WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Askume) – US congressional leaders on Tuesday awarded posthumous Congressional Gold Medals to 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing at Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The ceremony, hosted by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, took place eight weeks before the US election, with Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of politicising the events surrounding the deadly retreat.
“Although we can never fully measure your loss, we must remember the ultimate sacrifice,” Johnson told relatives of the soldiers killed in the attack.
House Republicans on Monday released a long-awaited report criticizing the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden for its failure to withdraw troops.
Additionally, just hours before the ceremony, Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with Democratic presidential nominee and former Republican President Donald Trump as part of their November 5 campaign debate, the only one scheduled during this period.
Democrats insist that Trump, who signed the withdrawal deal with the Taliban in 2020, is also to blame for the chaotic end to the war less than seven months after Biden took office.
Republicans dismissed the claim as partisan politics and said Biden could have ignored Trump’s agreement or implemented it. They accused Biden administration officials of allowing the Taliban to ignore their commitments and being dishonest to the American public.
Trump was criticized for his campaign filming a video at Arlington National Cemetery , where he attended a ceremony honoring soldiers killed in the evacuation.
