American singer-songwriter John Ondrasik, also known as Five for Fighting, debuted a new song that mourns the Americans who died or were left behind in Afghanistan due to the Biden administration’s incompetence.
There’s blood on these hands
And still Americans
Left to the Taliban
Now how’s that happenin’?
Ondrasik recently performed the song for a crowd in Alexandria, Virginia, just miles from the White House. There, he explained that the song was inspired by private American citizens’ efforts to sacrifice their lives to go rescue the people President Joe Biden and his administration didn’t evacuate.
“It’s not a political song, it’s a moral message about promises that we made to people there, that we promised to protect, that we left there,” Ondrasik said. “We broke our promise. It’s about accountability and admitting when you make mistakes because that’s how you can rectify them and learn not to do them again.”
.@johnondrasik explains and performs his Afghanistan withdrawal protest song at @thebirchmere outside DC:
Five For Fighting – Blood On My Hands at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA https://t.co/ui83ELRzEU via @YouTube @KyraPhillips— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) September 27, 2021
In the song, Ondrasik calls attention to the failures of Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley:
Winkin’ Blinken
Can’t you look me in the eyes?
Willy Milley
Tell me when did you decide
‘This we’ll defend’
Your sacred motto
Now means … nevermind
In another verse, he asks Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin “is there no honor in shame?”
Can you spell Bagram without the letters in blame?
Did Uncle Joe stick a drip in your veins?
“The song kind of finished itself when the president gave his ‘extraordinary success’ speech,” Ondrasik said, noting that he kept waiting for someone in the administration to correct him but they didn’t.
Ondrasik posted a full version of his song to YouTube where he once again explained that he wrote it out of conviction, not for political purposes.
“Like all Americans, I was stunned and horrified at the images of falling bodies from planes, mothers handing babies over walls, and terrified Afghans being crushed to death at checkpoints due to our precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Ondrasik wrote in the YouTube video description. “Though I believe the decision to withdraw or not from Afghanistan has good arguments on both sides, I cannot comprehend why the Biden administration would not extend the August 31 deadline thus leaving American citizens, SIV holders, and Afghan allies behind to a terrorist Taliban regime. As a life-long supporter of our military I believe ‘no man left behind’ applied to all Americans as well as those we promise to protect.”
He also called for the White House to be held responsible for botching the withdrawal and leaving Americans to question where their leaders are.
“America was built on the foundational freedom to criticize one’s leaders and hold them accountable. It is what separates us from our communist and dictatorship adversaries. How else can we as a nation learn from our mistakes and make better decisions moving forward without honest reflection on our actions? To date, I have not seen that accountability,” Ondrasik remarked.
