OPINION: Misuse of National Guard killed a woman not even old enough to do what she was doing in D.C.

An undated photo of National Guard member Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom (courtesy CBS News)

Not that you need ANY more information to BE outraged about this tragedy, but did you know that, in 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom’s home state of West Virginia, the minimum age to even BECOME a police officer is 21?

She was 20.

She was 20, in the National Guard, serving essentially in a law enforcement capacity for no rational reason, and was there in camouflage – which camouflages you from NOTHING in the streets of any American city – for all intents and purposes adorned in “military target” wear for anyone who’d wish to do harm TO someone in our military to easily target.

Then this: “A running theory of investigators is that the suspect in the shooting of the two National Guard members suffered from paranoia and other mental health challenges that indicated he believed authorities sought to deport him from the U.S., multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News on Thursday.”

Gee, why would ANYONE in his circumstance get THAT wild idea from, eh? Well, I’ll tell ya why. Because just days ago, the Trump administration ordered a review of Biden-era refugees – which included refugees from Afghanistan, many of whom assisted the United States in its two decades-long war in that country.

From Reuters: “The USCIS memo, dated November 21, said the agency will terminate the refugee status of people already in the U.S. if they are found to not meet refugee criteria. The memo claims the Biden administration potentially prioritized expediency, quantity, and admissions over quality interviews and detailed screening and vetting.” 

MAGA wants you to believe this has something to do with a perceived “lax Biden policy,” but the alleged gunman – Rahmanullah Lakanwal – had his asylum “granted earlier this year, while President Trump was in office, a Homeland Security official told CBS News.”

Then there’s this: the “CIA said Lakanwal previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar …”

See in MAGA mind, it doesn’t matter what you may have done in service of our military in places like Afghanistan. Cue the Peter Griffin meme holding up the “immigrant skin color” card.

It’s quite likely – easy to surmise actually – that Rahmanullah Lakanwal flipped his lid at the Trump administration’s decision to terminate hundreds of thousands of refugees’ statuses in this country, then took it out on an easy target. Why would there even be so many Afghan refugees, you wonder? Well, Trump 1.0 negotiated them back into power, essentially.

“”What went wrong under Donald Trump is that he was out-negotiated by the Taliban in Doha, and he handcuffed both himself and the next administration to a timetable and a deal that gave Taliban the leverage,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), who served in Afghanistan, said in an interview on “The Hill” on NewsNation.””

Rep. Auchincloss is right; it was Trump team’s negotiations that led to thousands of Taliban prisoners being released, re-armed, and there to topple a fragile Afghanistan government, leading to the perilous exit where thirteen more U.S. military personnel lost their lives.

Back to the alleged D.C. gunman: who’d want to live in a Taliban-governed Afghanistan? Well, that’s what Rahmanullah Lakanwal was facing.

So of COURSE the Trump administration – never shy about taking an instance like this and turning it into fodder to double-down on their dog-whistle racism – is calling for even more National Guard troops in D.C. Never mind that the troops deployed there had precious little to do there other than stab garbage in parks and stroll the sidewalks and stand on street corners peering for crime that was already under control there prior to their activation. Yes, definitely a good idea to put more Guard members in easy-to-spot military fatigues on the streets of our nation’s Capital for another lunatic with an axe to grind to target.

The fallen – 20-year old Army specialist Sarah Beckstrom – wasn’t even old enough to be a law enforcement officer in her home state of West Virginia, but that’s essentially the role she was called up to serve in Washington D.C.

It’s impossible to know how many young servicemen and women patrolling the nation’s city streets are just like her – not even old enough to be a cop in their home state but tasked with serving in a law enforcement capacity they’re untrained to perform.

Make it make sense.

– Ron

Ron Roberts is host of ‘The Ron Show,’ airing weekdays 4-6pm on Georgia NOW.