Thanksgiving week in Washington DC, and most people were thinking about turkey and family. Then, just a few blocks from the White House, an Afghan national opened fire on two National Guard members who were simply walking down the street. One soldier dead, another clinging to life. The shooter? Someone we flew here ourselves four years ago.
It feels almost surreal to write that sentence, but here we are. What happened in the nation’s capital has finally ripped the Band-Aid off a story many tried to ignore: the frantic 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan didn’t just bring allies. It brought chaos, risk, and — as we’re now seeing in real time — violence.
The $14 Billion Experiment Nobody Voted For
Let’s start with the number that should make every taxpayer sit up straight: fourteen billion dollars. That’s roughly what the American people have spent resettling approximately 90,000 Afghan nationals since the fall of Kabul. Fourteen billion to fly people here, house them, feed them, provide medical care, and scatter them across all fifty states.
Nobody asked voters if they wanted this. There was no referendum, no town hall debate, no serious congressional oversight in real time. One day we were watching those heartbreaking scenes at Kabul airport, and the next day entire planeloads of people — some documented, many not — were landing at Dulles and military bases across the country.
I remember watching those images in 2021 and feeling a mix of compassion and deep unease. Of course we should help people who helped us. But rounding people up like cattle and flying them to America with minimal screening? That felt less like generosity and more like panic.
When “Allies Welcome” Meant Almost Anyone
The official name was Operation Allies Welcome. The reality was closer to Operation Open Door.
Recent statements from top security officials have been blunt: thousands of these evacuees received little or no vetting before boarding U.S. military aircraft. Records were destroyed, databases went offline, and decisions were made under extreme pressure to “get everyone out.”
“You miss ALL the signs when you do absolutely ZERO vetting — and that’s exactly what happened in this case.”
Senior national security official speaking to reporters, November 2025
That quote wasn’t from some fringe commentator. That was the new FBI Director describing exactly what happened. When your own law enforcement leadership says we did zero vetting, that’s not politics — that’s a five-alarm fire.
The Human Cost Hits Home
The DC ambush wasn’t an isolated incident. It’s part of a pattern that’s becoming impossible to ignore.
- New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans — perpetrator inspired by ISIS
- Molotov cocktails thrown at a Jewish community gathering in Colorado
- Vehicle ramming attack against a synagogue
- Multiple Afghan nationals arrested for planning bomb attacks in recent weeks
These aren’t coincidences. Security experts who’ve spent decades tracking jihadist networks have been sounding the alarm for years. One former CIA targeting officer put it bluntly: we almost certainly have thousands of potential threats already inside the country.
And here’s the part that keeps me up at night: a small percentage of a very large number is still a big number. Even if only 1% of evacuees posed a risk, that’s potentially hundreds of people who want to do us harm walking American streets right now.
Where Did the $14 Billion Actually Go?
This is where things get particularly ugly.
Billions in contracts were awarded with lightning speed, often to companies with interesting connections. One contract alone — nearly $300 million — went to a tribal-owned company for “humanitarian Afghanistan refugee” services. No competitive bidding. Just handed out through special government programs originally designed to help disadvantaged businesses.
Look, I’m all for helping legitimate small and minority-owned businesses. But when we’re talking about national security and billions in taxpayer money during a crisis, shouldn’t we have been a little more careful about who was getting rich off Afghan resettlement?
The lack of transparency has been staggering. We know about some of these massive contracts only because investigative researchers dug through federal spending databases. Most Americans have no idea their money funded what increasingly looks like a poorly managed social experiment with potentially deadly consequences.
The National Security Reckoning
What’s happening now isn’t subtle. The incoming administration has made it clear: this experiment is over.
New Homeland Security leadership has stated publicly that up to 100,000 Afghan evacuees may pose security risks. The President-elect has promised “reverse migration” — finding and removing those who shouldn’t be here.
“We could have up to 100K people that came in from Afghanistan that may be here to do us harm — and President Trump is absolutely dedicated to getting them OUT.”
DHS Secretary-designate Kristi Noem, November 2025
That’s not extreme. That’s basic governance. When you discover you accidentally invited threats into your house, you don’t politely ask them to behave better. You show them the door.
The DC attack has become the tragic wake-up call. A young American serviceman who volunteered to protect this country was killed by someone we flew here in the name of compassion. If that doesn’t force a complete reevaluation of how we handle mass migration during crises, what possibly could?
What Comes Next
The consequences of 2021 aren’t going away. They’re walking our streets, living in our communities, and — in the worst cases — planning violence.
We’ve learned some hard lessons:
- Compassion without verification is reckless
- Speed in crisis response cannot trump security
- Billions in spending requires aggressive oversight
- National security isn’t partisan — it’s survival
The soldier killed in DC had a name, a family, a future. His death shouldn’t be another statistic in a policy debate. It should be the moment America says “never again” to unchecked mass migration dressed up as humanitarianism.
We’ve spent $14 billion and the life of at least one brave American to learn what should have been obvious: when you throw open the doors in panic, don’t be surprised when dangerous people walk through.
The cleanup is going to be long and difficult. But better to face the truth now than keep pretending everything is fine while more families bury their loved ones.
Because the next attack isn’t a question of if. After this week in DC, it’s only a question of when.
