Trump Shares Butte Guy’s Take on Afghanistan Refugees

President Trump shared a post on Truth Social by Butte's Rob O'Neill, the Navy SEAL who killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. This, after a former Afghan soldier shot and killed a young woman from the West Virginia National Guard on the streets of Washington, DC.

As a fellow veteran of the war in Afghanistan myself, I think most of us absolutely cringed when we saw the planeloads of unvetted refugees being flown into the United States following Joe Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Even the Afghans who worked with the US government in Afghanistan needed additional vetting before simply being brought into the United States. We said that years ago on the radio.

Friday morning, John Jackson was filling in for me on the radio. He was sharing the heartbreaking news about the death of West Virginia National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom. John is a retired federal law enforcement officer who also served in Afghanistan.

I posted on X while listening: "this is exactly why guys like us who served in Afghanistan talked about how wrong it was to bring in all these unvetted “refugees” - even those who worked for the USG needed additional vetting. We said that years ago on the radio."

There's also cultural challenges. And that's what Rob O'Neill shared on X that even got reposted by President Trump: "If you've never been to Afghanistan, you wouldn't understand. If you showed these people a Nespresso machine and gave them free coffee, they would assume you were a witch and chop your head off... But let's bring 'em in!"

That post by Rob reminded me of when I interviewed a female veteran here in Montana several years ago. She told us how the Afghan interpreters didn't want to play volleyball with her. They had been told that women only had one lung and half a heart...and were worried she wouldn't survive the game. She played volleyball in high school in Montana and ended up kicking their butts.

(I should add that this is obviously not all of the Afghan people or interpreters etc...we had some great interpreters who served in Afghanistan with us and were able to make it out of there. And Joe Kent makes a great point about the guy who had served as an Afghan soldier. See his post on X below))