly 200 civilians at Afghanistan’s Kabul Airport on August 26, 2021.
This past Tuesday that failure was again brought home, this time from the testimony of the Afghanistan Gold Star Families, who lost loved ones in the bombing.
Space will not permit me to provide you with all of the testimony delivered on behalf of the 13 men and women lost on August 26, 2021, however, one in particular was so compelling, that I had to repeat it here.
It was the statement of Gold Star Mom, Cheryl Rex, who described having a visceral reaction to President Biden’s comments over her son’s death at the transfer ceremony when she received the body of her son, Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola.
“His words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill, and I know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin,” Rex recounted. She became enraged, knowing full well that Beau Biden died of brain cancer on U.S. soil.
“My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died of cancer, and they were able to be by his side.”
Incidentally, that was six years after he came home from a year-long deployment in Iraq. It wasn’t the first time he chose to speak of Beau’s death while he presented awards to service members.
Rex related how she “wondered how someone could honestly say,’ I’m sorry,’ to be so heartless to say he “knew how I felt over 24 hours after learning of my son’s death.”
“After this encounter,” she said, “I have never had any personal correspondence nor has my son been honored or his name spoken by this commander-in-chief or his administration.
Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, had words for Biden and military leaders, too. “They called this evacuation a success, as if there should be celebration. It is like a knife in the heart for our families and for the people who came back. I live every single day knowing that these deaths were preventable. My daughter could be with us today.”
Kramerontheright vividly recalls the moments when the 13 bodies were returned from Afghanistan, when President Biden was caught checking his watch during the solemn ceremony. Disgraceful.
Looking back, I expressed my sympathies to the loved ones of those who died, but my primary emphasis was on the fact that the loss of those lives didn’t have to happen. I wanted accountability, beginning with President Biden, who we now know rejected the advice of his military advisors on the withdrawal.
The advice of military leaders going into the withdrawal “was received by the president and considered by the president, for sure,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. “In terms of what they specifically recommended … they’re not going to provide what they recommended in confidence.”
Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on September 28, 2021, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff described the end of the war in Afghanistan as a “strategic failure.” With him were Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of Central Command who acknowledged various mistakes the Biden administration made in the drawdown, all while terming it a “logistical success.”
Regular readers of Kramerontheright will recall my calls for accountability for the manner in which the withdrawal was ordered and executed.
Foolishly, I thought the riveting testimony of Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews describing his account of events on the day 13 of our finest were killed during his appearance before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 8, 2023 would stir them to demand accountability by the Pentagon.
He gave legislators a searing account of the events leading up to and immediately following the suicide bomber attack amongst those gathered at the Kabul Airport’s Abby Gate.
Vargas-Andrews tearfully recalled how he and his team spotted the suicide bomber before he could detonate his device, but the chain of command would not support his sniper team’s request to take him out.
As a result, Vargas-Andrews suffered the loss of his right arm and left leg. In the conclusion of his testimony, he stated that he felt “the U.S. government failed the 13 service members who died at Abby Gate. The withdrawal was a catastrophe, and there was an inexcusable lack of accountability and negligence. The 11 Marines, one sailor and one soldier that were murdered that day have not been answered for.”
My thanks to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), who convened the congressional forum of Gold Star families in Escondido, California, giving them an opportunity to again bring attention to the tragic event on August 26, 2021.
It has been said that President Biden’s mishandling of the Afghan withdrawal will haunt him in the 2024 election. One can only hope.
May God continue to bless the United State of America.
