Kevin Dellicker for U.S. Congress

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On this day two years ago, Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul and seized power with little resistance. Over the next two weeks, the world would witness the tragic and chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces, including the death of 13 American service members.

It was a low point in recent American history. The United States had invested 20 years in Afghanistan, and the uniformed men and women who returned again and again to that help that desolate country deserved a better outcome. So did our Afghan allies who risked their lives to help our cause.

More than any other event, this experience profoundly affected the men and women I know who served in the Afghanistan war. I remember addressing my airmen after the botched withdrawal to remind them of two essential truths: we kept our country safe, and we brought the terrorists to justice. Those were our missions in Afghanistan, and our military achieved them both. I told them I was proud to be an Afghanistan War veteran, and they should be too.

Here’s what I wrote about those events in the Morning Call soon after they occurred:

“[H]onor our troops with effective policy and strong leadership. Give them what they need to win our nation’s wars. Never put them in harm’s way without a clear and achievable mission. And always bring them home when the job is done.”

If you send me to Congress, that’s exactly what I’ll do.

Keep America Free!