There was a time, not that far in the past, when a shocking tragedy would bring the country together.
Americans had the capacity to grieve as one — as they did, for instance, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. This reflected their sense of a common purpose and shared values, whatever their political differences might be.
So far, almost the opposite is happening after two young National Guard members from West Virginia were ambushed, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition. It occurred on the eve of Thanksgiving and just a block away from the White House, against a national backdrop of rising political violence and deep polarization.
What has sent President Donald Trump into a fury is the fact that the suspected gunman is an Afghan national allowed entry to the United States in 2021 after his service with the CIA during America’s 20-year war in his country.
At a time that calls for moving the country forward, Trump also remains transfixed on finding ways to blame his predecessor for what has happened on his watch.
“This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation,” he said in a video Wednesday night. “The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about. No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”
While Trump officials were quick to level criticisms at the previous administration for granting the suspect and his family entry to the U.S. in 2021, they brushed aside any examination of the administration’s role in granting Rahmanullah Lakanwal asylum earlier this year.
Meanwhile, crucial questions have yet to be answered: Did ideological motives or mental illness send Lakanwal, 29, on a road trip across the country to allegedly carry out the attack? Were warning signs missed in the extensive vetting that preceded his entry into this country? And how can something similar be prevented in the future?
Even without solid evidence, the president has stepped up his screeds against immigrants and fallen back on divisive actions that fit his long-standing predilections. He vowed to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.”
Over Thanksgiving weekend, and a day George Washington proclaimed as one to be celebrated with unity and “grateful hearts,” Trump went on a multi-posttirade on social media, saying U.S. citizenship should be stripped from naturalized Americans “who undermine domestic tranquility.” More darkly, he also called for deporting those deemed “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” All of these actions would be of questionable legality.
The president also renewed, in starkly derogatory and sweeping terms, his criticism of Somali refugees, some of whom have been implicated in a massive unfolding fraud scheme in Minnesota. Trump conceded that Somalis had nothing to do with what happened in downtown Washington, but he contended, “Somalians have caused a lot of trouble.”
“Their country is a disgrace. We took their people, but we’re not taking their people anymore,” he added. “We’re getting a lot of their people out because they’re nothing but trouble.”
He and other Cabinet officials have again vowed to end federal benefits to undocumented immigrants, though they aren’t eligible for them anyway.
The administration also has tightened its extensive restrictions on immigration in recent days. On Friday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it has halted all decisions relating to asylum claims, and the State Department announced it has put a pause on issuing visas to people traveling on Afghan passports.
Meanwhile, liberal commentators and some Democratic lawmakers have blamed Trump’s placement of National Guard troops in U.S. cities as having precipitated what happened.
On CNN, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) asked: “Why wasn’t the president’s first thought, ‘Well, you know, maybe I should reconsider deploying military troops in the nation’s capital or in any city’?”
In the wake of the shooting, Trump has instead reinforced his actions by ordering 500 more to be deployed in the District to join the more than 2,200 already assigned.
No doubt it is worth reviewing the policy decisions that contributed to the slaying of Sarah Beckstrom, 20, an Army specialist, and the wounding of Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, on what might have been presumed to be one of the safest city blocks in the country because of its proximity to the heavily guarded White House grounds.
Yet in assessing most of those policies, there are complexities and trade-offs to be weighed. It should be possible to believe that Trump’s use of the National Guard as a crime-fighting tool is unnecessary and unwise while also keeping the blame focused on the person who fired the shots from a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver on Wednesday afternoon.
Nor is it inconsistent to have concerns about the vetting processes that allowed tens of thousands of Afghans to resettle in the United States after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2021 left their country to the Taliban, even while holding the view that America owes a debt to those who put their own lives and those of their families on the line to work on its side as interpreters, drivers and fighters.
Trump’s actions and words stand in sharp contrast to the message that President George W. Bush sent after the 9/11 attacks, when he urged Americans not to blame all Muslims and called Islam “a faith based upon peace and love and compassion.”
The decision-making that followed has not entirely been viewed kindly by history. It should not be forgotten that 9/11 was the rationale for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, which launched this nation’s longest war and sent floods of refugees here in its aftermath.
Now as then, how America sorts out what happened and comes to terms with it could have implications that stretch long into the future.
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