The way the war ended in Afghanistan and the failure to pull all Americans out of the country was not the fault of the military, but the fault of the decision-makers in Washington, D.C., Rep. Scott Perry told Newsmax Thursday.
"This is not about the people who wear the boots and the troops, it's about the suits in Washington, D.C. that make these decisions," the Pennsylvania Republican, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who commanded the 2-104th General Support Aviation Battalion, which deployed to Iraq from 2009-2010, said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
"The military is capable," he added. "We can safeguard our American citizens but they're disallowed by the decisions made by the policymakers ... the world's not going to move on from this and neither are our veterans."
Perry continues to work with veterans and said the calls into suicide hotlines are "off the charts" after the U.S. departure from Afghanistan.
"We had 22 a day, at least before this, taking their own lives after defending the freedoms of the United States of America," said Perry. "It's a circumstance of despondency, of helplessness. They've done all they can. They left their families, they put their lives on the line."
And now, they and families who have lost members to the war in Afghanistan are left wondering what the sacrifice was for, said Perry.
He also pointed out that the Taliban is now "in better shape 20 years after we went to war" after they harbored al-Qaida, which was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
"The anniversary is just coming up, so we've got a lot of angry and despondent veterans who are wondering what their sacrifices were about, and what this military's all about if we can't protect U.S. citizens abroad, and we can," said Perry.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has "failed to listen, failed to learn, fails to lead, and now fails to leave us with a message of reality about what really happened in Afghanistan," said Perry.
"For those of us who have served, it's just unimaginable," said Perry. "It's almost beyond description what has occurred and the humiliation the United States has suffered, as well as, of course, the unnecessary loss of life, and the untold billions in military hardware, state of the art military hardware paid for by the American taxpayers now in the hands of multiple terrorist organizations in Afghanistan."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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