WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Brian Mast (FL-18) issued the following statement following President Joe Biden’s address on the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan:
“President Biden has abandoned the Afghan men and women who risked their lives for our war, and rather than execute any sort of plan that protects our interests and our allies, he’s spending all of his time assigning blame to everyone but himself.
When my legs were blown off, I was moving across the battlefield in Kandahar, Afghanistan narrowing in on a high-value target. As a bomb tech, it was my job to clear the way for the rest of our team, finding and disposing of improvised explosive devices. One member of our team was an Afghan interpreter who I’ll call Tom.
Tom always had a helmet that was too big and the weight of his night vision goggles would make it wobble like a bobblehead on a dashboard. Once, he was on a mission and his tennis shoes got stuck in the mud so he finished the mission barefoot. He had a young son and daughter. He fought alongside us, was a friend to America, and now, I have no idea where he or his family is.
Because of President Biden’s failures, it is a very real possibility that the next time I turn on the news, I’ll be forced to watch Tom beheaded. President Biden’s incompetence and focus on optics in the face of this humanitarian disaster is completely unforgivable.”
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