By Ray Cardello for August 8, 2023, Season 21 / Post 14

This is an article that should never be written. I write it to document the stories of the Gold Star Families who gathered in California on Monday to celebrate their lost sons and daughters. The greatest failure of a Commander in Chief is to forget the fallen and disrespect the families they leave behind. There were thirteen brave men and women who lost their lives trying in vain to protect the thousands of people who were hoping to be airlifted to safety from the hell hole of Afghanistan. These young people were the last line of defense nearly two years ago when they fell victim to a suicide bomber at the perimeter of the airstrip where American jets were taking as many souls as they could. Like the seventh grandchild that Joe Biden worked hard to disavow, Biden has done his best to forget these thirteen heroes and their families. He does not want to admit to the death of these young people because to do so is to admit to the failure that was the abandonment of Afghanistan by the United States of America. Biden wants to call the operation in Kabul the greatest evacuation of human life in history. Sorry, Joe, you get no accolades from anyone, for this was not an evacuation but a surrender and failure of leadership. A failure that has become the standard of the Biden Administration.

Often, a single image is locked in your memory associated with a significant event. In this case, I recall the President and the First Lady gathered with staff members standing outside the military plane returning the thirteen flag-draped coffins containing the physical remains of these fallen heroes. In a dramatic show of indifference and disrespect, President Joe Biden checked his watch as the color guard carried the coffins down the ramp. Biden had other places to be that were more important than receiving back home thirteen dead military personnel who lost their lives because of the botched plan of Biden and his Pentagon staff. This picture is a disgusting image I wish I could delete from memory.

As mothers and fathers of the fallen came to the microphone, you could hear the pain in their voices but the pride and love in their words. They talked about their son or daughter and the intense love of their country and the military. You could also hear the anger in those same voices as they talked about the failure of this President and his Administration to ignore these Gold Star Families. Joe Biden loves to tell of his son Beau who served in Iraq. Beau came home from Desert Storm and later died of Cancer. Biden usually says that his son died in combat. It is another Biden lie. Joe tells that story to evoke pity and empathy for his courageous son, yet he does nothing to acknowledge these parents who do not have to embellish the story of fallen children who did die in a combat environment. Maybe the next time Joe uses the memory of his son for impact, we should all check our watches and tell joe we have somewhere else to be.