WASHINGTON—Today, The Heritage Foundation’s national security and defense experts paid tributes to the 13 U.S. servicemembers who tragically died from a suicide bombing at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 26, 2021. The bombing occurred amid the disastrous Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal from the region.  

Heritage Vice President of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy Victoria Coates made the following statement:  

“We will never forget the 13 U.S. servicemembers whose lives were lost in the barbaric terrorist attack on Abbey Gate during the chaotic surrender of Kabul. Negligence by the Biden-Harris administration led to this unnecessary sacrifice of some of our best and brightest. 

“Vice President Kamala Harris has touted herself as being ‘the last person in the room’ with President Joe Biden, advising him on the disastrous decision to abruptly abandon Afghanistan to the Taliban with no coordination with our NATO allies or discernable strategy in place.

“President Biden and Vice President Harris’ advice led to death and defeat in Afghanistan and the United States can’t afford their naivete on national security. 

Heritage Director of the Allison Center for National Security Robert Greenway added:  

“Three years after the disastrous withdrawal from Kabul where 13 Americans were killed at Abbey Gate, the Taliban paraded abandoned U.S. military equipment reminding us of the steep costs of embarrassingly bad decisions made by the Biden-Harris administration.

“The Biden-Harris administration has returned control of Afghanistan to the Taliban—now the best equipped terrorist state in history. The 2,459 U.S. military personnel and 20,769 wounded in action in Afghanistan did not serve for this end result.

“ISIS is rebuilding, Al-Qaeda is resurgent, the administration is reportedly paying the Taliban $30-40 million a week, and we’ve not conducted an “over the horizon” counterterrorism strike since the withdrawal.”