Representative Don Bacon (NE-2) and other military veterans in the House Republican Conference have marked the fourth anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and left many wounded during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
To honor those who died, House Republicans released a video tribute featuring testimonies from veterans now serving in Congress. Several of these lawmakers served in Afghanistan and shared personal reflections on the consequences of the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal.
Representative Bacon, who has represented Nebraska’s 2nd District since 2017 (https://bacon.house.gov/about), is a retired Brigadier General with nearly thirty years of service in the U.S. Air Force. His career included sixteen assignments and four deployments to the Middle East, including Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
In his statement, Rep. Bacon recounted his experience after September 11 and reflected on his time serving overseas: “I served nearly thirty years in the Air Force. I had multiple deployments in the Middle East. And one of the things that changed my life was 9 /11. We saw the Pentagon hit, the World Towers, and the fourth airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania. We deployed, and we kicked the Taliban out of government. We ended up killing Osama bin Laden. We ended up going in Iraq as well.
“In Afghanistan we lost 2,459 Americans over the course of those two decades. But President Biden made a terrible decision four years ago to withdraw our forces the way he did. Our military recommended against his withdrawal plans and he overruled them. His withdrawal cost us two decades of investment in Afghanistan and it ended up costing 13 more lives when that bomber attacked our forces that were trying to save lives at the airport in Kabul.
“Today I’m thinking of Daegan Page, one of the 13 Americans killed, who is from Omaha. I’ve gotten to meet his family. We love his family and our sympathies still go with them. But also the other 12 families that lost their sons and daughters or spouses.
“President Biden made a terrible decision. He withdrew our air support from the Afghan forces, withdrew our mechanics from the Afghan airplanes and the Afghan soldiers without air power collapsed quickly. President Biden said it would take two years, at least for the government to fail. It took one month because of the reckless decision making that he did.
“So today, yes, I’m angry. As angry I’ve ever been on anything that any president has done in my lifetime. But I also know that we had men and women serving in uniform, doing the best they could, following orders, serving their country, and we had some that paid the ultimate sacrifice. So today our hearts and minds, our prayers are with those 13 families today.”
Bacon was born in Momence, Illinois in 1963 and currently resides in Papillion (https://bacon.house.gov/about). He earned degrees from Northern Illinois University (1984) and later from University of Phoenix.
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