Troops who fought in Afghanistan can hold their ‘heads up high’, say America's highest ranking military officials in letter thanking veterans for their service
The US troops who fought in Afghanistan throughout the past two decades can 'hold their head up high' for preventing an attack on the United States homeland, according to a letter posted on the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Facebook page.
The memorandum, which was addressed to the Joint Force, thanked 'every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, Guardian and Coastguardsman' for their service and sacrifice in 'the ugliness of war'.
'In Afghanistan, our military mission there has come to an end,' the letter declared.
Signed by Army General Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's chairman and US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Ramón Colón-López, the note acknowledged the 'heavy, irreparable cost' over the 18 days the US was given to evacuate Afghanistan.
A letter posted on the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Facebook page declared that 'in Afghanistan, our military mission there has come to an end' and told the US troops who fought throughout the past two decades to 'hold their head up high' for preventing an attack on US homeland
The letter, by Army General Mark Milley (left), the Joint Chiefs of Staff's chairman and US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Ramón Colón-López (right), acknowledged the 'heavy, irreparable cost' over the 18 days the US was given to evacuate Afghanistan, including the death of 13 US troops
'Eighteen days ago we were given the mission to evacuate Americans, third-country nationals and Afghans from a war-torn country and we executed that mission across nine countries and 26 intermediate staging bases and temporary safe havens.
'Eleven Marines, a Soldier and a Navy Corpsman paid the ultimate price to save over 124,000 people and gave them the opportunity to live in freedom,' the letter read.
'And you - you sacrificed more than anyone,' it added.
Veterans and families of fallen soldiers who have questioned whether the casualties in Kabul have been in vain. To that, Gen Milley and Sgt Colón-López wrote: 'To each of you, your service mattered. This is personal to us and we know it is personal to every one of you.'
One commenter slammed the 'rapid exit' as 'predictable and apparently acceptable to the administration' while others called on the president to resign.
'Now we have 13 troops dead, 170-plus civilians dead, Americans and Afghan allies left behind and the terror group we went there to stop in control of the country,' the comment read.
Another user called the letter 'a waste of paper'.
'We broke a sacred trust to never leave anyone behind,' a commenter said.
The letter, which was posted captioned '#GenMilley #SEAC,' generated a slew of backlash from people angered with the Biden administration's shoddy exit from the longest war in America's history
In Afghanistan, a total of '2,461 Americans lost their lives. 20,691 were wounded in action and many others suffered - and continue to suffer - the unseen wounds of war'.
The letter addressed 9/11 as 'that horrible, dark September day in our Nation's history,' and called the 20-year-long mission that ensued from that terrorist attack 'historic'.
Speaking to 'each of you who participated in this operation': 'Over the last two decades and the last two weeks you embodied our American values of equality, liberty and human dignity for all.'
The letter, which was posted captioned '#GenMilley #SEAC,' generated a slew of backlash from people angered with the Biden administration's shoddy exit from the longest war in America's history.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the US troop withdrawal from Kabul was an 'extraordinary success' and blamed Donald Trump and local soldiers for the chaos in Afghanistan
On Tuesday President Joe Biden said the troop withdrawal from Kabul was an 'extraordinary success'. He blamed local soldiers for the mess in Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover claiming the operation couldn't have been done in a 'more orderly manner'.
In the address to the nation on Tuesday a defiant Biden 'respectfully disagreed' with critics who said he should have started the evacuation sooner to avoid the chaos.
He said the US evacuated over 120,000 from Taliban rule since August 14, including 5,500 Americans, but failed to mention that somewhere between 100 and 200 Americans and thousands of Afghan interpreters who worked with the US military were left behind in its hasty exit.
Earlier in the week it was revealed that one of those interpreters was Mohammed, who helped rescue President Biden from a remote Afghan valley in 2008, had been left behind after the last US evacuation flight took off on Monday.
Mohammed - going only by his first name for safety reasons - is hiding from the Taliban with his wife and four children after trying for years to get out of the Middle Eastern country to no avail.
He is just one of thousands more SIV applicants left behind. There were 88,000 SIV applicants - as of last week only 6,000 had gotten out.
Biden will now have to rely on cooperation with the Taliban (pictured in Kabul on Tuesday) to try and get the remaining Afghan allies and American citizens out
Badri 313 units post for the cameras at Kabul airport Tuesday, carrying American-made rifles and wearing US military gear
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