“Ripple Effect”: Military Families Help Biden Withdraw from Afghanistan

• One year after the Biden administration’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers, Dakota Halverson, the brother of one of the Marines killed, took his own life. The family claims that President Joe Biden refuses to accept responsibility for the mistakes in withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. This may have contributed to Halverson’s suicide. “We are seeing the heartbreak from the Afghanistan surrender continuing every day for American troops and their families,” Carrie Filipetti (Vandenberg Coalition executive director) and former policy advisor for Middle East affairs and terrorism told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Biden administration has yet to account for the effects of the suicide bombing at an airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021 that killed 13 U.S. soldiers and is still taking a toll on those left behind, family members and experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Dakota Halverson, 29, committed suicide on Aug. 9 at Ingalls Park across from a permanent memorial for the fallen soldiers in Norco, California, where he used to play with his brother, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikuui was killed in the explosion. Their mother, Shana Chappell, said the “ripple effect” of President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal and subsequent unwillingness to take responsibility for mistakes contributed to Halverson’s decision to take his own life. (RELATED: ‘You Don’t Even Care’: Mother Of Slain Marine Blasts Biden For Not Mentioning 13 Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan)

“Dakota was so proud of Kareem, that he was a Marine, and bragged to everybody about his brother being a Marine and why he was deployed,” Chappell told the DCNF. It was a difficult time for Dakota to learn that his brother had died. .”

“We are seeing the pain of Afghanistan surrender continuing every day for American soldiers, their families,” Carrie Filipetti (Vandenberg Coalition executive director, and former policy advisor for Middle East affairs and terrorism) told the DCNF.

Halverson and Chappell tried to keep the Marines strong, close friends of Nikoui, Chappell said to the DCNF. However, Halverson struggled with his loss and the Biden government’s guilt in the bombing.

“When his brother was deployed he discussed how the administration should not kill his brother — then this administration killed his brother,” Chappell said.

“I did not think that [Halverson] would take his life because he missed his brother so much that he just wanted to be with him.”

A lone member of the terrorist organization ISIS-K reportedly perpetrated the explosion that killed nearly 200 people and injured twice that many, marking the third-deadliest day for U.S. soldiers in 20 years of the Afghanistan War.

Top Department of Defense (DOD) officials reportedly instructed inferiors worldwide to prepare for an imminent “mass casualty event,” along with intelligence that ISIS-K might attempt to carry out a “complex attack,” the day before the bomb went off at Abbey Gate, Politico reported. Although commanders decided to shut the gate down, the Americans chose to keep it open to allow the British military to withdraw faster from nearby hotels.

Our children were treated as disposable and easily replaceable,” Chappell said. The Biden administration could have “at least just acknowledged that it…that they were at least sorry this kids died,” Shaelynn, Halverson’s younger sister told the DCNF. They got kids killed.” They killed their children .” Shana Chappell, and Steve Nikoui called for Biden’s administration to accept responsibility in January. But Chappell informed the DCNF that “zero” accountability has been shown.

Biden called the 13 “heroes” in a speech on Aug. 31, 2021, saying “we owe them and their families a debt of gratitude we can never repay but we should never, ever, ever forget.” However, Chappell said that since her encounter with Biden at Dover Air Force Base days prior for the dignified transfer of her son, she has not heard from the president.

Findings from a Department of Defense investigation of the attack, laid out in a 2,000-page report, found that it was not a “complex attack” and no gunfire was present. The DOD claimed that witnesses who heard gunfire and sustained bullet injuries disputed this claim.

When asked for comment about accountability measures the DOD is pursuing and how it would respond to the news of Halverson’s death, the DOD referred the DCNF to a press release about the report.

The Afghanistan War Commission, authorized in the 2023 annual defense bill, will conduct a comprehensive review of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan from June 2001 to August 2021. The final report of the commission can be submitted up to three years following its initial meeting.

The State Department referred the DCNF to an Aug. 15 briefing, where State Department spokesman Ned Price discussed the status of the after-action report, when asked the same questions presented to the DOD. Although the entire report is classified, Price stated that the department hopes and expects to release portions of it soon.

Filipetti stated that the government should make Afghanistan’s after-action reports available to the public in order to bring closure to families of Americans who died fighting for their country. She said that the Biden administration must be transparent with servicemembers, their families and about what responsibility lies at its feet.

The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others. This sacred duty to these fallen heroes will never be forgotten. pic.twitter.com/lPx4a4ebS7

— President Biden (@POTUS) August 29, 2021

Accountability would not only serve the families of those who lost their lives, but the thousands of post-9/11 Afghanistan War veterans, many of whom must learn to cope with severe mental distress, experts told the DCNF.

“The Biden administration has caused moral injury and psychically damaged a generation of warriors who volunteered to serve their country and keep Americans safe from another 9/11. Former deputy secretary of defense for Middle East Simone Ledeen told DCNF that these thousands of soldiers need accountability and an honest accounting of the year’s actions and decisions.

The Daily Caller News Foundation did not receive a response to their request for comment.

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