By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
As America paused on 9/11 last week to remember those lost in terrorist attacks on New York City, U.S. Rep. Greg Lopez went to the floor of the U.S. House to address the country’s exit from the resulting war in Afghanistan.
“President [Joe] Biden and Vice President [Kamala] Harris fled a country we freed for two decades, left in the grasp of merciless terrorists,” said Lopez, who represents Colorado’s 4th District in the U.S. House. “Why did we have to lose 13 brave service members? We didn’t.”
He levied blame for the “catastrophic exit” from Afghanistan on the leadership of Biden-Harris.
“We lost them because there was no real plan on how to get out of Afghanistan,” Lopez said. “Any real, true commander-in-chief would know that you must plan every single step to make sure there is no one left behind. When you don’t have the experience, when you don’t understand the conflict that you are in, you will fail like that administration did.”
He questioned the character of such an administration, accusing them of being someone who betrays a friend and provides comfort to enemies. As a result of their abrupt exit from Afghanistan, 13 members of the American military were lost.
“They say, if you want to test the character of a person, give them power,” Lopez said. “Well, we know the character of the commander-in-chief of that day. Truly, it shows that it was more important to deal with the optics politically than it was to protect the men and women in uniform.”