It’s been two years since the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and Gold Star families are speaking out. They were given a platform by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday with a roundtable discussion.

The families are going scorched earth against Biden and the Department of Defense. Who can blame them? The families have shown great restraint over the last two years as they grieve the loss of their loved ones, especially the parents who lost their children in the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate.

Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz who was killed at the Kabul airport during the bomb blast, called Joe Biden, the commander-in-chief, “a disgrace to this nation.” He also said that Biden has “more American blood” on his hands than “any president in U.S. history.” One sore point with the families is that Biden has not bothered to acknowledge the service members killed in the bombing by saying their names. “Not a single person has been held accountable,” Schmitz said. “Our so-called leader can’t seem to even utter their names in public, not even once.”

Schmitz let it rip. He regrets not expressing himself to Biden when he had a chance to to do so at Dover Air Force Base.

“You are a disgrace to this nation,” the father continued. “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. I felt it more important to bite my tongue, but I also had more important things on my mind at that time, like receiving my son’s lifeless body stateside.”

“While I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, ‘It’s 2 —-ing 30, —hole.’ But out of respect of the other grieving families, I bit my tongue once again. Well, as you can probably tell by now, I’m done biting my tongue. You, sir, stole their lives, their futures, their dreams and have ripped apart 13 families. You cannot even man up and admit that.”

A slap in the face is felt every time Biden boasts that everything he has set out to accomplish has been successfully done. The Afghanistan withdrawal operation lost thirteen service members, over a hundred Afghans, and injured others. It was a travesty. Discussions can be had over strategy, who approved what, and other process matters, but the fact remains that the families of these service members are suffering. They feel ignored by the Biden administration and no one is giving them straight answers. They just want answers.

Schmitz calls for investigations into the actions of Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “for their involvement in intentionally leaving Bagram [Air Base] and all of its assets by knowingly aiding known terrorists, all while abandoning U.S. civilians and allied partners.”

“In closing, Mr. Biden, Secretary Austin, Secretary Blinken, if trusting and supporting our military is too difficult for you, then I suggest you pack your s— and enjoy your retirement,” he said. “Because from where I sit on my perch, the noose around your doubled-down notion that this was an extraordinary success looks like it’s tightening a little bit more each and every day.”

Imagine seeing the president look at his watch during the solemn ceremony at Dover AFB.

As the hearing was about to begin, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, released a statement. He said the U.S. owes Gold Star families “everything.”

“We owe them transparency, we owe them honesty, we owe them accountability. We owe them the truth about what happened to their loved ones,” Milley said in a statement to Fox News.

“I trust the Army, Navy and Marine Corps did the best they could in briefing the families who had loved ones killed at Abbey Gate. I believe the briefers gave every piece of information that they could. If there was issues with that, we need to take whatever corrective action is necessary,” he said. “And our hearts go out to those families.”

He continued, “This is a personal thing for all of us in uniform. We don’t like what happened in Afghanistan. We don’t like the outcome of Afghanistan. We owe it to the families to take care of them. Their sacrifices were not in vain.”

He then said that for those who served in the mission “the cost in blood was high, but every single one of us who served in Afghanistan should hold our heads high.”

“Each served with skill, dedication and honor. For two decades our nation was not attacked from Afghanistan – that was our mission, and each one can be rightly proud of their service,” he continued.

No one is questioning whether or not those who served in Afghanistan should hold their heads high. That’s a cya throwaway line from the general. Americans thank all service members for their service overseas in hellholes like Afghanistan. The point is that mistakes were made that likely were made by Biden himself, who has been widely reported as not listening to top brass or advisers and doing it his way. He has no firsthand military experience. He received multiple deferments during the Vietnam war. Biden just wanted bragging rights to deliver before the September 11, 2001 anniversary rolled around. Joe Biden is a vain, stubborn, and not very smart old man. His decisions got those people killed.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Tuesday that the Defense Department is “forever grateful” for the service and sacrifice of the 13 service members killed in the “tragic bombing at Abbey Gate.”

The statement also said that CENTCOM’s investigation was a “comprehensive, credible, and definitive investigation” into the attack, and that the bombing “was not preventable without degrading the mission to maximize the number of evacuees, and the leaders on the ground followed the proper measures and procedures.”

More cya. The Gold Star families deserve better. They deserve some honest answers about what happened that day and the decisions made leading up to that day. It’s good they are publicly speaking up because that may help them get what they want. Let’s hope so and that they are able eventually to find peace.

The Gold Star dad of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover called for Secretary Blinken, Secretary Lloyd, General Milley to resign in his moving testimony.

Gold Star dad to fallen Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, who was killed in Biden's botched Afghanistan withdrawal:

"Two weeks ago, we have Biden shouting in a press conference, 'Name me one single objective that we set out to accomplish that we failed on. Name me one in all of our… pic.twitter.com/STYuZ4eKro

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 29, 2023