The shattered father of a young United States Marine murdered in Thursday’s terror attacks at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan let out his anger and frustration Friday, putting most of the blame for his son’s death directly on President Biden.
“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui told the Daily Beast while crying during the interview.
“I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it,” he said.
Nikoui, a Trump supporter, added that he wanted to “respect the office” of the president, but said it very hard at the moment.
The grieving father’s reaction is a pointed representation of the anger many Americans are feeling as they watch the Biden administration’s sloppy withdrawal and evacuation efforts in Afghanistan. By failing to successfully depart the country before Taliban militants could sweep through, the administration has left many American service members and citizens stuck.
Nikoui’s son, Kareem, was one of the thirteen United States service members murdered Thursday during a suicide bombing attack led by ISIS-K terrorists outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The attack also killed at least ninety Afghan nationals and injured more than 150 others, including eighteen United States service members.
Nikoui said that he feared the worst when he found out about explosions in Kabul, where his son was stationed.
“I stayed home from work yesterday because there was that attack and I knew he was there,” the California carpenter told the Daily Beast. “So all day, I was glued to the TV.”
Waiting all day to learn if his son had lived was “excruciating,” he said. Then at around 7:15 p.m. PT, he saw a group of Marine representatives come to his door.
They were “more choked up than me,” Nikoui said. “I was actually trying to console them. But at the same time, I just wanted them to get out as soon as possible so that no one from my family came back and saw them. I thought it appropriate that I be able to tell them.”
Nikoui also said that he is still in shock and hasn’t been able to sleep or “grasp everything that’s going on.” His next step is to go to Dover, Delaware, and pick up his son’s remains.
Nikoui mentioned that Kareem loved what he did and always wanted to be a marine,
Fortunately, too, while stateside, Kareem was station in nearby Camp Pendleton and was able to come home on weekends. Nikoui said that Kareem often brought along “10 or 15 other Marines” with him on visits home.
“My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren’t around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them,” he recounted. “He really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devoted — he was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go. No hesitation for him to be called to duty.”
Military officials have not publicly published the names of the murdered United States troops, which reportedly include ten Marines, two Army soldiers, and one Navy medic.