SEN TOM COTTON: Alleged Afghan attack on Guardsmen was preventable. We must do better next time

Former President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan 4 years agone was a sedate nationalist humiliation that betrayed the men and women of our equipped forces — peculiarly those who courageously served successful the war-torn state for astir 2 decades.  

Unfortunately, the costs of this self-inflicted calamity person continued agelong aft our troops near Afghanistan. Recently, an Afghan nationalist successful Texas — who came to America during the Biden medication — was charged with issuing threats to physique a bomb, motorboat a termination attack, and execution Americans and "infidels."  

AFGHAN EVACUEE ARRESTED BEFORE DC SHOOTING FEDERALLY CHARGED WITH THREATENING TERROR ATTACK  

In summation to this incident, the heinous onslaught against 2 members of the West Virginia National Guard successful Washington, D.C., revealed that, sadly, the consequences of this rushed, reckless and ill-planned departure proceed to enactment the information of our homeland and the information of Americans astatine risk. 

First, fto maine connection my prayers and enactment to the families, loved ones and chap troops of U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, and prayers for Staff Sgt. Wolfe’s continued recovery. The grant they brought upon our state and their location authorities of West Virginia volition not beryllium forgotten.  

Members of the National Guard stitchery aft reports of 2 National Guard soliders were changeable adjacent the White House successful Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Yet this calamity — which allegedly occurred astatine the hands of an improperly vetted Afghan nationalist who came to America successful the chaos of the withdrawal — was wholly preventable.

NATIONAL GUARD KILLING REIGNITES IMMIGRATION WAR IN CONGRESS AS REPUBLICANS DEMAND SWEEPING REFORMS 

President Donald Trump foresaw this during his archetypal word successful office.  

"The consequences of a accelerated exit are some predictable and unacceptable," Trump said during remarks presenting his strategy for Afghanistan connected August 21, 2017.  

He continued, "As we know, successful 2011, America hastily and mistakenly withdrew from Iraq.  As a result, our hard-won gains slipped backmost into the hands of violent enemies.  Our soldiers watched arsenic cities they had fought for, and bled to liberate, and won, were occupied by a violent radical called ISIS.  The vacuum we created by leaving excessively soon gave harmless haven for ISIS to spread, to grow, recruit, and motorboat attacks.  We cannot repetition successful Afghanistan the mistake our leaders made successful Iraq."

THIRD AFGHAN NATIONAL FROM BIDEN-ERA PROGRAM ARRESTED IN A WEEK BY ICE AGENTS IN VIRGINIA: DHS 

Unfortunately, due to the fact that of Biden, we repeated the mistakes of Iraq. Yet this clip around, the Biden medication added different self-imposed situation by failing to vet the much than 190,000 Afghan nationals who person resettled successful America since the withdrawal.  

Let’s get thing clear: the modular utilized to vet Afghan nationals to enactment with the CIA and our subject successful Afghanistan is wholly antithetic from the modular of vetting that needs to beryllium utilized erstwhile allowing Afghan nationals to travel to America to unrecorded successful our communities.  

This is wherefore I person called for stricter vetting standards and fought against broad citizenship for unvetted Afghan nationals since the opening of the withdrawal catastrophe.

TRUMP FREEZES AFGHAN VISAS AFTER DC SHOOTING — AS HE QUIETLY EYES LAND STRIKES IN VENEZUELA 

As I wrote astatine the time, "There is nary uncertainty that we can’t spot immoderate of the radical who made it connected evacuation flights successful the chaos. … Proper vetting takes months. Vetting during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan took spot implicit hours, days oregon weeks; successful immoderate cases, it didn’t hap astatine all. This is an wholly inadequate and reckless mode to surface radical from a state with mediocre recordkeeping and a agelong past of extremism and terrorism." 

"The consequences of a accelerated exit are some predictable and unacceptable," Trump said during remarks presenting his strategy for Afghanistan connected August 21, 2017.  

Thoroughly vetting idiosyncratic from a state specified arsenic Afghanistan is an progressive and challenging process. It’s not the aforesaid arsenic calling up 1 of our allies to petition records connected a peculiar idiosyncratic oregon adjacent reaching retired to a section constabulary section for a inheritance cheque connected a imaginable occupation candidate. Complicating matters further, astatine the clip successful question, the Afghan authorities had collapsed and turned implicit power to the Taliban, a sworn force of the United States.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION 

In the months instantly pursuing the withdrawal, much than 70,000 Afghans entered the United States without the indispensable inheritance checks, causing an ongoing nationalist information menace wrong our borders that remains to this day. 

Underscoring this point, a study by the Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General successful February 2022 recovered that the Biden medication failed to usage an indispensable biometric database to vet Afghan evacuees properly. In a retroactive reappraisal conducted by the U.S. Army (which maintains the database), galore of the evacuees were recovered to person "potentially important information concerns," including "individuals whose latent fingerprints person been recovered connected improvised explosive devices," arsenic good arsenic individuals who are "known oregon suspected terrorists."

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Without question, these evacuations were reckless unreserved jobs intended to insubstantial implicit Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, yet creating a unsafe ticking clip weaponry wrong our borders.  

The caller calamity inflicted connected guiltless American servicemembers, arsenic good arsenic the apprehension successful Texas, should service arsenic an urgent wake-up telephone to get our location successful order. This starts by making definite that everyone successful our state is simply a law-abiding idiosyncratic who wants to assistance support America safe, strong, prosperous and escaped for themselves, their families and their chap Americans. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM SEN. TOM COTTON