Gold Star Families Testify At Hearing On 2021 Abbey Gate Terror Attack

Two years after a terrorist bombing took the lives of 13 U.S. service members during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, a hearing on Capitol Hill showed the families of those 13, along with leading Republicans, believe the Biden administration has yet to fully answer for their loss.

A couple of House committees are investigating the withdrawal as a whole -- which Republicans describe alternately as 'catastrophic' and 'disastrous' -- but the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing Tuesday focused more specifically on the August 26, 2021, suicide bombing that killed 170 civilians along with the American soldiers.

"Jared, David, Nicole, Taylor, Ryan, Hunter, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Johanny, Humberto, Max, and Deegan are not just casualties of war," Jaclyn Schmitz told members of the committee, "they are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters."

Schmitz, whose stepson, USMC Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, was among those killed, was one of more than a dozen parents and family members to testify at the hearing titled "A Gold Star Families Roundtable: Examining the Abbey Gate Terrorist Attack."

U.S. forces were in a difficult situation toward the end of August 2021, as the administration was determined to complete the evacuation of more than 100,000 American citizens, soldiers, and friendly Afghans before the Taliban-imposed deadline of September 1. The airport in Kabul was teeming with people desperate to leave the country, and American troops were called on to secure the perimeter while also facilitating an orderly evacuation process.

An ISIS-K suicide bomber took advantage of the chaos.

Some of those at the hearing believe the administration hasn't shared all it knows about the attack.

"I personally will pose a challenge to the President," said Herman Lopez, father of Marine Corps Corporal Hunter Lopez, "I think our sons and daughters had more courage in their little fingers than this man has shown while he’s been in office. Well, my challenge is, tell the truth, all the truth, to all of us, or get out of the way."

The Biden administration has defended its decisions, saying that certain conditions for withdrawal were set by Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump, but moreover that continuing the war was no longer in American's strategic interest and remaining in Afghanistan would only have put more lives at risk.

In a statement last weekend, the President said, "We will forever honor the memory of the 13 service members who were stolen far too soon from their families, loved ones, and brothers- and sisters-in-arms while performing a noble mission on behalf of our nation."

Oklahoma's congressional delegation has been a harsh critic of the President's handling of the end of the Afghanistan conflict.

“While there is room for debate about the timing and necessity of a complete U.S. withdrawal," said Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) in a statement, "there can be no doubt that the way in which the Biden administration executed the withdrawal was reckless – directly leading to the loss of 13 brave U.S. service members and countless innocent people.”

The lone Democrat to attend Tuesday's hearing said it's not just Republicans frustrated with what happened two years ago.

"Democrats want answers, too," said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA). "This was a grievous end to a 20-year war that represented so much pain and sacrifice for families."