Rep. Matt Van Epps, R-Tenn., a former Army aviator who served 10 years of active duty including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, has introduced a congressional resolution marking the fifth anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
The August 26, 2021 attack killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians near the evacuation gate as American forces completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan following the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country.
Van Epps told Fox News Digital that he vividly remembers learning of the chaotic withdrawal and its impact on military personnel who served in Afghanistan. He said conversations with colleagues, some still on active duty at the time, revealed widespread frustration among service members about how the evacuation unfolded.
"I think the frank answer is no, I'm very upset about this," Van Epps said of his reaction five years ago. "We spent so much time and effort and to see that unfold the way that it did was just beyond frustrating."
What the Right Is Saying
Van Epps argues that the Biden administration ignored warning signs as the Taliban gained territory across Afghanistan in the months leading up to the withdrawal. He contends the administration prioritized optics over operational security and failed to enforce accountability measures outlined in the Doha agreement.
"The Biden team gets in, totally ignores the Doha agreement where they could have enforced those accountability measures on the Taliban, totally missed and ignored all of these warning signals as the Taliban was gaining ground across the country," Van Epps said. "They were more interested in optics than operations."
Van Epps said two close friends who served as part of the Kabul evacuation confirmed his concerns about operational failures. He says those service members performed honorably but should never have been placed in such a dangerous situation, which he attributes to inadequate planning by civilian leadership.
The resolution also aims to ensure Americans remember that 13 service members made what Van Epps called "the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate" and that the withdrawal represented an unnecessary failure of government responsibility, according to Republican sponsors.
What the Left Is Saying
Democrats have largely defended the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, arguing that former President Donald Trump's 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban set the conditions that constrained successor administrations. The February 2020 deal called for a full U.S. troop withdrawal within 14 months.
Progressive critics of the resolution argue it overlooks the difficult position the incoming Biden administration faced when taking office in January 2021, with the Doha accord already in place and the May 2021 deadline approaching. They note that former Trump officials have acknowledged limited options for renegotiating terms without risking increased violence.
Supporters of the withdrawal point to the successful evacuation of more than 120,000 American citizens, Afghan allies, and vulnerable populations during a compressed timeline under extreme pressure. They argue that blame for conditions on the ground should be shared across administrations that oversaw two decades of nation-building efforts in Afghanistan.
What the Numbers Show
The August 26, 2021 Abbey Gate bombing resulted in 13 American military deaths: 11 Marines, one Navy sailor, and one Army staff sergeant. Approximately 170 Afghan civilians and combatants were also killed in the attack, which was carried out by ISIS-K.
The evacuation operation ultimately removed more than 120,000 people from Kabul over a two-week period ending August 30, 2021. The U.S. military presence in Afghanistan lasted nearly 20 years following the September 11, 2001 attacks.
A House Republican-led investigation into the withdrawal concluded in 2024 that communication failures and inadequate contingency planning contributed to casualties at Abbey Gate. The Biden administration conducted its own review of the evacuation but did not release a full public accounting of lessons learned.
The Bottom Line
Van Epps' resolution marks an annual attempt by congressional Republicans to maintain focus on the Afghanistan withdrawal as a defining moment of the previous Democratic administration's foreign policy record. While such commemorative resolutions rarely advance legislatively, they serve to keep the issue in public discussion ahead of potential future oversight hearings.
The political debate reflects broader divisions over how historians will assess the 2021 withdrawal: Was it an inevitable consequence of prior agreements and limited options, or was it a preventable failure caused by misaligned priorities? That question remains unresolved five years later. Voters in military communities continue to cite Afghanistan as among their concerns about Democratic leadership on national security.
What happens next: The resolution is expected to receive a committee referral. Van Epps has said he wants a floor vote before the end of the current Congress.