September 3, 2021
One of the 13 US military people killed in the terrorist bombing at Kabul’s airport was a 20-year-old Iranian-American Marine, Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui.
Many observed that Nikoui was born just as the US military entered Afghanistan in 2001 and died in the last days before its departure, his lifetime spanning the US military involvement in that country.
Kareem Mae’Lee Grant Nikoui sent videos to his family hours before he died, showing himself interacting with Afghan children near the airport. In one video, Nikoui asked a young boy to say hello. “Want to take a video together, buddy?” Nikoui said. “All right, we’re heroes now, man.”
Nikoui was born and raised in Norco, California, a small town in Riverside County, very near to Orange County. He was baptized at Norco’s Grace Fellowship Church. He graduated from Norco High School in 2019 and served in the Junior ROTC before joining the Marines.
Norco High School Air Force JROTC posted on Facebook that he was “one of our best Air Force JROTC cadets” and that “Kareem was set on being a Marine & always wanted to serve his country.”
His parents, Steve Nikoui, a carpenter, and Shana Chappell, are Trump supporters and were vocal in blaming their son’s death personally on President Biden.
Steve Nikoui told The Daily Beast. “I blame my own military leaders…. Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”
He said he wants to “respect the office” of the president, but doesn’t have much love for President Joe Biden at the moment. A Trump supporter, Nikoui was happy that Trump was in office when Kareem joined the Marines. “I really believed this guy didn’t want to send people into harm’s way,” he said.
But Biden “sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” said Nikoui. “I blame my own military leaders… Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”
Steve Nikoui told the website that he was notified of his son’s death by a group of Marines who showed up on his doorstep the evening after his death. The elder Nikoui said he had stayed home from work after hearing the news of the August 26 suicide bombing and had been “glued to the TV” waiting for any word of his son.
Nikoui said the Marines who delivered the news were “more choked up than me.”
“I was actually trying to console them,” he said. “But at the same time, I just wanted them to get out as soon as possible so that no one from my family came back and saw them. I thought it appropriate that I be able to tell them.”
Before being sent to Afghanistan, Kareem Nikoui had been stationed at Camp Pendle-ton, near his family’s Southern California home. Steve Nikoui recalled that his son regularly made trips home on weekends, often bringing “10 or 15 other Marines” with him.
“My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren’t around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them,” said Nikoui, who added that his son “really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devoted. He was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go.”
Steve Nikoui speaks fluent American-accented English. It wasn’t immediately known who in the family emigrated from Iran.
Nikoui’s mother was not just critical of Biden, but furious. She posted a long comment on social media that seethed with anger—and with support for former President Trump, who won two-thirds of the vote in Norco in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Chappell raged:
“You are not the president of the United States of America Biden!!!! Cheating isn’t winning!!! You are no leader of any kind! You are a weak human being and a traitor!!!! You turned your back on my son, on all of our Heros!!!
“You are leaving the White House one way or another because you do not belong there! MY SONS BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!!!”
She then posted, “If my president Trump was in his rightful seat then my son and the other Heros would still be alive!!!!”
She concluded: “You are nobody special Biden!!! America hates you!!!!!”
