FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - South Florida veterans who served in Afghanistan have some strong feelings about the deteriorating situation in the Middle Eastern country, as the Taliban continue to sweep into the capital and people desperately try to flee.
Speaking with 7News on Monday, retired U.S. Army Maj. Chad Maxey said he was in favor of U.S. troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan when it was first announced earlier this spring, but the turmoil taking place over the past few days is not the way he wanted this to end.
“It was incomprehensible. I am reminded of two vivid scenes: one from 9/11, seeing the people jumping out of the buildings, and then I’m also reminded of the imagery from the end of the Vietnam War,” he said.
Video captured dozens of people running after a U.S. Air Force plane as it taxied down a runway in Kabul.
Maxey, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that while these images of desperation are difficult to see, American soldiers did not fail.
“Our men and women did not lose to the Taliban. I think that is getting lost a little bit here,” said Maxey. “The Afghan people have a vote, and they chose not to fight for their current government and their leaders.”
Nearly 3,000 Americans died in the fight against terrorism, and the U.S. government spent more than $2 trillion.
One of those killed was Pembroke Pines resident Juan Restrepo. His family, too upset to speak publicly on Monday, said they wonder whether all that work and sacrifice was for nothing.
Janine Lutz, who lost her Marine son John Lutz while he was being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder, said this is a terrible situation.
“My heart breaks for the people of Afghanistan, it breaks for our veterans here at home,” she said.
Her son spent six months in Afghanistan, lost his best friend there and took his own life in 2013.
His mother said she wishes the end of American involvement did not look like this.
“And now to let all those people get slaughtered? And to do nothing? To just pull out like that?” she said. “It’s a tribal nation. They knew what was going to happen. Why? Why did they do that?”
President Joe Biden defended his decision to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan during a speech delivered Monday afternoon.
“How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war, when Afghan troops will not?” he said.
Maxey said the focus now needs to shift to the American soldiers still there.
“We need to continue to have our prayers with those 6,000 men and women that are doing everything they possibly can to get all of our Americans out,” he said.
Lutz said she reached out to one of the soldiers who served with her son, and he told her “he just cannot go there” emotionally and allow himself to start thinking about what is going on in Afghanistan. In light of his comments, she said, she hopes other veterans do not watch these images and feel such despair that would tempt them to take their own lives.
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