It looks like some heads may be rolling, and soon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in an interview with Breitbart News, stated that he has already decided on the investigators that will be looking into the disastrous Charlie-Foxtrot that was the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Pretty much everything about this operation from start to finish was done wrong, and now, we should finally learn not only who screwed up but how.
“We’ve already identified folks that’ll be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon,” Hegseth said in the interview Thursday.
“I don’t have a timeframe on it. Sadly, we’ve already waited two-and-a-half years, three years since what occurred. I don’t want to wait longer, but I always want to get it right,” he said.
Getting it right is essential, not only to bring accountability to the people who planned and executed this debacle but to make sure it never happens again.
In July 2021, the Biden administration launched a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops and embassy officials from Afghanistan that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing at the Kabul International Airport’s Abbey Gate.
In addition, hundreds of Americans were left behind, despite the administration touting the withdrawal as successful and bragging about conducing the largest withdrawal in history. On its way out, the U.S. military conducted a strike meant to target the suicide bomber, but ended up killing an aid worker and his family instead. Then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley touted it as a “righteous strike.”
No leader was held accountable or fired. Only Marine Col. Stuart Scheller, who demanded accountability in a viral video, lost his career. President Donald Trump appointed him as senior adviser to the Defense Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness.