A cowardly ambush near the White House left two West Virginia National Guard members shot in broad daylight on November 26, 2025, in a chilling attack that should wake every American up to the stakes of weak border and refugee policies. Law enforcement quickly identified a 29-year-old Afghan national as the suspect and described the assault as a targeted, terror-related act that wounded both servicemembers and terrorized the city’s streets.
Authorities say the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, came to the United States during the 2021 airlift and resettlement program known as Operation Allies Welcome, later receiving asylum in April 2025, and that he had previously served in a CIA-backed Afghan unit — details that raise urgent questions about how we vet those who enter our country. The reporting shows a troubling chain: evacuation in chaos, parole into the interior, and resettlement without the thorough, layered security screening Americans expect.
The two Guardsmen were identified as Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe; Beckstrom’s wounds proved fatal while Wolfe fights for his life, a human cost that cannot be swept under the rug with excuses or partisan spin. These were young Americans sworn to protect the capital and the public, ambushed while doing their duty — a solemn reminder that rhetoric has consequences and policy failures have victims.
The federal response was immediate and predictable: immigration processing for Afghans was paused and additional National Guard forces were ordered into Washington as investigators pursued leads and officials described the incident as an act of terrorism. Americans deserve a full accounting of how a person admitted in the wake of a chaotic withdrawal could allegedly target uniformed service members two blocks from the White House.
Conservative voices have long warned that the August 2021 withdrawal and the subsequent rush to resettle tens of thousands of evacuees created vulnerabilities, and watchdog reports and congressional hearings since then documented serious gaps in DHS screening and coordination. The DHS Office of Inspector General and multiple House committee probes found troubling fragmentation in vetting procedures and a lack of a plan to identify or remove dangerous individuals — proof that these were not merely partisan complaints but documented national security failures.
Meanwhile, the same politicians and activists who spent years savaging police and demonizing law-and-order have fostered an environment where violent attacks on our protectors are diminished or politicized rather than denounced in unison. If our country is to remain safe, that poisonous anti-police and anti-soldier rhetoric must stop, and public officials must stop reflexively defending policies that put Americans at risk.
Patriots demand action, not platitudes: tighten vetting to the highest standards, reopen a sober-eyed review of Operation Allies Welcome failures, and hold accountable the officials who greenlighted reckless resettlement without the safeguards this nation requires. We must stand with the brave National Guard members who wear the uniform and insist that protecting American citizens comes before ideological virtue signaling or political theater.
