Commentary

Humanitarian Government-DC National Guard Shooting and predictable but unforeseen actions

Where do things become one persons fault or another? Or is there such a thing as a perfect storm of circumstances? #government #governmental opinion #military#social systems #US commentary #US government #immigration

The Midnight Goddess Nyx

02 Dec 2025 • 13 min read

The Ties that Bind: America, promises, and foreign nationals military assistance

Again, yet another piece that doesn’t fit with what ‘Humanitarian Government’ is normally about. Why?

Because reality and current events have collided once again with policy and history.

Last week, yet another needless tragedy hit the US: two West Virginian National Guardsmen were shot, one later died and as of this writing, the other is still fighting for their life.

However, this isn’t something about pointing fingers about CIA recruitment and asset handling, or the intricacies of a pull out and all that. Yes, those do figure into this mess, but I also see a possible other issue.

You might think I’m talking about that ICE, Noem, Miller and such are right. No, not even close. Actually, this isn’t about immigration at all. It’s more along the lines of promises broken.

Now, I wrote an article about the military and care of and my views on that. This ties into that article and that thinking.

Unfortunately, however much I love my country, I know the dark underbelly. Not all, I’m not so clueless to think anyone will know all of what has happened in various settings and such. However, I’m being more specialized than the generalized ‘dark underbelly’.

Let me give you come context before I enter into the real point.

Back in 1975, the Vietnam Police Action (1, 2) was winding down and pull out was being done. I’m well aware that the involvement was tantamount to a non-Congregational declared war that initially started in the 1950s. Being that that it was never declared as a war, Congress never was asked or convened to vote for any action except for budget issues, it was officially only a ‘Police Action’. That ties into issues I bring up in the military article, so I’ll refer you to that. I also mention issues via the Legislative branch in my framework articles.

But I refer back to 1975 because we had Vietnamese nationals that assisted the US soldiers and government during those actions. Of course, if left behind they would be targets. That’s the nature of conflicts in general. Whoever wins persecutes those who aided or abated with those who lose as much or more.

That ties into an issue that has become glaring in the extreme. But let me give you some numbers.

Approximate numbers only: 70,000 South Vietnamese military personnel, 40,000 South Vietnamese Government officials and their families, and 30,000 ‘other civilians’ that included those who worked with the US. (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)

That’s what comprised two Operations. New Life (4) and Babylift (3) (this was for orphans and most of the ‘other’ refugees). Not only that, but we accepted one to two million Vietnamese ‘Boat People’ from 1975 to the early 1990s (5,6).

So, we have a history of ‘helping out’ those who have helped the US during conflicts so they could have at least minimal chance of life here.

But, recently, as in since January of this year, we’ve had a massive shift. This is the issue I mentioned. Remember, post-conflicts, those in ‘at risk’ categories have very few options: they can stay home, hope they don’t get found out and live in fear. They can stay home, risk harm at the very least and death at most (I can think of a few things worse but I won’t get into that). They can stay home, become a thorn in someone’s side if enough stay. Then, you have an option that the US has opened up (I’m only going to talk about the US, other nations may do the same but not sure): pull out with those they worked with and try a shot at a new life.

For one, and I’ve an Citizenship and Immigration article too, our Immigration policy isn’t for legal immigration. No. When ICE/CBP shows up to courthouses, scoop up green card holders and going through the legal steps in good faith to become citizens, that’s not Immigration policy: its a form of trying to ‘rid yourself’ of those who aren’t like you. Because at the same time you’re deporting anyone who doesn’t look white, with accents, without care of legal status and more but you let in white South Afrikaans in under an excuse of genocide that isn’t supported in fact, it’s more of a less lethal version of ethnic cleansing.

I’ll also state right now: I don’t give a crap what anyone else wants to call what’s happening. I’ve family members who have immigrated here and some of my family are first-generation of at least one immigrant parent. So, this is a bit I know a bit about.

I won’t go into problems of the immigration system beyond what I have already. I’ll leave that up to that article. But those changes? Yes, I’ll go further in.

The US has a long history of treaties and agreements that are conveniently broken or forgotten when it’s inconvenient. It’s part of that underbelly and frankly, I’d rather have my history unvarnished and un-whitewashed than not. It’s a way of learning and a way of keeping history from repeating itself. Do I hate myself or anyone for being white, or male, and/or land-owning right now? No. If you’ve a family history of various actions as in unsanctioned violent actions to non-white persons, or slave owning, things like that...do I hate you? Unless you’re a proponent of slavery or the same violent actions now, no. It’s not your fault your ancestors did that. Part of my blame would be how that time thought and how it accepted those actions. The other part is that everyone has a responsibility to themselves and society, to be decent people. So their decisions were theirs and the responsibility and consequences of those actions are only on them.

How does that all tie in together?

