Gold Star parents whose Marine son was killed in the terrorist attack outside the airport in Kabul during President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 called for Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to resign this week.
During an appearance on Fox & Friends on Monday, Steve Nikoui and Shana Chappell said they want accountability for the death of their son, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui.
The 20-year-old was killed on Aug. 26 when an ISIS terrorist detonated a bomb at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The terrorist was a former U.S. prisoner who had been released by the Taliban after the U.S. abandoned Bagram Airbase shortly before the deadly attack that killed Nikoui and 12 other American troops.
“I’m still waiting for them to be held accountable for it. For some reason, they want to put the blame on everyone but themselves, but it is actually their faults, all of what’s happened. The thirteen that are dead is their fault,” Chappell said.
“I’d like to see General Milley resign,” Nikoui added. “I mean, he should be held responsible, he’s the joint chiefs of staff. And when I questioned him in Dover, Delaware, as to why wasn’t he planning this evacuation on any better, he was very hostile and was like ‘well, this has been planned for months.’ Situations like this are very fluid and it takes the generals that are on the ground to be able to change direction of any given task immediately.”
Nikoui reiterated that neither Mr. Biden nor the generals have been held accountable for the slain service members, adding that the US did not protect Kareem “the way he needs to be protected.” He said abandoning Bagram Airbase, which allowed the terrorist to be released, shows “the carelessness” of the administration.
“We were able to keep our son alive… for the last twenty years,” Nikuoi said. “Then he goes and joins the military to serve our country and our country can’t protect him the way that he needs to be protected. Bagram Airbase was a more substantial base that they couldn’t have done this evacuation from. Instead, they let the Taliban overtake that.”
“Then they go to the Embassy, they lose that and ultimately end up over there at the Abbey Gate of the airport. The fact that they let him out is a testament to the carelessness of this administration and to top everything off, our son wasn’t killed by a blast of the bomb, so this guy isn’t even the guy that killed him,” he added.
As of Monday, Nikoui said the Gold Star parents still haven’t received an autopsy report on their son from the Biden administration.
