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 candidate, is expected to stop at Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to the military killed in the bombing at the Kabul airport. Trump will then travel to Michigan to attend the meeting 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 website on Monday, Trump called the withdrawal “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country. ” Blatant incompetence: Thirteen US infantrymen DEAD, many wounded and killed.
“It is not about our infantrymen first, but LAST, when everything else is done successfully,” he said in his message.
Since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, Trump has focused on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, 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 made the resolution on Afghanistan.
“She bragged that she would be the last user in the room, and she was. She was the last user in the room with Biden when she decided to withdraw troops from Afghanistan,” she 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 marking the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack, Harris said she was saddened by the deaths of the 13 American service members. “My prayers go out to their families and loved ones. My center breaks for your 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 United States’ longest war. In the last three years, our management has shown that we can contain terrorists, adding the leaders of Al Qaeda and ISIS, without deploying troops in combat zones,” he said. she declared. ” I will never hesitate to take any action that is mandatory to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people. “
Relatives 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 relatives. The exposé was an implicit reaction to accusations that Trump disrespects 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 thirteen Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the most productive of who we are as a nation: courageous, 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 repatriate U. S. troops. Biden later pointed to the deal as he sought to deflect blame from the Taliban who invaded Afghanistan, saying it forced him to withdraw. and paved the way 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 two most sensible U. S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the leadership had poorly planned the withdrawal. The highest-ranking officer in the nation’s military at the time, Gen. Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers earlier this year that he had suggested Biden maintain a residual force of 2,500 troops to supply reinforcements. Instead, Biden would maintain a much smaller force of 650 men, which would be limited to protecting the United States embassy.