A Failed Commander-in-Chief
Nearly two years after an entirely avoidable suicide bombing in Afghanistan, Joe Biden continues to lie and continues to shirk responsibility for it.
It was a massacre we saw coming, a massacre we were warned about, a massacre we could’ve prevented. And nearly two years later, 13 American families are still grieving, still feeling the pain and the loss.
The date was August 26, 2021, and American forces were in the middle of a chaotic and disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan — a withdrawal for which Joe Biden bears responsibility. As we wrote at the time: “If ever there was a slow-moving train of an attack, this was it. Everyone who watched the news on Wednesday knew it was coming. Our intelligence services told us so, and our embassy sent emergency communications to the Americans in Kabul to stay away from the entry points to Hamid Karzai International Airport.”
And yet, at around 6 p.m. local time, two jihadist suicide bombers detonated themselves at Abbey Gate, one of the main entrances to the airport, and at the nearby Baron Hotel. The blasts were efficient and the carnage was appalling. Among the 182 dead were 13 American warriors — 11 U.S. Marines, one Army soldier, and one Navy corpsman — making it the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in more than a decade.
One of those 13 fallen Americans was 31-year-old Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, and his mom, Kelly Barnett, was the first of several relatives to speak at a congressional forum held by California Republican Congressman Darrell Issa on Monday morning. “The event,” as Fox News reports, “marked the first time the relatives of all 13 fallen troops spoke in a public setting together.”
Barnett spoke of her son’s personality and his sense of duty. She also spoke about how she’s been mistreated by the Biden administration ever since her son’s death.
“I was told to my face he died on impact,” said Barnett. “That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth. I was lied to and basically told to shut up. He lived for a little while. … He was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet around his leg. I don’t understand the reasoning of that lie. It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don’t know.”
After Biden’s retreat and withdrawal, Staff Sgt. Hoover’s dad, Darren, called on Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley to resign. “Be a grown a**\ man,” he said. “Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn’t happen ever, ever again.”
Hoover’s family wasn’t alone in having been treated disrespectfully by Biden. The testimony of Cheryl Rex, the mother of Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, was particularly wrenching.
Cheryl Rex, mother of Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola:
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 7, 2023
“When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill & I, know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag draped coffin.’”
“My heart started beating faster & I started shaking, knowing that… pic.twitter.com/lLMRokjEdY
"When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were: ‘My wife Jill and I know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin.’”
Anyone who knows the tragic story of Beau Biden knows this to be a lie, a stolen valor falsehood. The truth is that Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015 while at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, many years after he’d left Iraq.
And yet Joe Biden shamelessly repeated this lie to a Gold Star mom. “My heart started beating faster,” said Rex. “I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side. How could someone be so heartless to say he knew how I felt?”
It’s a good question, and one that deserves to be asked. The families of our fallen warriors deserve far better from their commander-in-chief.
“I am president of the United States of America,” said Biden shortly after the bombing, “and the buck stops with me.”
That might sound good, it might sound like something a commander-in-chief would say, but two years later, those words ring hollow. The Abbey Gate massacre was entirely avoidable, and yet no one has been held accountable — not Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, not Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, not anyone.
When it comes to Afghanistan, history won’t be kind to Joe Biden. He and his team failed the American people. And more than that, they failed our warriors.
