Two National Guard soldiers were critically wounded Wednesday in a brazen, targeted ambush just blocks from the White House — an attack that should chill every American who still believes government can keep us safe. The suspect was taken into custody after being shot, and the scene of chaos outside Farragut Square showed how vulnerable even uniformed servicemen are when policy fails security.
Authorities have identified the alleged shooter as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who arrived in the United States during the chaotic 2021 evacuation and resettlement programs run in the aftermath of Kabul’s fall. Reports indicate he entered under the government’s Afghan evacuation efforts and was later living in the U.S., raising urgent questions about how vetting and parole were handled.
What we are being told so far — that this appears to be a calculated ambush and that the suspect is not cooperating — confirms this was not random violence but a directed attack against American troops performing their duties on U.S. soil. The FBI has taken the lead and national-security officials are treating the case with the seriousness it demands, yet Washington’s one-size-fits-all immigration and resettlement approach left the door open to this tragic possibility.
On cable Wednesday night, Rep. Byron Donalds called out the obvious political culpability, bluntly saying Democrats’ fingerprints are all over the policies that created this vulnerability — from the botched Afghanistan exit to the mass resettlement programs that followed. He made his case on Rob Schmitt’s show, reminding viewers that this is not abstract theory but a real-world consequence when national security is treated like a political checkbox.
Americans of every stripe should be furious. We welcomed brave interpreters and allies with open hands and a solemn promise of protection, but the administration’s rushed evacuations, porous vetting, and refusal to secure our borders afterward created a pipeline of risk. This isn’t about xenophobia, it’s about commonsense: if your policies invite mass, rapid resettlement without adequate oversight, you invite bad actors and you imperil our troops and citizens.
Democrats and their media allies will try to spin this as anything but a policy failure, but political spin won’t heal these soldiers or stop the next ambush. The same people who cheered open-door resettlement and fought attempts at tougher screening must now answer for predictable consequences. Responsible governance means owning mistakes, not gaslighting the public while our warriors lie in hospital beds.
President Trump ordered an additional 500 Guard troops to the capital in response, and the administration moved quickly to bolster security after the shooting — a reminder that when leadership acts decisively, lives can be protected. That step is welcome, but it also underscores the absurdity of court fights and partisan attacks that have tried to hobble law-and-order deployments in our cities.
Now is the time for action, not lectures. Congress should demand a full accounting of every step that let this individual into our communities, tighten vetting for any future resettlement, and finally secure our borders so policy mistakes in one decade do not become casualties in the next. Stand with the Guard, demand accountability from those who put them in harm’s way, and remember that security is not a partisan slogan — it is the first duty of any government worth its salt.
