“On one of the darkest days in our Nation’s history, 4 years ago, the gates of hell sprung open when an evil Jihadi terrorist carried out a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan — killing 13 heroes of our United States Armed Forces and shattering the hearts of Americans and our allies. As our Nation remembers this atrocious attack, we honor the memory of every brave warrior who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. We join in grief with the families who senselessly lost a loved one, and we renew our solemn pledge to our 13 fallen patriots — we will never forget you; we will never forsake you; and your memory will live on forever.”
Thus opens the presidential proclamation signed yesterday in the Oval Office by President Trump, the day before today’s fourth anniversary of the Abbey Gate massacre which left 13 American service members dead and 32 grievously wounded, plus another 170 Afghans dead.
I was truly honored to be in the Oval with the families of the dead yesterday, along with Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and VA Secretary Doug Collins. I was even more honored to spend time with the gold star families beforehand, to listen to their stories of the loved ones they lost. Stories that Joe Biden had no time for, deciding instead to look at his watch again and again as their caskets we transferred back onto American soil.
Sebastian Gorka
The man responsible for the rout of Kabul never invited these grieving mothers, fathers, wives, brothers, daughters, or sons to the White House. He couldn’t even attend the memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery last year. But the then former-President Trump did. And the man who would be re-elected a scant three months later made these families a solemn promise: “I will bring the man responsible for Abbey Gate to justice.”
As the re-elected president’s Senior Director for Counterterrorism, even I felt the locating of ISIS planner ‘Jafar’ would be one of our hardest challenges after we took office once more. But I was wrong. As President Trump said frequently on the campaign trail, “Americans make the impossible look easy.”
And so it was that just 41 days into the second Trump administration I found myself on the tarmac of Dulles Airport, the night of President Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress, with Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pam Bondi, and John Ratcliffe as we waited in the cold for the DOJ jet with Jafar onboard to land, in handcuffs. Promise kept.
Sebastian Gorka
The last twenty-four years have seen egregious mistakes made by America’s leaders and policymakers, mistakes which led to astrategic “forever wars” and astronomical prices being paid financially, physically, and spiritually by our nation. Unelected bureaucrats distorted or simply ignored factual, intelligence-based threat assessments to replace them with bogus analyses about fictive or exaggerated domestic threats which served the biased purposes of said political party and endangered all Americans.
As a result of the many failures caused by ignorant and arrogant political leaders, bureaucrats, and generals committed to their careers more than to mission success, the United States required a full reset of American counterterrorism policy and counterterrorism practices, and that is exactly what we have done under the renewed leadership of President Trump, Acting National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the rest of the America First team.
Instead of hunting down grandmothers who took selfies in the Capitol on January 6th, or categorizing Richmond Catholics who attend Latin mass “domestic terrorists,” we are doing real counterterrorism and against the real threat: jihadis.
Since President Trump authorized our first CT strike on the 8th day of the new administration we have killed 272 jihadis and rescued 72 American hostages from captivity. The United States is back in the business of counterterrorism, and to quote the commander-in-chief after that first successful operation, if you threaten innocent Americans, “We Will Find You & We Will Kill You.” Or as we say in the National Security Council: WWFY&WWKY.
Today we remember those who gave the ultimate measure, who sacrificed all. We hope the bringing to justice of Jafar brings their families a small sliver of closure. In the meantime, we will take their example of dedication to the nation as the greatest catalyst to finish the job we started on September 12th.
Sebastian Gorka
In the meantime, say their names:
Staff Sergeant Darin T. Hoover, USMC; Sergeant Johanny Rosario Pichardo, USMC; Sergeant Nicole L. Gee, USMC; Corporal Hunter Lopez, USMC; Corporal Daegan W. Page, USMC; Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez, USMC; Lance Corporal David L. Espinoza, USMC; Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz, USMC; Lance Corporal Rylee J. McCollum, USMC; Lance Corporal Dylan R. Merola, USMC; Lance Corporal Kareem M. Nikoui, USMC; Petty Officer Third Class Maxton W. Soviak, USN; and Staff Sergeant Ryan C. Knauss, USA.
Sebastian Gorka PhD is Deputy Assistant to President Trump and Senior Director for Counterterrorism in the US National Security Council and former National Security Editor for Breitbart News.
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