Former President Donald Trump is expected to link Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic withdrawal from the war in Afghanistan on Monday, the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 military personnel.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is expected to stop at Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to service members who died in the bombing at the Kabul airport. Trump will then travel to Michigan to attend the convention of the United States National Guard Association.
Monday marks the third anniversary of the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed thirteen U. S. service members and more than a hundred Afghans. The Islamic State organization claimed responsibility for the attack.
On his Truth Social Monday, Trump called the withdrawal “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. “Great incompetence: thirteen American infantrymen DEAD, wounded and dead.
“It is not about our foot soldiers first, but LAST, when everything else is done successfully,” he said in his message.
Since President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid, Trump has focused on Harris, now the Democratic presidential candidate, and her role in foreign policy resolutions. Specifically, he highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last user in the room before Biden took up the resolution on Afghanistan.
“She boasted that she would be the last user in the room, and she was. She was the last user in the room with Biden when he decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan,” he said last week at a rally in North Carolina. “She had the final vote. She had the last word and totally agreed. »
At an event commemorating the anniversary of the attack on the Kabul airport, Harris said she mourned the deaths of the thirteen US service members killed. “My prayers go out to their families and those enjoying it. My heart breaks for their pain and loss,” he said.
Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.
“As I said, President Biden made the right and courageous decision to end America’s longest war. In the last three years, our management has shown that we can contain the terrorists, adding the leaders of Al Qaeda and ISIS, without deploying troops in combat zones,” he stated. she declared. “I will never hesitate to take any action that is mandatory to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people. “
Family members of some of the 13 slain U. S. service members spoke openly at the Republican National Convention last month, saying Biden never publicly named their family members. The exposure was an implicit reaction to accusations that Trump has no respect for veterans and that in the past he had called infantrymen killed in World War II morons and losers, accusations Trump denies.
On a Monday anniversary of the Kabul attack, Biden said the 13 Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the most productive of who we are as a nation: brave, committed and selfless. “
“Since I became vice president, I had a map with me every day that showed the exact number of U. S. service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding 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 aimed to end United States’ longest war and bring U. S. troops home. Biden then highlighted that deal as he sought to deflect blame from the Taliban who invaded Afghanistan, saying it forced him to withdraw troops and prepared the chaos that engulfed the country.
A review of the withdrawal by Biden’s leadership indicated that the evacuation of Americans and their allies from Afghanistan began earlier, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, as well as tests from the United States military and intelligence community.
The two most sensible U. S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the leadership planned the withdrawal poorly. 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 suggested to Biden that he maintain a residual force of 2,500 troops to provide reinforcements. Instead, Biden will maintain a much smaller force of 650 troops, which would be limited to protecting the United States embassy.