Well, for all the other issues of history of the individual and the mess of how the pull out was done, doesn’t help what needs to be addressed: making sure the US follows through and honors its word. Our money system is fiat: backed only by our word, our legal system: it’s backed by rule of law and a persons word on what they did or not until proven guilty. All of this is showing cracks however. Because when you’ve gotten leadership having criminality as being a normal aspect in governance and functionality, you no longer have that honor, honesty, and integrity that is essential to keep those ‘backed up by word’ items afloat.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal was one of those Afghani’s that were brought in during the pull out from Afghanistan. Official line is that no one knew who was being brought in and such. But let me give you a bit of a timeline to that pull out, what it took to be on one of those planes and more. I’m not saying that things weren’t chaotic and I’m not saying that things didn’t go sideways. But bear with me.

Picture February 2020 (9).

At that point, there was a peace agreement signed with the Taliban for peace to that region. Now, for those who reads this in the future or have been in a basement the last five or six years, the Taliban is an Islamist militant organization (10). Like most authoritarian forms of groups or governments, it’s controlling. I won’t go into details. I got into political ideology in yet another set of articles. But that peace agreement was a release of five thousand Taliban prisoners in exchange for one thousand Afghan soldiers, and a blue-print of peace and pullout. Also, if you look, the Taliban weren’t the official government, they weren’t voted into office or even recognized as an op positional government in Afghanistan at the time.

Now, US troop levels were also addressed in that document. From 13,000 US troops to 2,500 was the draw down in the 1.0 regime. Now, I make no bones about my distaste for the occupant of the Oval Office. I will not apologize for that distaste, either. However all what I put here are publicly available facts. I also will not mention term numbers, honorifics, last names, or most anything else. Frankly ‘occupant of the Oval Office’ stretches my tolerance level just to be ‘polite’.

Now, during that draw down, the Taliban was supposed to not attack. They didn’t stop at all, and welcomed al-Queda terrorists into their leadership.

Now, this is what people don’t want to research, learn, listen to or anything else: Biden didn’t set the schedule of the pull out. That was 1.0.

By November 16, 2020, then Senator Marco Rubio called for a ‘Saigon-type’ pullout. As much as I’m not in favor of then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he stated that a fast withdrawal would hurt our allies and help those ‘who wish us harm’. I agree. Rapid pull outs that are not well thought out does more damage to more than allies, though. I remember the Republicans complaining endlessly about military hardware left behind. Guess what? Moving both material and people on a rapid timeline isn’t necessarily able to be done gracefully or fully. Besides, what would you pull more out of? People or material? Apparently, Republicans wanted miracles performed and a clean sweep of the flight lines and facilities done in short order. I’ll point out to the Vietnam pull out as a classic case.

But that was the 16^th. The 17^th of that month, Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller formally announced that force reduction to be done by January 15^th, 2021. Just five days before Biden would have taken office, Now mind you all the while, intelligence, ally reports, and actions showed the Taliban being bad-faith actors. So...Biden was put into a no-win situation.

Mind you, I served, briefly. But I also know more than the normal military wife, too. When you develop a time line, have an out going ‘administration’ that is hell bent making issues for the next Oval Office occupant, and all that, don’t blame those who didn’t make the timeline. Biden wouldn’t have had much time to meet that May 1^st date. During March, that’s when questions on how, when and what circumstances questions floated. All this time, the Taliban were still attacking, we were trying to figure out how to deal with those who were in power in Afghanistan and those who assisted the US, and more.

Now, here’s a tie in.

Operation Allies Refuge (11)was to evacuate US citizens, embassy staff and at-risk Afghan nationals. SIV eligible individuals were in that mix. SIV is U.S. Special Immigrant Visas.

Now here’s a bit about that program and why the claims of un-vetted Afghani’s were allowed into the US at the withdrawal.

For one, an Afghani would have to be employed by the US government or the International Security Assistance Force for at least twelve months between October 7, 2001 to December 31, 2024. So, yes, the timeline shows an overlap of nearly five years from pullout to end of the program. But that’s not all, so don’t get your panties in a twist for those of you who will still point fingers at certain people and such.

Family members such as spouses and unmarried children under 21 were allowed be on those applications. Yes: applications.

Another method, not that it was a good one, was if the applicant served for 15 years or was killed in action the family members could also qualify.

Now read this next very carefully, very carefully: that application had to be submitted by December 21, 2025---the very year we’re in right now.

Now, we’ve issues other than that. Operation Allies Welcome, the program that allowed about 90,000 Afghans to enter the US from the withdrawal and was a temporary protected status, had issues earlier this year.(12, 13, 14)

For one, that TPS status (temporary protected status) was already set to expire in May 2025. Sure, OK, I get that. But that TPS status allowed Afghani’s to remain here without fear of deportation. That’s an issue. Not that they are here, but the ‘without fear of deportation’.

