To the Editor:
Thirteen very young heroes, all in their 20s except for one who was 31, all with their lives still ahead of them made the long trip back home , their FINAL one, after making the ultimate sacrifice not in the fiery field of battle but at an airport of all places. They were there helping evacuees flee a country thrown into deadly chaos by their commander in chief who arbitrarily decided for political reasons to set a deadline to leave that country.
A suicide bomber snuffed their young, beautiful lives full of promise and dreams yet to be fulfilled and also leaving in its wake, 18 other servicemen seriously wounded and 90 citizens of that country killed, more than 100 people in all killed in that horrific moment. The country is Afghanistan where the United States spent blood and treasure for 20 years.
The 13 heroes draped in American flags were welcomed at Dover Air Force Base last Sunday, August 29 by the same commander in chief who made that knee jerk decision to pull out the troops without much planning to make it a safe and an orderly exit for everyone who needed to leave the country, including American citizens, residents and Afghan allies , Still, it made for a nice optic to see the commander in chief with the first lady beside him both looking appropriately pensive and sad presiding over the “dignified transfer” of the remains of our fallen troops killed in foreign combat.
Then it HAPPENED!!. The commander in chief looked at his watch for the whole world to see. One can just imagine how the families of the fallen heroes felt when they saw that . Body language is EVERYTING when all eyes are on you and the cameras are rolling. The MAN WITH THE WATCH gave the impression that he needed to be somewhere else BUT THERE. Or he was impatient for the ceremony to be over or he didn’t feel the 13 young men were important enough that they needed his complete and undivided attention for the ultimate sacrifice they made that was his doing. Never mind that the country feels their blood is on his hands. Or that, they died on his watch and because of the decision he made.
THE MAN AND HIS WATCH has much to answer to those 13 young men, to those who wear the uniform, their families, to the country and American people, to the Americans who are still in Afghanistan and Afghan allies both desperately waiting to be evacuated and in harm’s way. THE MAN AND HIS WATCH and the people who are his minions and/or the powers-that-be who pull his strings will forever be etched in our collective memories and 2022 and 2024 should be the years of reckoning.
Tita Dumagsa
Village of Fenney
