Thirteen service members were killed during an ISIS-K attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26. Their deaths resulted from poor planning, disorganization, and horrific bureaucratic incompetence by the Biden administration. These soldiers gave their lives defending their country, but their sacrifice yields less recognition than that of a criminal who died while resisting arrest.
There will be no gold coffins for our gallant dead — only purple hearts.
In the era of #SayTheirName on social media, few said the names of the deceased. The name of George Floyd, the criminal who resisted arrest and died in police custody, bombarded the country in 2020. People also know the name Breonna Taylor. But have you heard of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum? Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee?
How about the 11 other fallen: Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, and Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss. Where are their gold coffins?
Where are the professional athletes with their names on their uniforms? Where are the actors, actresses, and musicians proclaiming their youth? Emphasizing how they were so young? Where are the Democratic politicians speaking out about their deaths?
Their deaths could have been prevented. Public statements of intelligence failures by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley revealed the Biden administration’s incompetence. These were followed by revelations of a State Department memo that warned about Afghanistan quickly falling to the Taliban after the U.S. troop withdrawal. The country failed these brave soldiers, and they are treated with less respect and less reverence than criminals who spent years harming communities.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi dressed in kente cloth and knelt in the U.S. Capitol for almost nine minutes in honor of Floyd. But this past week, she refused to have the names of the fallen read out loud in the very same building.
Twelve out of the 13 killed in action were 25 years old or younger. They had their entire futures ahead of them. Yet, those who spent days, weeks, and months repeating the names of criminals who died in police custody haven’t spent nearly half the time mentioning the 13 killed in Afghanistan in August. There will not be any public funerals. There will not be any celebrities paying for their funerals. No athletes will pay for their children’s college tuition. None of them will get gold coffins. They will get their purple hearts, and that is all.
Soon, the sacrifice of the 13 will be forgotten. Democratic politicians who peddle lies about the extent of police brutality and racial injustice will still say the names of some who sought to harm our communities while forgetting entirely those who gave everything to protect them.
