It Was a Hard Day for Biden When he Met With Families of the 13 Heroes of Afghanistan

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Military news…

“With the mass airlift complete, U.S. policymakers no longer have an excuse to avoid contemplating the lessons of a 20-year war riven by hubris, flawed assumptions, and deceit.” That’s from national security expert Daniel R. DePetris, talking about America’s overdue reckoning with its failure in Afghanistan.

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“I was just thinking, ‘is this real’ … Things like this don’t just happen.” That’s what a security forces airman at Beale Air Force Base thought last month when he saw a car speeding towards his gate with no sign of stopping.

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In 2017, a Marine Corps veteran named Brian Easley took desperate action to get his VA disability payment: he walked into a bank with a backpack which he said was filled with C-4 explosives. Now, a movie about Easley is being made.

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President Biden, got a chilling response from the families of the 13 dead heroes who died in Afghanistan.

Some refused to even talk to him.

Others shared their hurt feelings with him, and some were very directive.

One father showed Biden a picture of his son. he said,” Don’t you ever forget that face. Get to know about each of these heroes who died for you. ” Biden who seemed upset said, “I know them.”

Know each and everyone of those heroes and their backgrounds. I think not.

As they took each soldier, in coffins, off of the plane, Biden saluted them and looked at his watch. He did that with all 13 coffins. One parent said that this was the most disrespectful thing he has ever seen.

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Yet, another reminder that I have slowed down my sharing of excerpts of my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

My publisher, Bookbaby, thinks it is better to tease you a little rather than share so much.

So, to see some excerpts you need to find them in the archives.

Here is my suggestion:

Go to the top of this page and click on, “Subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Checking in…

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And above all…never, ever, give up!

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People Are very Upset With President Biden and His Approach to Handling Our Dead Heroes

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I am only going to share on piece of military news today on this wearing red day. It is very upsetting, but needed to be shared.

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Biden Met with a befitting hostility from the families of our 13 heroes lost in last Thursday’s suicide bombing in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday to participate in the dignified transfer of remains.

As The Washington Post reported Monday, Biden appeared to repeatedly glance down at his watch, in yet another gesture of disrespect that shook these families to their cores.

“I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother!” one unidentified sister of a fallen troop yelled across the tarmac shortly after the ceremony’s conclusion, according to Mark Schmitz, father of the fallen Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz.

The dignified transfer had ended, but the grief hadn’t.

It was yet another display of the immense frustration, anger and anguish plaguing our heroes’ loved ones in light of last week’s tragedy.

These Gold Star families who witnessed Biden’s disrespectful gesture, who listened to him talk more about his son Beau than their own fallen warriors, who knew where they could rightfully place their blame, had not yet scorned the president enough.

Schmitz grieved and expressed his ire for Biden in his own way, flashing a picture of his son during his private meeting with the president that day.

“Don’t you ever forget that name. Don’t you ever forget that face. Don’t you ever forget the names of the other 12. And take some time to learn their stories,” he told Biden, according to the Post.

The outlet noted Biden, who didn’t appear to like Schmitz’s comments, flippantly fired back with, “I do know their stories.”

Schmitz also shared his account of the unidentified sister in despair who shouted across the tarmac at Biden that she hoped he would “burn in hell” for what his shoddy withdrawal policy caused.

“I can’t fault her for it,” he told the Post. “We all lost somebody.”

Members of Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum’s family — except for his widowed wife Jiennah — elected to skip out on their chance to meet with Biden, saying they “did not want to speak to him,” according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

“You cannot kneel on our flag and pretend you care about our troops,” McCollum’s sister Roice said.

“You can’t f*** up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry. This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands. The thousands of Afghans who will suffer and be tortured is a direct result of his incompetence.”

She and her father fled the room before Biden entered. Her sister Cheyenne reportedly stayed behind with Jiennah, but left when she saw that Biden was being “fake.”

Cheyenne said Jiennah wanted to see if Biden would give her a “sincere conversation or apology.”

But he didn’t. Jiennah said his spiel seemed “scripted” and that it touched more on his own son Beau (who served in Iraq, but did not die while serving) than on the loved one they were grieving.

But Biden carried that disrespect with him to the tarmac as well.

“The checking of his watch, that didn’t happen just once,” Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, Jr. said, according to the Daily Mail.

“That happened on every single one that came out of that airplane. It happened on every single one of them. They would release the salute, and he would look down at his watch on every last one, all 13, he looked down at his watch.

“As a father, you know, seeing that and the disrespect,” he said.

He continued a moment later, describing the repeated gesture as “the most disrespectful thing [he’d] ever seen.”

These families are hurting. They are angry. They deserve to be angry, and they deserve to have their voices heard.

They’ve been bombarded with grief and, as they’re going through hell, Biden opts to disrespect them time and again.

What could be so important that Biden would elect to repeatedly refer back to his watch during a ceremony honoring 13 of our most courageous and selfless? What could be more important than honoring these men and women and their grieving families?

