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On the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members, gold star families vented their frustrations that there has yet to be any accountability for what Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) called “one of the largest foreign policy debacles that’s taken place in the history of our country.”
“There’s never even been condolences,” she said. “[The Biden-Harris administration] just want to pretend it didn’t happen. They want to take credit for ending the war, but don’t want to take responsibility for how it went down.”
Mark Schmitz, father of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, emphasized that one of the main goals now is ensuring this never happens again—“that any gold star family is left for three years just waiting for their child’s name to be read by the leader of this country. Or get the honest truth…”
When asked whether any of the families had heard from President Biden or Vice President Harris, both of whom released statements Monday marking the anniversary, not a single person on the call said yes. On the contrary, former President Trump and his campaign have reached out to all of the families on numerous occasions, and on Monday laid wreaths with grieving family members at Arlington National Cemetery.
My condolences to these families as the exit from Afghanistan will haunt America for a very long time.