After the attack on Kabul’s Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul last year during Afghanistan’s withdrawal, I wrote about 13 of the military personnel who died. The attack also claimed the lives of more than 100 Afghans. It’s hard to put into words the loss of so many young men and women who sacrificed their lives for their country. All of them were so young, and all showed such loyalty to their country. Their deaths brought a light to the entire world. It’s hard to imagine the pain that their families had to be going through, particularly given that they might not have been put in danger in that same way if the withdrawal had been done correctly.
The family of Lance Corporal Kareem Nikui is one of those families that has endured immense suffering.
Kareem Nikui (20 years old) was a Marine who sent photos to his father of him helping an Afghan girl and boy at Kabul’s airport. 💔
“He was performing a task that was utterly impossible for him to perform.”https://t.co/lDiA6SZSbY pic.twitter.com/D7QoJgEAIF
— Chao Deng 邓超 (@Chao_Deng) August 28, 2021
His brother Dakota Halverson, who was also taken by the attackers, committed suicide in this same month. Dakota’s brother’s death was one of the many things that troubled him. Shana Chappell his mother said Dakota was known to have slipped into the cemetery in the night to get to Kareem. His body was found across the street from the monument to him that they had placed there.
Two days after her son’s death, Chappell spoke with Townhall. She said she wanted Americans to know about the “ripple effect” of what happened in Afghanistan. She spoke about Nikoui’s lifelong desire to join the Marine Corps, what happened in the days leading up to the attack, what has happened to her family since then, what she thinks the Biden Administration should have done differently, and what Joe Biden said when she met him during the dignified transfer at Delaware’s Dover Air Force base last year. Chappell recalls how furious she felt at Joe Biden’s insistence on looking at his watch at their meeting, like he had somewhere more important. Biden interrupted her attempts to speak about her son.
“He interrupted me and started talking about HIS son…This isn’t about your son. It’s about my son.
Gold Star mother to Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikui discusses her encounter with Joe Biden a year after thirteen service personnel were killed in Afghanistan’s suicide bombing. pic.twitter.com/FWDykuwZKd
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 24, 2022
“He interrupted me and started talking about his son. About his son,” she said incredulously. “And I remember looking at him and going, ‘What are you doing?’…’This isn’t about your son, this is about my son.’” She said that Biden said he just wanted to let her know how he felt. “His son died of cancer. They had the opportunity to spend some time together, and then say goodbye. My son died because of the very man I was talking to.” She told Biden that the blood of the 13 was on his hands.
The complete interview with Chappell can be viewed here
She criticized Biden via Instagram. Her account was then temporarily disabled. Also, her Facebook account was shut down.
Chappell believed that this would never have occurred under President Donald Trump, and it was because of the failings of the Biden administration. She said she didn’t feel there had been any justice for the death of her son and she spoke about how that also affected Dakota.
Joe Biden received a message from Chappell at the conclusion of their interview.
“If I could be face to face right now with him, I would let him know that he’s a coward. I’d let him know what a horrible job he is doing. He’s a failure, he’s always been a failure in everything he’s done. He will always be a failure. I’d call him a traitor. He’s also a traitor. I would tell him what an inconsiderate human being he was. 13 kids gave up their lives for this country, and he wouldn’t say their names. Now I don’t want him saying my kid’s name. I don’t want my kid’s name ever coming out of that mouth…I would let him know that he showed what a coward he was when he immediately made sure that everything about Kabul disappeared…and it wasn’t talked about anymore, because he doesn’t want people to know…He’s destroying lives and our country.”
Chappell added that she didn’t fear this Administration. “How can you fear a bunch of cowards?”
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