After watching the Taliban take over unfold in Afghanistan, Gold Star daughter Kelly McHugh-Stewart is not convinced other Gold Star families will get closure.
CNN’s John Berman noted McHugh-Stewart’s father was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. He asked her, “What feelings have come up for you the last few days as you’ve watched Afghanistan fall?”
She called the scenes from Afghanistan “devastating,” adding, “To watch the Taliban walking on the streets where he was killed when 11 years ago we were told they were making headway and we were told that we would defeat the Taliban… to see how quickly that Afghanistan crumbled under the Taliban you kind of wonder, ‘What have we been doing for 20 years?'”
McHugh-Stewart reflected on her time spent trying to understand the war in Afghanistan, explaining, “I could never get answers. It always comes down to, ‘Your dad was a hero,’ and, ‘There’s meaning in his death.’ I totally believe that my dad sacrificed his life and my family sacrificed so much, but it’s difficult when there’s no answers there.”
Watch her interview below:
Kelly McHugh-Stewart's father was killed in Afghanistan in 2010. Seeing the crisis unfold in the country today, she says she feels Gold Star families will never get closure.
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) August 17, 2021
"I think that that's a shame…Seeing the Taliban resurge the way they have, we won't have that closure" pic.twitter.com/OdiJOBHHB7
Berman went on to ask McHugh-Stewart how important closure is to her. She responded, “For a decade, I’ve been wanting closure, and I’ve been wanting purpose and meaning, and I’ve felt like it was very important to me but seeing how everything is unfolding now, I feel like Gold Star families will never have that.”
McHugh-Stewart continued, “I think that that’s a shame… Seeing the Taliban resurge the way they have, we won’t have that closure.”
On Sunday, the Taliban moved into the capital of Afghanistan, and several went into the abandoned presidential palace, as The Associated Press reported. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban spokesman, and negotiator said the militants would hold discussions in the coming days with the purpose of forming an “open, inclusive Islamic government.”