August 26, 2021 02:49 PM UTC

Rep. Crow: "Our Combat Mission In Afghanistan Is Over"

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• by: Colorado Pols

The domestic news cycle has pretty much come to a halt this afternoon after suicide bombings attributed to the terrorist group ISIS killed dozens of people including at least 12 American service members outside the gate to Kabul Airport in Afghanistan, where the U.S. military continues a massive effort to airlift tens of thousands of refugees and American citizens out of the country.

There’s not much we can add to the reporting going on right now from the scene and from Washington, but do take a moment to watch this interview with Colorado’s Rep. Jason Crow, an Afghanistan war veteran, a short while ago on MSNBC–in which Crow re-affirms his support for the withdrawal from the country, saying “our combat mission in Afghanistan is over.” But our obligation to our Afghan allies is not:

The “new mission” Rep. Crow says is incumbent on the nation is to ensure that no one who collaborated with the United States during the occupation of Afghanistan and is now at risk of reprisal is left behind, even if that means continuing to hold the airport after the August 31st deadline:

We do not leave American citizens behind in a war zone. We do not leave our friends and partners behind in a war zone. We are the United States of America. We stand by our people. We stand by our citizens. We have the strongest military in the world. Over 2,400 of our troops have been killed over the last 20 years, including when I was doing combat missions as an Army Ranger, and never once did we allow terrorists or people attacking us to stop one of our missions. We decide when we stop one of our missions, and we stop when we get the job done.

Whether you agree or disagree with Rep. Crow on the deadline to withdraw, he is defending the integrity of our country before the whole world and that to us is above reproach. Everyone including the two Presidents before Joe Biden agreed this war had to end. Now it’s a question of ending it with promises kept or broken by America on the way out.

The headlines are difficult today, but we’re proud of Rep. Jason Crow.