Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With Allie Bice Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Tina At least 12 U.S. Marines were killed and another 15 were wounded in an attack outside the Kabul airport today. ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the attack which also killed and injured scores of Afghan civilians. This newsletter is meant to be consumed by consumers and practitioners of politics, including members of the administration. Today, we wanted to give other people a chance to reach that audience. We reached out to several active duty service members who served in Afghanistan along with veterans of the war and asked them: What would you tell the White House today? These are some of their responses, lightly edited for clarity and length: ER physician who served in Kandahar, Afghanistan: There was no greater honor in my professional career than caring for ill and injured service members in Afghanistan. My mind is filled with images of the injured patients I cared for, many of them only toddlers during 9/11. Learning of the at least 12 marines killed today makes me so angry — and makes me recall how I felt when we had a green on blue (insider) attack on my deployment and lost several Americans: absolute anger and resentment. We were attacked by those we were trying to help and several Americans needlessly died. While I feel that we need to do what we can to support those who helped us throughout the war, preventing further loss of American lives should be paramount. We spent 20 years trying to help and now have countless American lives permanently altered — death, horrible injuries and certainly the mental health impacts that will haunt so many for the rest of their lives. West Virginia State Sen. RYAN WELD, Air Force staff intelligence officer, served in Afghanistan in 2010-11: We've got to get these people out. We have a moral obligation to get those Afghans who worked with us, who worked with ISAF [International Security Assistance Force], who worked with US forces to help us in our mission to secure Afghanistan. An Air Force surgeon who served in Afghanistan: I think I would say that this has been a huge fuckup—the process of leaving—and it could have been done a lot better. I would also say that I feel both sadness and a lot of rage for all the people that I watched die, both U.S. and our partners and Afghans. I feel like what was it all for? All that loss. I read about explosions this morning when I woke up and I just went back on the web page and found out that 12 U.S. Marines died and, like, I just started crying at my desk in between patients. [long pause]... It's just been kind of a devastating few weeks. Active duty Marine and Afghanistan veteran: Americans carrying out your policies died today. Will they have died in vain? Did they give their lives so you could turn your backs on the Americans and huddled masses who still remain trapped? You have a choice. Will you abandon your fellow Americans and bow to those who would kill us? Or will you choose the path of courage, so my Brothers will not have died in vain? PERRY BLATSTEIN, former CIA officer in Afghanistan and Situation Room official during Obama and Trump administration: In every case that I've heard of, or been a part of, some part of the process is completely broken... Serving in a situation room, I've been on the other side of fielding the government crisis response. It's really hard. Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources they have. You're up all hours. I get it. But at the end of the day, there wasn't anyone who kind of put their hand on the table and said ‘Look, we're talking about American lives, and the lives of Afghans who deserve to be Americans.’ We see how that ended. Not only are we leaving people behind who we were hoping would get a Special Immigrant Visa, we're leaving American citizens behind. JEFF PHANEUF, Marine Corps Iraq veteran who has spent the last five days helping Afghans evacuate: Since Saturday, I (and many others) have been working without sleep to facilitate evacuations of Americans and our allies through the gate. Our work has saved hundreds of lives, only because I happened to know service members on the ground. I have received desperate pleas for help from senior military leaders, White House officials, and members of Congress, not to mention terrified Afghans and their families who somehow got my number. I'm just some grad student who happens to be a veteran. The fact that people have had to rely on a ragtag informal network of vets, journalists, and aid workers to get their people out is clear evidence of what a catastrophe this pullout has been. I'm so proud of the rapid mobilization and initiative taken by all these incredible patriots, and dismayed by the failures of our government. Navy officer who has done a “couple” tours in Afghanistan: This isn't about political parties - 20 years of American blood and treasure at least deserved a more dignified curtain call. What is unfolding in Afghanistan is a foreign policy humiliation. American blood, sweat, tears & toil went into that place, and most importantly, we dedicated precious days on this earth to it. Even though obviously it didn’t turn out the way we all hoped, I don’t feel like it was a complete loss. Not worth the price tag necessarily, but as a consolation prize millions of people were introduced to human rights and a better way of life. Tens of thousands escaped. Not worth the $2 trillion. Not worth the Death blow to Pax Americana. Definitely not worth the blood of America and allies. Yet I can look back and feel like some of the best days of my life were spent there, and certainly some of the most gut wrenching and formative ones too. It’s an open wound that will be there a long time. Democratic congressional staffer and U.S. Army veteran: I’m immensely pissed. I have slept maybe 24 hours total since the 14th, talking to countless Afghans, Marines on the ground, and other folks committed to this project; and I’ve never been more angry at a Democratic president. Current active duty Air Force officer who spent time on a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Regional Command-South in Afghanistan: I want them to know that we feel let down. We feel like we are leaving our brothers and sisters who we brought into this situation. We feel hurt. We feel embarrassed, and we are beginning to feel helpless. I for one am beginning to feel misled. This is simmering underneath. The incongruence of what is being said at the podium and what we know to be happening on the ground seems to support as much. How did we get it so wrong? How will we fix it? With today's losses we deserve different answers. The families that have frayed, marriages that have been ruined, lives that have been lost, anguish that has been shared demand it. How will we fix it? How will you address the immense mental anguish being unlocked on us by this exit? Do you work in the Biden administration? Are you in touch with the White House? Are you ABBEY PITZER? 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