Afghanistan War exit ‘failure’ doesn’t take away achievements, good done by service members

BYRON – Less than two weeks shy of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the U.S. completed withdrawing from Afghanistan in a military operation that has garnered much criticism. It marked the end of a war that claimed the lives of at least three area service members.

Army National Guard Spc. Norman L. Cain III, of Mt. Morris was 22 on March 15, 2009, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device in Kot, Afghanistan. He died instantly, leaving behind a wife, then-3-year-old stepdaughter and then-1-year-old son.

Marine Staff Sgt. Justus S. Bartelt, of Polo died July 16, 2010, while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He had turned 27 just 12 days earlier.

Marine Lance Cpl. Alec E. Catherwood, 19, of Byron was on his first combat deployment when he was killed Oct. 14, 2010, in Helmand province, Afghanistan. His parents are building a retreat for combat veterans – the Darkhorse Lodge – in Tennessee.

“For those who have fallen and have served and given so much up in Afghanistan, I’ll say this – geopolitically, this is seen as a failure. Let’s not paper that over,” U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, said Wednesday. “But I also know that there are hundreds of thousands of people right now that were able to get an education that are journalists, that are scholars – women in particular – that never would have had that chance had it not been for U.S. intervention.

“I know that, for 20 years, the American homeland was safe from organizations that seriously wanted to strike out and destroy our homeland. So there was a lot that [service members] achieved.”

Kinzinger spoke to reporters after a roundtable discussion with community leaders concerning the future of Byron’s nuclear power station.

The congressman currently serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard and said he is extremely angry regarding the handling of the exit from Afghanistan. It’s a feeling shared by many veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, he said.

Kinzinger joined the U.S. Air Force in 2003 and has served in the Air Force Special Operations, Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command, in addition to the Air National Guard.

“I think for too long, we’ve had leaders – frankly on both sides – who have not understood or tried to sell to the American people the reason for involvement in Afghanistan,” he said. “I could sell that reason, but we’re out now and that is what it is.”

He said that doesn’t negate the fact that the U.S. withdrawal involved “some of the worst military decision-making in my lifetime.” If there’s a leader in President Joe Biden’s administration whose advice led to the actions taken, Kinzinger said he would fully expect that leader to resign out of honor.

“The American people deserved far better an exit in Afghanistan than to have the last vision be us begging the Taliban to protect us and having 13 people killed by ISIS-K,” he said.

Kinzinger said former President Donald Trump is responsible for “a terrible negotiation of a terrible deal,” while Biden is responsible for following through on that deal and “a terrible exit.” However, he said he’s not going to act emotionally because he said his job right now is to be professional and to get answers.

On Aug. 31, the congressman set a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin requesting more details on the number of people left behind, such as the classification those people in relation to their entry into the U.S., the kind of visas they’d require, which refugee status is being granted and the number of pending visa or refugee statuses, among other concerns.

Kinzinger said he asked for written answers no later than Sept. 8.

“We need answers on how we got to here,” Kinzinger said. “But we need to do it in a way where we’re not just trying to find the political advantage in that answer.”

Cain, Bartelt and Catherwood weren’t the only area natives to lose their lives in the Middle East. Two others died in the Iraq War, which took place from 2003 to 2011.

Army Pfc. Scott M. Tyrrell, 21, of Sterling died Nov. 20, 2003, from wounds received when an ammunition point caught fire in Tikrit, Iraq.

Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew G. Patten, 19, of Byron was killed Dec. 1, 2005, by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Fallujah, Iraq.