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U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston) said the 13 American service members who lost their lives in last month's attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul made the ultimate sacrifice.
The attack occurred after the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan and just as the U.S. was preparing to withdraw its troops before the Biden administration's Aug. 31 deadline, NPR reported.
"My heart mourns for the 13 soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our nation in Afghanistan,” Jackson Lee tweeted on Aug. 30. “We have a sacred obligation to uphold the legacy of each of these service members as true American heroes."
The Department of Defense released the names of the deceased service members on Aug. 28, with the late Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, as the lone Texan on the list.
President Joe Biden called the fallen "heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others," a White House statement obtained by NPR said.
"Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far," Biden said. "May God protect our troops and all those standing watch in these dangerous days."
The attack, which also killed at least 90 Afghans, was one last flashpoint in the just-concluded 20-year war in Afghanistan, which began in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks.
Republican leaders criticized the withdrawal from the South Asian nation, accusing Biden and the Democrats of abandoning the Afghani people as the Taliban violently returned to power.
"I refused to send another generation of America's sons and daughters to fight a war that should have ended long ago,” Business Insider reported the president as saying. “That was the choice, the real choice between leaving or escalating. I was not going to extend this forever war."