Two years after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, there has been no accountability for a U.S. air strike that killed an innocent aid worker and his family, including seven children.
The August 29, 2021, strike was the last military action by the United States before leaving Afghanistan in a desperate, bloody scramble.
In the attack's aftermath, the military lied and covered up the civilian deaths in what General Mark "White Rage" Milley described as a "righteous strike" against terrorists, who just days earlier had killed 13 U.S. troops at Kabul's airport.
The military mistakenly targeted Zemari Ahmadi, an aid worker for an American NGO operating in Afghanistan, after drone footage captured him loading cases of water - which analysts mistakenly believed were explosives - into his car.
Ahmadi was killed, along with nine members of his family, the youngest being a two-year-old girl.
Military analysts knew within hours of the strike that children had been killed, and passed this information up the chain of command - but it was withheld from the public.
At a press conference days after the strike, General Milley acknowledged that there were "others" killed but said "we don't know [who they are]." He maintained the strike was "righteous," knowing at the time that a two-year-old girl had been murdered.
"We know from the variety of other means that at least one of those people that were killed was a ISIS facilitator,” Milley added. "Were there others killed? Yes, there are others killed. Who they are, we don’t know. We’ll try to sort through all that."
The Pentagon eventually acknowledged it had targeted civilians and apologized but said no troops would be punished for the strike.
The Taliban captured Kabul on August 15, 2021, after a lightning offense that forced the U.S. to make a chaotic exit.
Biden's public image was permanently tarnished. But there have been no tangible consequences for those responsible for the evacuation, which Biden called an "extraordinary success" despite the murder of 13 U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans in an attack at Kabul's airport.
At the time, Biden said he would seek justice for the Kabul attack.
“To those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said.
But the Gold Star families of the 13 heroes say Biden has forgotten. The families testified about their feelings of sorrow and betrayal at a recent hearing, with one father calling for Biden and his cronies to resign.
"Admit to your mistakes (and) learn from them so that this doesn't happen ever, ever again," Darin Hoover, the father of Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, said.
