Pentagon Misfires With Victory Lap on Afghanistan Withdrawal One Year Later

On the one-year anniversary of the United States military's final day in Afghanistan, the Pentagon released a statement by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and, much like the Biden administration's withdrawal from the country after two decades, it missed the mark. 

That's because, along with boilerplate explanations of how the United States ended up in Afghanistan in the first place and generic thanks to Americans who supported the war effort over the previous two decades, Biden's defense secretary decided to take a victory lap:

Just a few weeks ago, the United States delivered justice to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's deputy at the time of the 9/11 attacks. And in recent months, our military has successfully carried out operations against key ISIS leaders. We also know that preventing terrorist violence requires much more than military might. We're committed to supporting a whole-of-government effort to address the root causes of violent extremism. No one should doubt America's resolve to keep our people safe.

The utterly tone-deaf declaration that "no one should doubt America's resolve to keep our people safe" ignores the reality that just more than one year ago the Biden administration failed to keep its people safe when an ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghan allies as a result of Biden's leadership, intelligence, and planning failures. 

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But the Pentagon's victory lap on the disastrous withdrawal wasn't finished:

So last year, in the war's final days, the United States, along with our partners and allies, conducted the largest air evacuation of civilians in American history, lifting more than 124,000 people to safety.  I'm proud that our military communities - and Americans from all walks of life - have welcomed our Afghan allies as they begin new lives in our country.

There it is again. The attempt to make Biden's deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan that fell to the Taliban and invoked scenes from Vietnam out to be a legacy defining success. The "largest" airlift in American history that saw the Biden administration fail to vet thousands of individuals and just packed as many people as they could — U.S. citizen or otherwise — onto planes out of Kabul's airport. 

The result was a disaster that, again, saw the needless deaths of American heroes and innocent Afghans not to mention Americans stranded in Afghanistan under Taliban tyranny. What the Pentagon's statement from Austin failed to mention? Those 13 U.S. service members. If the Pentagon won't remember them — the last American deaths in Afghanistan after two decades of war — in passing reference or by name, Townhall will:

• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Tex.
• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, 23, of Roseville, Calif.
• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, of Utah
• Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tenn.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, Calif.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, Jackson, Wyo.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, of Norco, Calif.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan William-Tyeler Page, 23, of Omaha
• Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario, 25, Lawrence, Mass.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, 22, Logansport, Ind.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, of Wentzville, Mo.
• Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio