CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) — Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting released a new song called “Blood on My Hands,” which criticizes President Joe Biden and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“This is not a political song,” Ondrasik said on On Balance. “It’s a moral song. It’s a humanitarian crisis.”
Ondrasik wrote the song after the suicide bombing in Kabul less than three weeks ago, which killed 13 U.S. troops.
“I was angry and frustrated,” Ondrasik said. “And did what songwriters do. I went to my piano and I banged out some chords.”
Ondrasik has performed at dozens of USO shows for troops overseas and also wrote “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” which was widely dubbed the 9/11 anthem.
“I wasn’t planning on writing a song, but really what triggered the song was a few days after our last soldier left Afghanistan, I got a call from a friend and she said, ‘Hey, I’m organizing evacuations from Afghanistan,’” Ondrasik said. “And I thought to myself, are we really in a world where private citizens have to go rescue our people that our government left behind?”
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced a second day of tough congressional questioning about the withdrawal, this time from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Much as he did on Monday at the often contentious hearing in the House, Blinken tried to deflect the criticism and maintained the administration had done the best it could under extremely trying and chaotic circumstances.
Blinken again blamed the Trump administration for its February 2020 peace deal with the Taliban that he said had tied Biden’s hands, as well as the quick and unexpected collapse of the Afghan government and security forces that led to the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15.
“Somebody had to hold our leadership accountable,” Ondrasik said. “And I’ll tell you, I would have written the same song If Donald Trump was president.”