Nothing. And I’m sure Biden knows that.

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My view…

We should NEVER forget what happened in Afghanistan. Those 13 heroes didn’t have to die.

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I have found a publisher!

Bookbaby will be my publisher! They are the best at what they do. I will be sending them my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, soon.

Keep coming back for more updates.

Better yet…

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How is your world turning today? A little shaky?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,925 fellow veterans here who have your back.

If your world is shaking so hard you think you are in a earthquake, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

1-800-273-8255…Texting 838255

_________________________________________

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

_________________________________________

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Thirteen Soldiers Died in Afghanistan, and it Shouldn’t Have Happened

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Military news…

Speaking of Afghanistan: after two decades of war, American service members and Taliban militants have been standing within an arm’s length of one another outside the airport in Kabul.

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Thirteen American service members were killed on Thursday in suicide bombings at Kabul’s international airport in Afghanistan. The toll includes 11 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman and an Army special operations soldier. They came from Texas, California, Utah, Tennessee, Wyoming and many other places and walks of life, and they died helping strangers in a far-off country.

A horrific suicide bombing on Thursday near the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan killed hundreds of Afghan civilians, 11 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, and an Army special operations soldier. Eighteen American military service members and many more Afghans were wounded in the attack, which took place at a crowded entry gate where U.S. troops were working day and night to rescue Americans and Afghans fleeing the Taliban.

“Terrorists took their lives at the very moment these troops were trying to save the lives of others,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “We mourn their loss. We will treat their wounds. And we will support their families in what will most assuredly be devastating grief.”

However, Austin added, “we will not be dissuaded from the task at hand. To do anything less — especially now — would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.”

Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, attributed the attack to the Islamic State terrorist group operating in Afghanistan. Described as a “complex attack,” it was initiated by a suicide bombing outside of the Abbey Gate where U.S. troops manned checkpoints as Afghan civilians attempted to flee the country.

“The attack on the Abbey Gate was followed by a number of ISIS gunmen, who opened fire on civilians and military forces,” McKenzie told reporters.

The fallen service members were part of Operation Allies Refuge, the mission to evacuate American citizens and Afghans who assisted the U.S. and its allies during their 20-year war in Afghanistan. Earlier this month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the Afghan security forces collapsed, and the Taliban quickly took Kabul. Withdrawing U.S. forces and the Taliban then entered into an uneasy truce in Kabul, with Taliban fighters cordoning off the streets leading to the airport as American troops manned checkpoints leading inside.

Prior to Thursday, the last U.S. service members to die in Afghanistan by hostile fire were Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Rodriguez and Sgt. 1st Class Javier Gutierrez, two Army Special Forces soldiers who were killed by Afghan soldiers in a green-on-blue incident in Nangarhar Province on Feb. 8, 2020. For the Marine Corps, Thursday’s attacks represent the first loss of life in Afghanistan in two years. The last occurred on April 8, 2019, when three Marine reservists were killed by a roadside bomb in Bagram.

“These fallen heroes answered the call to go into harm’s way to do the honorable work of helping others,” said. Gen. David H. Berger, the commandant of the Marine Corps. “We are proud of their service and deeply saddened by their loss. As we mourn, we also keep those who are still over there protecting Americans and our Afghan partners at the forefront of our thoughts. Our Marines will continue the mission, carrying on our Corps’ legacy of always standing ready to meet the challenges of every extraordinary task our Nation requires of her Marines. I am continually humbled by the courage and warrior spirit exhibited every day by Marines across the globe. The sacrifices Marines make on behalf of freedom must never go unnoticed or unappreciated. I ask that you keep these Marines and service members, and especially their families, in your thoughts and prayers.”

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My view….

I am grieving as if I lost a family member. The oldest soldier was only 25. The youngest 20. Two were women. This shouldn’t have happened. We knew long before the disaster that we needed to get people out. As far back as July.

If we would have started then, we would have been able to get all the afghan people out that wanted to go, and all the Americans as well.

Now thousands of people will be stranded. They will face horrendous times with the Taliban. Many shootings and killings. One women was burned alive because she didn’t fix a meal they way the Taliban wanted her to.

We were way too late to start evacuating people.

Our leadership totally failed.

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Book coming out soon…

Another reminder that I have slowed down my sharing excerpt from my upcoming book, Signs of hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

You can search the archives for some previous excerpts. My publisher has asked me not to share too much of the book.

You can still catch some I “slip,” in during the coming weeks. All you have to do is go to the top of this page and click on “Subscribe.”

When you do that all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

________________________________

Bed check…

How are you doing? Do the days seem dim, and the nights long?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12, 900 fellow veterans here who have your back.

If the long nights are too much for you, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they now you are OK.

1-800-273-8255… Texting 838255.

_____________________________________

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above ll…never, ever, give up!

_______________________________________

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know.