The Pentagon’s take on the preventability of the Afghanistan bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members was found wanting by one Gold Star mother who slammed the overall “incomplete and not correct” statements thus far.
“…I don’t really believe them.”
(Video: CNN)
Nearly two years and one week after Alicia Lopez lost her son, U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, the bereaved mother’s questions have remained woefully unanswered.
Days after joining fellow Gold Star families for a roundtable with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Lopez spoke with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” where the anchor presented her with a statement from the Department of Defense (DOD).
“I’m wondering what you think about that, and if you heard anything new in what the Pentagon sent us today?” he offered, to which the mother began in response, “This is the first I hear that the Pentagon even responded, but–”
Tapper acknowledged the breaking nature of the statement before Lopez continued, “Well, if their statement that they released today is anything like the DOD report that we received at our homes, it’s short of accurate information.”
“They failed to speak with people that were there, important people like Sgt. Tyler Vargas, who had the bomber in his sights, and they did not speak with him,” the Gold Star mother expressed. “There were several Marines that were injured that were not spoken to. So, their statements that they release [are] … incomplete and not correct, and it’s been two years, and so, I don’t really believe them.”
Later posted to the anchor’s social media, the statement from DOD spokesman Chris Meagher read in part, “We did not have intelligence that identified an individual by description or otherwise of the bomber. The preponderance of intelligence indicated a complex attack like a car bomb, as opposed to a lone suicide bomber.”
The statement added, “Furthermore, descriptions of the bomber depicted in media, including this recently released book, do not match the actual description of the bomber. So, it’s possible that if a sniper had taken the shot on this individual whom he claims was the bomber, he very well could have been killing an innocent person.”
3/ … who matched a description of a suspected bomber.
Our second question was about reports the US didn’t allow a strike on a ISIS-K location near the hotel before the bombing.
Response: pic.twitter.com/tO9Y5RgSJu
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) September 1, 2023
Lopez went on to contend, “We have requested true accountability and validation of the stories that the Marines that were injured and that were there have told us. We’ve requested numerous times to have my son’s property returned to us. That, again, has been ignored…Just accurate statements of where my child was at the time of the bombing, where he took his last breath, all that, we have no information on any of that.”
Many of the Gold Star families had joined her at Tuesday’s roundtable, including Mark and Jaclyn Schmitz, the parents of fallen U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20.
In his testimony, Mr. Schmitz railed “Not a single person has been held accountable,” as he called out those in President Joe Biden’s administration and the military who were a part of the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Gold Star father unleashes on Biden admin two years after Afghanistan pullout failure: ‘We’re knee-deep in bulls**t’ https://t.co/Ke7ZRQHI5O via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) August 30, 2023
“You are a disgrace to this nation,” the father continued of Biden and the “disgusting and cowardly” way that he has treated the families of the fallen. “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.”
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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