Family members of the 13 US service members killed in the chaotic August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan were underwhelmed Tuesday by President Biden’s brief tribute to their loved ones before the United Nations General Assembly.
Biden, 81, defended the fiasco as “a hard decision, but the right decision” during what was likely his final address to the global body.
“Thirteen brave Americans lost their lives, along with hundreds of Afghans in a suicide bomb. I think [of] those lost lives — I think [of] them every day,” the president said, stumbling over his prepared remarks.
Relatives of the fallen Americans were skeptical.
“He thinks of them only because they are the casualties of his reckless decisions and policies,” Gold Star dad Steve Nikoui told The Post in a text message. “When he says he thinks of them everyday, what he really means is he despises them because they, in his eyes, have tarnished his legacy.”
“That withdrawal, as well as the loss of lives, are the main reason why he is a one-term president,” added Nikoui, whose son Kareem, a Marine Corps lance corporal, was among those murdered by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at the Abbey Gate of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“He has no idea what he’s saying at this point. That speech was written by one of his staff and they are trying to cover Joe Biden for his involvement in the critical debacle of the withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Gold Star father Darin Hoover also told The Post in a text message.
Hoover lost his son, Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, in the bombing, which also killed at least 169 Afghan civilians and wounded dozens of others.
“His saying that he thinks of our kids every day is a lie. He’s never even said their names because he doesn’t know them. It was HIS decision to pull out from Afghanistan and do it in the manner that he did. He has blood on his hands and we WILL NOT FORGET, EVER,” Hoover added.
Biden has put out statements to mark the anniversary of the bombing in the past, some of which have listed the names of each service member, but his public acknowledgment on the world stage of the 13 fallen is rare.
“I am glad that he finally mentioned them in a speech. But he’s doing it on his way out,” Herman Lopez, who lost his 22-year-old son, Marine Cpl. Hunter Lopez, to the bombing, told The Post in a phone interview.
“It’s a little too late,” he added, calling it “a mixed bag of emotions.”
Alicia Lopez echoed her husband, saying that “I’m glad that he finally mentioned them” before adding that “it’s sad that it’s taken three years for him to do it.”
Recognition is something that many of the Gold Star family members have long felt was missing from the Biden-Harris administration.
Earlier this month, Congress posthumously bestowed its highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal — upon the 13 fallen service members and honored them in a ceremony with the Gold Star families in the Capitol Rotunda.
The Lopez family has another son who’s serving in the military and stressed that they’re still looking for accountability.
“[Biden] acknowledges half of it … but he doesn’t acknowledge the fact that there were some failures, and he’s not only anyone responsible,” Herman Lopez stressed. “We’ve been asking for accountability for over three years.”
The Gold Star families lashed out at Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, last month for accusing them of engaging in a political stunt by visiting the graves of their loved ones in Arlington National Cemetery with former President Donald Trump.
The US Army rebuked the Trump campaign for what it saw as partisan political activity on hallowed ground, which allegedly resulted in a physical altercation between a cemetery employee and a campaign aide.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has threatened to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt for skipping out on a subpoena to testify Tuesday.
Additionally, House Republican lawmakers are mulling legislation to condemn senior administration officials over the ordeal.
McCaul’s team released a blistering report on the Afghanistan withdrawal earlier this month and concluded that the administration ignored advice from top military brass as well as conditions on the ground.
“Both Joe Biden and Secretary Blinken can’t get Afghanistan behind them fast enough because they know that they have done wrong and in the process of doing so, put the veterans’ lives in the balance because they don’t understand why their time in the war has been all about,” Hoover contended.
“We’re looking for answers and the reasons why the withdrawal went down as it did.”
During the presidential debate earlier this month, Harris stood by Biden’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan despite the controversy and deaths of service members.
“Four presidents said they would, and Joe Biden did,” the veep contended. “And as a result, America’s taxpayers are not paying the $300 million a day we were paying for that endless war.”
