As of this morning, the two National Guardsmen who were shot by an Afghan immigrant yesterday remain in critical condition. An alleged radical Islamic terrorist, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, approached the two unsuspecting service members at point-blank range, opened fire on them, and allegedly shouted, “Allahu Akbar!”
According to all reports, Lakanwal was let into the U.S. in 2021 under Joe Biden's administration, following Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Lakanwal was wounded and taken to a hospital. There is no word on his condition this morning.
Those are the most basic of facts that will likely fuel no small amount of debate at Thanksgiving tables across the country today, at least at those tables where regular Americans share Thanksgiving with their woke relatives and friends.
If you’re one of those regular people, and you anticipate a woke relative confronting you today on the National Guard shooting, here are some recommended responses. Keep in mind that your he/she/they relative may come at you any number of ways, but these are the core subject areas and what you can say if you feel so inclined:
How do you feel about Trump ordering those National Guard troops to Washington and how he got them shot?
First off, I feel sad—sad for them and their families. My thoughts and prayers truly are with them, especially today. They should be sitting at dinner like us, Instead, they’re in the hospital thanks to a radical Islamic terrorist who carried out an attack in a country that welcomed him with open arms. Some gratitude on his part.
In the reports I read, it was an Afghan immigrant named Rahmanullah Lakanwal who shot those service members, unprovoked, not Trump.
How can you offer thoughts and prayers like that? It does nothing. Thoughts and prayers don’t prevent shootings.
I tell people I’m thinking of them and praying for them during their time of pain because it’s true. I am thinking of them and praying for them. You may not agree with my wanting to pray for others, but it matters to me. And it’s important for anyone going through a tough time that they know they’re not alone. When you send thoughts and prayers to someone, you’re acknowledging their pain, and you’re providing emotional and spiritual support. Sometimes bad things happen and we don’t know what to say that can make someone else feel better. But we can always let them know we care about them and what they’re going through, and by praying for them, we’re letting them know that.
They don’t want your thoughts and prayers.
You don’t know that.
The National Guard shouldn’t even have been there in the first place. Trump did that for his own political reasons.
You’re talking about two different things. One is whether the president had the authority to station National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., and the other is whether the nation’s capital had a need for those troops.
First, as commander in chief, the president has the legal and constitutional authority to command federal troops and the National Guard. Stationing them in Washington, D.C., is a lawful order when done for security, protection of federal property, or emergency response. And that’s what he did.
Keep in mind: most of Washington is federal property. Washington, D.C., is not a sovereign state. The president is responsible for protecting federal property and ensuring public safety. Federal buildings, the Capitol, the White House, and national monuments all fall under federal jurisdiction. If there’s a threat of any kind, the president has the duty and the authority to use whatever means at his disposal to secure these sites. Trump is not the first to deploy National Guard troops in Washington. Biden, Obama, Clinton, both of the Bushes, Nixon and Johnson have done it.
The other thing you mention is that the troops didn’t need to be there. When Trump ordered the National Guard to Washington, crime was out of control and impacting the business of governing the nation. People living, visiting, or working in Washington to serve and support the federal government and the American people had to worry about being attacked and mugged on their way to a meeting, their hotel, or dinner. The DC Metropolitan Police (MPDC) and local government were either unwilling or unable to crack down on the crime. Something had to be done.
Since then, crime has come down, and the city is much safer because the National Guard is there. The MPDC reports that in 2025 there has been a decline in violent crime – a 28% drop from last year to this year.
The National Guardsmen should have disobeyed the president’s unlawful order to be there.
You should realize you have fallen victim to false propaganda. I know you can’t do that, but as I mentioned, the president gave a lawful order for the troops to be there. On that, matters of who gets to determine whether an order is lawful isn’t even practical. The military would fall apart, and so would our national security, if every buck private were given the authority to decide in split seconds which orders to follow and which ones he or she thinks are unlawful. The military is based on a top-down chain of command. Those downstream follow orders. That’s how all militaries work and have worked for thousands of years.
If the service member can’t prove the order is unlawful at that moment, he must follow orders. The criteria for unlawful activity for service members are the same as for civilians. You can’t commit murder. You can’t violate someone’s constitutional rights. You can’t break federal law. No one involved here was breaking any laws except the Islamic terrorist.
Well, if those troops hadn't been walking around Washington, D.C., in uniform, this never would have happened. It’s all Trump’s fault.
Those troops were there because a Democratic mayor in the District of Columbia couldn’t address the crime problem in her city. This shooting happened because a Democratic president created a mess in Afghanistan and let in roughly 200,000 Afghanis after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. They settled in California, Virginia, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Texas. Texas received the largest number of Afghani immigrants. And most went unscreened.
Biden gave the program a name: Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). It was authorized by Congress. Yesterday’s shooter was one of the beneficiaries of the Biden program, and he thanked Joe Biden by allegedly shooting two West Virginia service members.
Most of them were never screened properly, even though the Biden administration at the time said they were.
A Better Approach
Those are the basic issues. If you can’t remember all of this, just keep your phone handy and bring this article up if you need something to refer to when you engage in your pre-Thanksgiving dinner “conversation.” I mention pre-dinner, because after you eat, the tryptophan will kick in and you’ll be too tired to argue.
As for me, thankfully, I won’t be spending any time around woke people today, but there have been times. My policy around the holidays when someone wants to egg me into a debate is simply to say that’s not how I choose to spend valuable and rare time around the people I love, regardless of their politics. I’d rather spend this time on more positive things when we’re together. A day like today is a good opportunity to truly appreciate all the good the Lord has given and to pray for the National Guardsmen and their families who have sacrificed for our safety and security.
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