Now, there was also a suspension of VISA issuance because supposedly there was going to be a review of vetting protocols. That was because of a shooting indecent involving an Afghani national. (15, 16, 17)

I’ll argue this: one person isn’t an entire group of any size. Also: if you’re going to bitch and complain, throw hissy fits over one shooting, then I want the same for every shooting by every last person who did the shooting in the US. We’d need probably two or three around the clock networks and no repeats or overlaps, but it would be worth it. Besides, in my last article, I mentioned numbers for violence. Granted, political but it still applies.

But that feeds into yet another set of problems. Processing of all immigration requests for Afghani’s was suspended. With the increased ICE activity, anyone who is in any form of TPS, in legal steps to get any form of legal status or immigration in the US, even legal immigrants but who have even a tiny infraction such as a traffic ticket are being picked up and deported. This isn’t ‘the worst of the worst’. If you’re here legally or even not legally but were in situations or ages that you had no idea if you were or weren’t legal or in a spot to perform any of the legal steps to gain legal status, doesn’t mean you should be scooped up and into the maelstrom of issues with ICE. This isn’t about that anyway.

Now honestly, I didn’t do a background check on Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the accused shooter of two National Guardsmen in Dc on November 26, 2025, For one, I don’t have the money for that. For two, if he’s got family here, and if they haven’t put out statements, it’s not my place to out or create problems for them.

The last is, if they are victims (I won’t specify) then I don’t want to shine light to them right now either. The reasons why I say this is that Afghani’s are being rounded up and deported. The very Afghani’s that helped the US. That also includes families. See what I mean about broken promises? Agreements broken?

That’s just one major side of this die.

So we’ve had a timeline that was too short, vetting that was done but the pull out was chaotic but that was because the timeline was too short and agreements were being broken on a daily basis by the Taliban, immigration changes and issues created a landscape of uncertainty or even situations that even if one is legally here and completely given asylum (this next part I’m adding as a hypothetical) but other family or friends haven’t and they are picked up to be deported back to a place that could be very well the place of torture and death---all of that creates fertile ground for the seeds of issues. Especially when even US citizens have to group up and fight for other US citizens not to be deported.

There is more, too.

Since January 2025, There has been major cuts both in budgets and personnel in various agencies and departments or out-right dissolving of them. These are for public safety and more specifically for domestic security threats. (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)

Let me give you a bit of a list

Department of Homeland Security: major budget and personnel reductions other than ICE
Federal Bureau of Investigation: personnel reassignments from counter-terrorism units
Department of Justice: funding reductions that affect law enforcement
Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships.....

I trailed off because that’s a significant group to point out.

The Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships is also known as CP3. That’s much easier and I’m sticking with that. Now CP3 replaced the ‘Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention’. It’s also charged to coordinate with federal, state, and local governmental agencies, non-profits, and stakeholders that fund, research, and in various ways facilitate the prevention of terrorism, to include the grants. The very grants that have been cut from the budget.

Now, things are so new that I have no idea if the government knew of anything, or that Mr. Lakanwal gave any indications that this was planned or not. However, I will point fingers.

Thomas C. Fugate, who has no background on running an agency of this sort, worked for DOGE and because a junior staffer at DHS before being put in charge of CP3 after William Braniff resigned in protest after the staff was reduced by three-quarters, is a 22 year old. Yeah, 22, no law enforcement background. In fact, his qualifications is a degree in politics. So, just one part of the web of agencies and groups that could catch things like the attack on two National Guardsmen, if indications were out there, may not have been able to in the first place.

That also includes Kash Patel, Kristy Noem, Steven Miller and the Oval Office occupant: between them and DOGE, they have gutted legal immigration and created chaos, gutted monies and personnel that could keep track or investigate potential threats, and crossed legal lines and ignored court decisions.

Because here’s the last issue.

Last week, a judge deemed the National Guard in DC as being illegally activated/posted in DC. So why were they still in DC? Because the regime ignored a judicial judgment. Even if an appeal was being filed, those soldiers could have been sent home until after the case was heard again.

Actually, I’ll even go further back: when the National Guard were first activated and put into the streets, some of which aren’t DC National Guard but from other states, they weren’t wanted by the mayor or police chief of DC. I won’t get into other details because for all I feel they should have been home, and I’m not fond of how those soldiers have been used in a myriad of ways, that information isn’t pertinent.

Around the country, similar situations, similar decisions, and morale issues are damn near universal.

We need leadership and accountability.

If Mr. Lakanwal makes it to trial, he’ll be the one to take responsibilities for his actions. The extra scrutiny of applicants on top of already increased scrutiny of Afghani immigrants paperwork and vetting will cost time, money, and probably lives. Whether that’s here at home, or in some other country to include Afghanistan.

So, who is truly at fault here? Is this some reaction to broken promises or something further? Should the US go ahead, do vetting even now, and try to honor it’s promises or not?

Until more details comes out, I’m going to call this a perfect storm of imperfect persons and systems that are stirred by bad policies and mentalities.

FOOTNOTES