Trump, Harris mark end to war in Afghanistan with strikingly different messages
With three years passing since the deadly U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan ended the nation’s longest continuous conflict, both presidential candidates took the time to mark the solemn occasion on Monday, though each delivered very different messages.
Vice President Kamala Harris, in a morning statement shared to her official White House social media accounts, noted the suicide bombing that took place in Kabul on August 26, 2021, claimed the lives of 13 U.S. military troops and more than 100 Afghan civilians and injured dozens of others, before listing the names of the slain service members.
“Today, and everyday, I mourn and honor them. My prayers are with their families and loved ones. My heart breaks for their loss. These 13 devoted patriots represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe,” she wrote.
The war in Afghanistan, started less than a month after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, claimed the lives of 2,461 U.S. service members and left more than 20,000 injured, Harris pointed out. President Joe Biden’s decision to carry through with plans put in place by the Trump Administration to end the war was the right one, she said.
“President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years our administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said.
Harris encouraged the nation, “on this solemn day,” to “come together as one” to honor the sacrifice of those killed, injured, or impacted by the nearly two-decades long war.
Former President Donald Trump stopped by Arlington National Cemetery on Monday for a wreath laying ceremony, after which his campaign claimed that Harris “has refused to say the names of the 13 servicemembers who gave their lives on August 26, 2021″ despite her including those names in her statement.
Trump also took to his Truth Social media account to take a swing at Harris, and attempted to pin the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport on her, despite the fact the Vice President does not serve in any capacity anywhere in the military’s chain of command, except as a substitute for a disabled or deceased president.
“Three years ago, Kamala’s and Biden’s incompetence left 13 dead warriors, hundreds of civilians killed and grievously wounded, and $85 billion worth of the finest military equipment on the planet abandoned to the Taliban,” he wrote, conflating the total U.S. investment into Afghanistan with the money spent on equipment for the Afghan police and military.
“This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, AMERICANS and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND. You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World. THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA REMAINS SILENT IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE WORST ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! MAGA2024,” Trump wrote, capitalization his.
Trump’s administration agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. military members from Afghanistan in February, 2020, in a deal signed with the Taliban. Trump, at the time, said the plan to leave the country in the next 14 months was a good one, and that “we think we’ll be successful in the end,” but that “if bad things happen, we’ll go back.”
Taliban fighters stand guard in front of the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. withdrawal in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)