Associated Press
Former President Donald Trump on Monday is tying Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of three of the slain service members — Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss. Later in the day, he was going to Michigan to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference.
Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed the American service members and more than 100 Afghans. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Biden administration was following a withdrawal commitment and timeline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020. A 2022 review by a government-appointed special investigator concluded decisions made by both Trump and President Joe Biden were the key factors leading to the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s military and the Taliban takeover.
On his Truth Social site Monday, Trump called the withdrawal “the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead.
“You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done,” he said in the post.
Since Biden ended his reelection bid, Trump has been zeroing in on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her roles in foreign policy decisions. He has specifically highlighted the Vice President’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.
“She bragged that she would be the last person in the room, and she was. She was the last person in the room with Biden when the two of them decided to pull the troops out of Afghanistan,” he said last week in a North Carolina rally. “She had the final vote. She had the final say, and she was all for it.”
In her own statement marking the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack, Harris said she mourns the 13 U.S. service members who were killed. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. My heart breaks for their pain and their loss,” she said.
Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.
“As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”
The relatives of some of the American service members who were killed appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month, saying Biden had never publicly named their loved ones.
“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Sgt. Gee, told the crowd. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”
In a statement Monday on the Kabul attack anniversary, Biden said the 13 Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless.”
“Ever since I became Vice President, I carried a card with me every day that listed the exact number of American service members who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan—including Taylor, Johanny, Nicole, Hunter, Daegan, Humberto, David, Jared, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Maxton, and Ryan,” Biden said.
Also Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, announced that Congress will posthumously honor the 13 service members by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal next month. It’s the highest civilian award that Congress can bestow.
Under Trump, the United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban that was aimed at ending America’s longest war and bringing U.S. troops home. Biden later pointed to that agreement as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, saying it bound him to withdraw troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.
A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, and to U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.
The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the administration inadequately planned for the withdrawal. The nation’s top-ranking military officer at the time, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, told lawmakers earlier this year he had urged Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 forces to give backup. Instead, Biden decided to keep a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
14 comments
Day 35
August 26, 2024 at 4:03 pm
Kammy probably couldn’t find Afghanistan on a map. To those that lost their lives three years ago working for the most inept CIC. I salute you and those brave kids that lost their lives that day. Then we had Joe Biden looking at his watch when those troops arrived at Dover. Disgusting.
Yrral
August 27, 2024 at 5:30 am
What did they die for ,the Afghanistan army have quit the war,and left it up to American military to fight it , Trump surrended Afghanistan to the Taliban before the Biden arrived , Google Trump Taliban Negotiation
Dont Say FLA
August 27, 2024 at 7:17 am
“Never Surrender,” says Turnip Truck. “Never Surrender what you can sell instead.”
Tom
August 27, 2024 at 7:08 am
Not even. Disgusting was trump on Veterans Day in 2018 not even going to Arlington and yesterday, he finally goes and gives a big thumbs up at a photo op. You can hate on biden and harris all you want but the way trump treats veterans and their families is beneath contempt. I’m dumbfounded that anyone who served, or the family of anyone who served would vote for him. Even the VFW gave him a big thumbs down last week.
Dont Say FLA
August 27, 2024 at 7:18 am
Joe’s watch was a TV watch playing FoxNews and he was also ordering hamberders for later. Are you happier now? No? As expected, I didn’t figure you could be.
Ocean Joe
August 27, 2024 at 8:05 am
I remember W’s administration trying to prevent filming of the returning caskets from Iraq. So which is worse?
Michael K
August 27, 2024 at 12:00 am
Trump, ever the coward, did not have the courage to do the action of the withdrawal that Biden accomplished. Leave it to Trump to blame someone else for something he could not do. Seconfd guessing is easy – any idiot can do that. Making a tough call after decades of failed actions starting with Bush was never going to be easy.
Ron Ogden
August 27, 2024 at 6:47 am
Where was Trump yesterday? Arlington. Where was Biden/Harris, or Harris/Biden, yesterday? On the beach. Always on the beach.
Tom
August 27, 2024 at 7:10 am
trump at Arlington, grinning like an idiot at a photo op then off to play golf. Playing golf, always with the playing golf.
Dont Say FLA
August 27, 2024 at 7:15 am
Turnip Truck would still have us there in Afghanistan if he were actually President like the old fool thinks he is. Would that be better than Biden taking the political to get the USA out of the no-win situation Republicans got us into and failed to remove us from despite so many campaign promises to get us out of wars and stop getting into wars? LOL @ Delusional the Turnip Truck
Ocean Joe
August 27, 2024 at 7:58 am
Watch H. R. McMaster, Trump’s security advisor, explain how Trump screwed up Afghanistan. Bypassed the Afghan government, negotiated directly with the Taliban. Agreed to a withdrawal date. Reduced troop levels to 2,500. Pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban.
Execution of the actual withdrawal was botched, as the 495,000k man Afghan army we paid for melted away, the leader flew out with $25 million, and as usual, a lot of Afghans who helped us were left there.
The good news is that our longest war, W’s second war, which was accomplishing nothing is over. Afghanistan is now free to breed Islamic warriors.
Thousands of American soldiers were lost there. Nothing for anybody, especially Trump to brag about.
Will give Trump credit for calling out W’s Iraq invasion which has destabilized the entire middle east, put Iran in the drivers seat, converted Iraq from a barrier into a vassal Iranian province. He sometimes gives voice to rational thoughts but drowns himself out 95% of the time with the nonsensical rantings of a Hannibal Lecter.
Dont Say FLA
August 27, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Trump called out W’s Iraq invasion because Trump’s always been a Democrat.
He said himself that if he ever ran for President, he’d have to run as a Republican because Republicans are the only ones dumb enough to vote for him
I have to wonder if he will bait and switch his “basement dwellers” (his words for his voters) and do Democrat stuff in office if he wins and actually does any Presidenting this time around beyond the executive orders he’s been given for Day One
H Gcw
August 27, 2024 at 7:49 pm
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August 27, 2024 at 7:53 pm
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