President Joe Biden and his administration’s legacy of failure in Afghanistan was put on full blast Tuesday as one Gold Star father declared he was “done biting my tongue.”
Joining the House Foreign Affairs Committee for a roundtable, parents of most of the 13 service members killed by a bomber in Kabul offered testimony days after the two-year anniversary of the attack during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal. Among them were Mark and Jaclyn Schmitz, the parents of fallen U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20.
Given his time to speak, Mr. Schmitz did not hesitate to call out Biden, former Pentagon spokesman John Kirby and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with military leadership, for the lack of accountability for what happened at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“Two years has gone by, and where are we? To be frank, we’re knee-deep in bullsh*t, is where we are,” the father surmised.
“Everyone who held a key position in the military still has that position or has been promoted,” he railed. “John Kirby still sits on his perch, which apparently faces in the opposite direction from where all the action was. Blinken continues to delay key evidence by ignoring or delaying subpoenas. Not a single general slapped down their stars, which should have happened two years ago when Biden ignored his reliable intelligence.”
“Not a single person has been held accountable,” decried Schmitz.
“Mr. Biden has run his entire political campaign for 50 years as ‘the family man.’ Well, I’ve got news for you, sir,” he said as he turned his ire on the president. “The curtain has been lifting and that campaign slogan will never work again.”
“We have seen what’s going on in your family and, even worse, we’ve seen how you’ve been treating us as Gold Star families. And there couldn’t be anything more disgusting and cowardly than the way you have treated us,” the Gold Star father expressed. “You are a disgrace to this nation. You have no business having ultimate command over our military, and I regret not saying that to your face when I had the opportunity in Dover.”
Reflecting on the days following the bombing and the receipt of his son’s remains on the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base, Schmitz recounted the president’s behavior and how he kept checking his watch as though he had better things to do.
Gold Star fathers respond to ‘disrespect’ from Biden: ‘If he checks his watch one more time…’ https://t.co/P08glaTBq6 pic.twitter.com/UFrYrCEd6O
— BizPac Review (@BIZPACReview) August 31, 2021
While lifting up his wrist to hold out his watch, the father spat, “all I wanted to do was shout, ‘It’s two-f*cking-thirty, a**hole.’ But out of respect to the other grieving families, I bit my tongue once again.”
“As you can probably tell by now, I’m done biting my tongue,” he remarked. “You, sir, stole their lives, their futures, their dreams — and have ripped apart thirteen families. You cannot even man up and admit that. You, sir, gave us all the title ‘Gold Star Family.’ You, sir, discredit honor and integrity.”
To the father’s point, it was left up to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to order the flags at the Capitol be flown at half-staff in honor of the solemn memorial while the president merely issued a statement lumping their deaths together with every life tragically lost throughout America’s presence in Afghanistan.
The entirety of Schmitz’s remarks and those of all the Gold Star parents who attended the roundtable can be viewed here:
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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