It’s sad that two National Guard soldiers were shot in D.C. But let’s remember what else is sad.

Today two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot and critically injured by a gunman in Washington, D.C. A Politico story says:

A gunman opened fire Wednesday on two National Guard soldiers just blocks from the White House, critically wounding members of a force brought to Washington as part of President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to American cities to fight crime.

The two members of the West Virginia National Guard were on an afternoon patrol when they were shot in what Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser called a “targeted” attack.

…The gunman, whose name was not released, came to the U.S. as a refugee from Afghanistan in 2021, the president said.

…The suspect is 29 years old, according to media reports, and the motive is unknown. Trump said he came to the U.S. under the mass evacuation of refugees as U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban retook control of the country — and he faulted the Biden administration for inadequate security vetting.

“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” he said. He called for a reexamination of every Afghan refugee who came into the country under the previous administration.

Everyone wants the soldiers to survive their injuries. Everyone feels bad that their families are suffering such heartache on the day before Thanksgiving. And ideally everyone would wait to learn more about the shooter’s motive before politicizing this tragedy. The shooter is in a hospital after being shot himself.

But naturally Trump isn’t doing that. He’s using the shooting to do what he frequently does: criticize the Biden administration for events taking place while he is president. Instead of bringing the country together in the wake of a tragedy, Trump is doing his best to rip us apart. That’s despicable.

A responsible president would realize that things are never as simple as they seem, especially when it comes to shootings of this sort. So I’d like to remind people about what else is sad concerning the attack on the two National Guard soldiers.

Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to D.C. was ruled illegal. Six days ago a federal judge determined that Trump’s deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., was illegal, concluding he lacks authority to send in troops “for the deterrence of crime.” The judge put the order on hold until December 11 to give the Trump administration time to appeal. So the soldiers who were shot were in D.C. for no good reason. They were just there for show. This makes their shooting even more sad, since they shouldn’t have been deployed to D.C. at all. But today Trump said he has ordered 500 more National Guard troops to D.C., also for no good reason.

A veteran’s group is calling on the withdrawal of all National Guard troops Trump has ordered into cities. In line with the above, a Washington Post story says:

Common Defense, a veterans’ activism group issued a statement Wednesday calling for an end to domestic deployments for National Guard troops following the shooting of two West Virginia Guard members in Washington, D.C.“This tragedy …. underscores the grave risks created when troops are deployed domestically for political purposes. Escalating the domestic militarization of our cities will only put more troops at risk,” said Common Defense. “These citizen soldiers from West Virginia should never have been deployed to Washington, DC, and escalation of this political stunt only puts more service members at unnecessary risk.”

Afghanistan refugees are highly law-abiding. Demonizing them because the shooter was Afghan is absurd. Today I listened to a MSNBC or CNN (can’t remember which it was) story that said 88,000 Afghan refugees have been admitted to the United States following our country’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Reportedly only two have committed a serious shooting. Yet Trump has called for the status of all Afghan refugees to be reviewed, which makes no sense. The Washington Post story says:

Matt Zeller, a former Army officer who served in Afghanistan and co-founded No One Left Behind, an organization to resettle Afghan allies in the country, condemned the shooting as a tragedy and a heinous attack. He urged Americans not to turn against those who stood beside U.S. forces: “Hundreds of thousands of Afghans served honorably shoulder to shoulder with American military members throughout the duration of the Afghan war … Don’t allow those who seek to divide us to win.”

Afghanistan refugees were highly vetted before being admitted to the United States. Currently we don’t know much about the background of the shooter, other than he lived in Washington state at one time and came here in 2021 from Afghanistan. Trump’s pathetic attempt to smear all Afghan refugees because one of the 88,000 shot two National Guard soldiers is undermined by this portion of the Washington Post story.

The Homeland Security-led effort was launched in the aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power and aimed to support and resettle vulnerable Afghans, particularly those who worked along U.S. forces in Afghanistan for more than two decades.

Many Afghans became eligible for Special Immigrant Visas, qualifyingfor lawful permanent residence and the opportunity to eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.

Before being admitted, all applicants underwent “rigorous screening and vetting” to ensure that they were not a national security risk, officials said at the time. The operation involved hundreds of personnel from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard and Secret Service and included biometric and biographic checks.

In the wake of the shooting, President Donald Trump announced that his administration will conduct a full review of Afghan nationals who were admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration. Noem said many were admitted without vetting, a claim disputed by humanitarian groups.