On the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack .. Trump blames Biden for the soldiers' deaths

On the anniversary of one of the bloodiest days for the U.S. military in the past decade, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a special presidential proclamation yesterday, Monday, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the "Abbey Gate" attack near Kabul airport, which resulted in the deaths of 13 American soldiers and more than 160 Afghan civilians during the withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 26, 2021.

Trump, in his statement, directed direct accusations at his predecessor Joe Biden, holding him responsible for what he described as the "catastrophic withdrawal" from Bagram military base in July 2021, stating that the withdrawal was done "in the middle of the night and without coordination with Afghan forces," accusing Biden of making a "reckless political maneuver" to declare a "false victory" on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Trump added that this decision led to "leaving U.S. forces without a defensive operational base, allowing the Taliban to free thousands of terrorists and criminals from Bagram prison," including the suicide bomber from the "ISIS Khorasan" group, who detonated himself at the airport gate less than two months after his release, causing the deaths of 13 soldiers and injuring 45 others, in addition to more than 160 civilian casualties.

Trump considered that what followed the attack was "one of the most humiliating moments of U.S. foreign policy," referring to the mistaken U.S. airstrike ordered by Biden, which resulted in the deaths of ten civilians, including seven children, noting that it was a "reckless strike" that made matters worse.

He also pointed to the handover of $85 billion worth of U.S. military equipment to the Taliban, in addition to "the Biden administration abandoning a number of American citizens and their Afghan allies behind enemy lines."

Trump said: "The image of Biden looking at his watch while the bodies of the soldiers covered in flags were being returned will remain etched as one of the most disgraceful moments in national memory."

Trump also revealed that his administration, since he resumed the presidency, has worked to achieve justice for the families of the fallen soldiers, noting the capture of the mastermind of the Kabul attack, Mohammad Sharif Allah, last March, with the help of U.S. intelligence and in cooperation with Pakistani authorities, confirming that he was transferred to the United States for trial.

At the end of his statement, Trump declared August 26 a day to commemorate the attack, praising the 13 soldiers who fell in the bombing, and affirming that "America's strength is what makes the world safer."

For his part, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance described the occasion as a "correction of a mistake," emphasizing that "the President of the United States caused, through his incompetence, your loss of loved ones, and has not acknowledged that until now."

As for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, he considered that the attack was one of the factors that pushed Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch his war on Ukraine, saying: "Putin saw the incompetence in the U.S. military under Biden's leadership."

In this context, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, a former soldier in Afghanistan, is leading a wide-ranging investigation into the attack.

Trump had leveraged the chaos of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, specifically the Kabul airport bombing, as a strong card in his election campaign to attack the Biden administration, focusing on the decision to abandon the strategic Bagram base and hand over advanced weapons to the Taliban.

For its part, the Biden administration continues to defend the withdrawal decision, considering it necessary to end "the longest war in U.S. history."