U.S. Representative Matt Van Epps (R-TN-07) introduced a resolution on the fifth anniversary of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, condemning the Biden administration’s handling of it.
On August 26, 2021, during the final days of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan after being in the country for almost 20 years and spending trillions of dollars, an ISIS-K suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the airport, killing 13 American service members and nearly 200 Afghan civilians.
The attack came nearly two weeks after President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan and Taliban forces entered Kabul, the country’s capital.
America and its allies conducted emergency evacuations from the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul of American citizens, Afghans, and others at the time of the attack.
Van Epps, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, called the withdrawal “poorly planned.”
“Most agree that the United States couldn’t stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, but many also believe that there was a way to leave that didn’t result in an immediate Taliban takeover,” the representative said.
“While that may be debatable, few disagree that it was President Biden’s flawed decisions and strategic errors that resulted in the bombing at Abbey Gate, stranding 1,000 Americans, leaving billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment behind, and deserting our Afghan and NATO allies,” he added.
Van Epps noted the former president has “only ever defended his decision over the years to withdraw from Afghanistan by an arbitrary date regardless of the consequences for U.S. personnel, servicemembers, or the Afghan people.”
Years after the incident, Van Epps said “no meaningful accountability” has been enacted for “one of the most damaging foreign policy failures in recent history.”
“This resolution will remind the world what weakness on the world stage looks like. And this resolution will remind our country about the cost of capitulating to its enemies instead of leading with resolve,” he said.
The resolution “commemorates” the American service members who lost their lives in Kabul in 2021 while also criticizing the Biden administration’s “dereliction of duty to steward American lives and property during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
On top of this, the resolution castigates the “historically damaging decision of the Biden-Harris administration to put at risk Americans and noncombatant civilians through the cavalier forfeiture of materiel and military property to the Taliban.”
After leaving Afghanistan, America left behind an estimated $7 billion worth of military equipment, according to CNN.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
