Barb Van Andel-Gaby Chairman of Heritage Foundation - Economy | Official Website
The Heritage Foundation’s national security and defense experts paid tribute today to the 13 U.S. servicemembers who died in a suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021. The bombing occurred during the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal from the region.
Victoria Coates, Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy at The Heritage Foundation, stated:
“We will never forget the 13 U.S. servicemembers whose lives were lost in the barbaric terrorist attack on Abbey Gate during the chaotic surrender of Kabul. Negligence by the Biden-Harris administration led to this unnecessary sacrifice of some of our best and brightest."
Coates further criticized Vice President Kamala Harris's role in advising President Joe Biden on the withdrawal strategy:
“Vice President Kamala Harris has touted herself as being ‘the last person in the room’ with President Joe Biden, advising him on the disastrous decision to abruptly abandon Afghanistan to the Taliban with no coordination with our NATO allies or discernable strategy in place."
She concluded her remarks by highlighting what she views as a failure in leadership:
“President Biden and Vice President Harris’ advice led to death and defeat in Afghanistan and the United States can’t afford their naivete on national security.”
Robert Greenway, Director of The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for National Security, added his perspective:
“Three years after the disastrous withdrawal from Kabul where 13 Americans were killed at Abbey Gate, the Taliban paraded abandoned U.S. military equipment reminding us of the steep costs of embarrassingly bad decisions made by the Biden-Harris administration."
Greenway emphasized that these events have left Afghanistan under Taliban control:
“The Biden-Harris administration has returned control of Afghanistan to the Taliban—now the best equipped terrorist state in history. The 2,459 U.S. military personnel and 20,769 wounded in action in Afghanistan did not serve for this end result."
He also expressed concerns about ongoing threats from terrorist groups:
“ISIS is rebuilding, Al-Qaeda is resurgent, the administration is reportedly paying the Taliban $30-40 million a week, and we’ve not conducted an ‘over-the-horizon’ counterterrorism strike since the withdrawal.”
