On Monday, the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 soldiers, former President Donald Trump is expected to link Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic withdrawal from the Afghanistan war.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, is expected to visit Arlington National Cemetery to pay his respects to the soldiers killed in the bombing outside Kabul airport. Trump will then travel to Michigan to speak at the National Guard Association of the United States conference.
Monday marks the third anniversary of the August 26, 2021 suicide attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 US soldiers and more than 100 Afghans. The terrorist militia “Islamic State” claimed responsibility for the attack.
On his website Truth Social, Trump called the withdrawal on Monday “the most embarrassing moment in our country’s history. Gross incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds injured and dead.”
“You don’t take out our soldiers first, you take them out LAST, when everything else has been successfully accomplished,” he said in the post.
Since President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign, Trump has focused on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her role in foreign policy decisions. He has particularly highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.
“She boasted 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 troops out of Afghanistan,” he said at a rally in North Carolina last week. “She had the final vote. She had the final say, and she was all for it.”
In a statement marking the anniversary of the attack on Kabul airport, Harris said she mourned the 13 US soldiers killed. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. Their pain and loss breaks my heart,” she said.
Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.
“As I have said before, President Biden has made the bold and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our administration has proven that we can take out terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaida and ISIS, without troops in combat zones,” she said. “I will never hesitate to take any action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”
Relatives of some of the 13 killed American soldiers appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month and said Biden never publicly mentioned the names of their loved ones. The appearance was an implicit response to accusations that Trump disrespects veterans and has previously referred to killed World War II soldiers as suckers and losers – allegations Trump has denied.
In a statement on Monday on the anniversary of the attack in Kabul, Biden said the 13 Americans killed were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the best of what defines us as a nation: courageous, committed, selfless.”
“Every day since I became vice president, I have carried a card with me listing the exact number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan – including Taylor, Johanny, Nicole, Hunter, Daegan, Humberto, David, Jared, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Maxton and Ryan,” Biden said.
Under Trump, the United States signed a peace deal with the Taliban that would end America’s longest war and bring U.S. troops home. Biden later referred to that deal as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban’s invasion of Afghanistan, saying it committed him to withdrawing troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.
A review of the withdrawal by the Biden administration acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and their allies from Afghanistan should have begun sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, as well as assessments by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
The two highest-ranking U.S. generals overseeing the evacuation said the administration had inadequately planned the withdrawal. The country’s highest-ranking military officer at the time, Gen. Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers earlier this year that he had asked Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 troops for reinforcements. Instead, Biden opted for a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
