Former President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan four years ago was a grave national humiliation that betrayed the men and women of our armed forces – especially those who served courageously in the war-torn country for nearly two decades.
Unfortunately, the costs of this self-inflicted tragedy will continue long after our troops leave Afghanistan. Recently, an Afghan from Texas – who came to America during the Biden administration – was accused of making threats to build a bomb, launch a suicide bombing, and kill Americans and “infidels.”
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In addition to this incident, the horrific attack on two members of the West Virginia National Guard in Washington DC revealed that, unfortunately, the consequences of this hasty, reckless and poorly planned departure continue to jeopardize the security of our homeland and the safety of Americans.
First, I would like to offer my prayers and support to the families, loved ones and fellow troops of US Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, and prayers for Staff Sgt. Wolfe’s continued recovery. The honor they brought to our country and their home state of West Virginia will not be forgotten.
National Guard members gather after reports of two National Guard soldiers being shot near the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Yet this tragedy – which allegedly occurred at the hands of an improperly vetted Afghan national who came to America in the chaos of the withdrawal – was entirely preventable.
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President Donald Trump foresaw this during his first term.
“The consequences of a quick exit are both predictable and unacceptable,” Trump said during his speech on August 21, 2017, presenting his strategy for Afghanistan.
He continued: “As we know, America hastily and wrongly withdrew from Iraq in 2011. As a result, our hard-won gains slipped back into the hands of terrorist enemies. Our soldiers watched as the cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate and win, were occupied by a terrorist group called ISIS. The vacuum we created by leaving too early gave ISIS a safe haven to spread, grow, recruit and launch attacks. We cannot repeat the mistake in Afghanistan that our leaders made in Afghanistan. Iraq.”
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Unfortunately, thanks to Biden, we have repeated the mistakes of Iraq. But this time, the Biden administration added another self-imposed challenge by failing to vet the more than 190,000 Afghan nationals who have resettled in America since the withdrawal.
Let’s make something clear: the standard used to screen Afghan nationals to work with the CIA and our military in Afghanistan is entirely different from the standard of screening that must be used if Afghan nationals are allowed to come to America to live in our communities.
This is why, since the beginning of the withdrawal disaster, I have called for stricter vetting standards and fought against blanket citizenship for unvetted Afghan nationals.
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As I wrote at the time: “There is no doubt that we cannot trust some of the people who made it on evacuation flights in the chaos. … Proper screening takes months. Checks during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan lasted hours, days or weeks; in some cases they did not happen at all. This is a completely inadequate and reckless way to screen people from a country with poor administration and a long history of extremism and terrorism.”
“The consequences of a quick exit are both predictable and unacceptable,” Trump said during his speech on August 21, 2017, presenting his strategy for Afghanistan.
Thoroughly vetting someone from a country like Afghanistan is an involved and challenging process. It is not the same as calling on one of our allies to request data on a particular individual or even contacting a local police department for a background check on a potential job candidate. Complicating matters further, the Afghan government at the time had collapsed and handed control over to the Taliban, a sworn enemy of the United States.
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In the months immediately following the withdrawal, more than 70,000 Afghans entered the United States without necessary background checks, creating an ongoing national security threat within our borders that continues to this day.
Underscoring this point, a February 2022 Department of Defense Inspector General report found that the Biden administration failed to use a vital biometric database to properly vet Afghan evacuees. A retrospective study conducted by the US military (which manages the database) found that many of the evacuees “potentially significant safety concerns”, including “individuals whose latent fingerprints have been found on improvised explosive devices,” as well as individuals who are “known or suspected terrorists.”
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Without a doubt, these evacuations were reckless rushes designed to cover up Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, ultimately creating a dangerous ticking time bomb within our borders.
The recent tragedy inflicted on innocent American service members, as well as the arrest in Texas, should serve as an urgent wake-up call to get our house in order. This starts by ensuring that everyone in our country is a law-abiding individual who wants to help keep America safe, strong, prosperous, and free for themselves, their families, and their fellow Americans.
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