Mark Alford: Apology to those killed in Afghanistan terror attack was long overdue

(From Fourth District Congressman Mark Alford)

I want to take a moment this week to reflect on the ceremony we held in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 service members who lost their lives in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021, during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport.

That day, a terrorist suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members at the wall of Abbey Gate and injured many more. The withdrawal and the loss of our service members still haunts me to this day. Why? Because it was preventable. We did not have to withdraw the way we did. The logistics, execution, and planning were a disaster.

These 13 service members' families waited year-after-year for an apology from the Biden-Harris administration. They didn't get one. They did not receive one phone call, not one apology. To call this unacceptable is an understatement.

What Speaker Mike Johnson did at the ceremony this week was what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris did not: he apologized to the families. He looked them in the eye and apologized, as their loved ones were posthumously awarded Congress's highest honor — the Congressional Gold Medal. It was long overdue.

In America, we have the strongest military in the history of the world. It’s the President and Congress’s responsibility to engage on matters of war. These issues carry the weight of the world on the backs of our brave men and women who serve our country — both at home and abroad. The responsibility for tragedies, like what happened at Abbey Gate, falls on the government. That’s why the decisions made in Washington deserve the highest scrutiny and oversight. These decisions change world history, start and end wars, and most importantly, put our brave men and women in harm's way.

While I was not in Congress in 2021, I am now — and that’s the lens through which I view the responsibility of government. The Afghanistan withdrawal is the reason I decided to run for Congress. I did not want to sit in a nursing home at age 90 and wonder what more I could have done to help get our country back on track — to help right the ship, to shape the public conversation around these issues, and to ultimately end this administration’s weak policies that have crippled America on the world stage.

I watched the withdrawal from my home, and my heart sank. I wanted to throw up seeing the scenes on TV — people trying to hang on to our cargo airplanes, trying to flee for their lives. We spent 20 years in Afghanistan, trillions of dollars — blood, sweat, tears — and lives lost of our great men and women. It was America’s longest war, and what do we have to show for it? A failed mission — the Taliban took the country in less than a month.

The deep incompetence of this administration’s policies, which have poisoned America’s foreign policy and footprint abroad, is disgusting.

But despite all the heartache, I believe in America’s ability to learn from our past and rise above it. We owe it to our fallen heroes and their families to be better, to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain.

Speaker Mike Johnson showed courage and honesty in apologizing to the families — something that took real leadership. While we can never bring back their loved ones, acknowledging their pain is the first step toward healing. It’s our duty to make sure this never happens again and to lead with the strength, integrity, and resolve that defines America at its best.