A Gold Star father of one of the Marines killed in the Kabul airport terrorist attack called out the Biden administration Tuesday for failing to take out the ISIS-K perpetrator before he could carry out his plans.
Thirteen American servicemembers were killed after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest outside Abbey Gate of the Kabul International Airport, during the military’s emergency evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021. Military intelligence believed it had identified the suicide bomber before the attack — but the Biden administration’s failure of leadership prevented action from being taken to kill him, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul. (RELATED: New State Department Report Says Biden Didn’t Know Who Was In Charge Of Afghanistan Debacle)
“I ask the question: did the right hand know what the left hand was doing?” the father said during a roundtable discussion about the 2021 Afghanistan military evacuation. “Sure doesn’t seem that way. Was the State Department running the show? Was it the Department of Defense? Or was it the suits in the administration?”
The father noted that the military had the ability to perform a drone strike on a hotel where the suicide bomber and an ISIS unit were located but chose not to do so.
“ISIS-K was our enemy we spent 20 years fighting,” the father said. “Why was it denied a drone strike, precision drone strike to take those individuals out? We bombed a family, we drone striked a family afterwards, and took out just that family. You’re telling me we could not precision drop on those ISIS-K members? This is all actionable intel that we sat on but nothing was done. Why?”
“Intel had been tracking the individual, the bomber,” the father said. “What he looked like, what he was wearing, down to the computer bag — the black computer laptop bag, with white writing on it. Does that not stand out? And we cannot do anything about it? Our snipers cannot do anything about it when they see him?”
The Gold Star father scolded President Joe Biden for challenging Americans to name an objective that his administration failed to accomplish, bragging that there was “not one,” near the anniversary date of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
“I say to you, Mr. President, you have 13 pictures that we have all named. You’ve got 13 that you did not accomplish. I know he cannot name one of them without a card sitting in front of him or a teleprompter in front of him. I say to him, resign.”
The State Department expressed condolences to the Gold Star families in a statement during the roundtable, but defended the withdrawal as the “correct policy choice” earlier in August. Biden said in June that he “was right” about the decision to evacuate.
“All the evidence – remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said we would get help from the Taliban,” Biden said. “What is happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.”
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