The mainstream media's narrative surrounding the recent shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.
C., by an Afghan migrant, appears to be strikingly uniform.
The blame, it seems, is being conveniently placed on President Donald Trump, while other more plausible, albeit politically inconvenient, culprits are being disregarded.
A case in point is USA Today's coverage of the Wednesday attack that resulted in the death of one National Guard member and left another critically injured. The publication's headline, which essentially insinuated that Trump was responsible, was glaringly blatant.
The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, adopted a slightly more nuanced approach in their Friday editorial, "The Ambush on the National Guard." While they acknowledged the shooter's alleged radicalization as a topic worth exploring, they cautioned against scrutinizing post-conflict Afghan migration too closely.
In essence, the message was clear: Don't blame Trump, but also refrain from blaming the influx of Afghan migrants that entered the United States under President Joe Biden's Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
The alleged perpetrator, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was an Afghan national who had previously served with a CIA-backed counterterrorism unit in Kandahar. He arrived in the U.S. during the tumultuous withdrawal that effectively handed Afghanistan back to the Taliban. According to the Western Journal, Trump promptly called for a thorough re-vetting of Afghan entrants and a temporary halt to migration from high-risk countries.
The Daily Wire reported on Friday that the State Department had already directed overseas posts to suspend visas for eligible Afghan nationals until "updated enhanced vetting or screening measures" could be implemented to verify identities and eligibility.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board acknowledged the need to investigate Lakanwal's "alleged turn from partner to terrorist," especially considering his role as a husband and father of five in the U.S. However, they cautioned against placing the blame solely on the Afghan community. Trump was quick to link the shooting to Biden's mishandling of the Afghan situation, and officials were swift to criticize the lack of adequate vetting during the hasty evacuation of 2021. The details of the shooter's approval for entry will eventually be revealed, and it's likely that a more orderly withdrawal would have allowed for a more thorough investigation. This incident is yet another consequence of the Biden administration's failure in Afghanistan.
However, even the most meticulous vetting processes can fail, and it's possible that Lakanwal became radicalized after arriving in the U.S. This phenomenon has been observed even among the children of refugees who grow up in America. Some may argue that this is reason enough to deny entry to such refugees, but the alternative would be to abandon our allies who have assisted Americans in war, leaving them at the mercy of our enemies.
The brutal fate that often befalls Afghans who have collaborated with the U.S. is well-documented. As the editorial noted, Afghan refugees "are building new lives here in peace and are contributing to their communities" and "shouldn't be blamed for the violent act of one man."
While it's true that the vast majority of Afghans "shouldn't be blamed," it's also true that the American population of over 300 million shouldn't be subjected to random acts of terrorism due to one administration's decision to disregard refugee vetting procedures while simultaneously abandoning Afghanistan to the Taliban.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial may be less inflammatory than USA Today's piece, but it still reflects a subtle symptom of a left-liberal media ecosystem where narrative often supersedes nuance. Publications like USA Today and The Wall Street Journal, in their haste to protect their sacred cows, often overlook inconvenient facts.
For instance, the 2022 Pentagon inspector general's report identified several untracked evacuees as security risks a concern that conservatives had voiced less than a year earlier, only to be labeled as racists and xenophobes for suggesting that common sense should play a role in post-war Afghan migration.
For the families of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe one dead, another fighting for life and for every service member on the line, the real imperative is learning from this loss: Vetting isn't optional. It's the bare minimum we owe our own. Even if Lakanwal managed to pass vetting, that doesn't make it any less imperative.
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