WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is conducting a “complete review” of what he described as the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, pledging full accountability for the failures of the operation.
Speaking to the Washington Examiner ahead of President Donald Trump’s first full Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Hegseth emphasized that examining the withdrawal was one of his first priorities after taking over at the Pentagon.
“We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability,” Hegseth said. “It’s one of the first things we announced at the Defense Department for that reason, sir.”
He added that General “Razin” Caine, the incoming military leader, was not involved in the withdrawal but had instead focused on leading operations against ISIS, ensuring U.S. warfighters could finish the job properly and bring troops home safely.
“So, we’re taking a very different view, obviously, than the previous administration, and there will be full accountability,” Hegseth said.
During the first Cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump once again criticized the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, blaming it for leaving tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment in Taliban-controlled territory.
“Biden left billions—tens of billions of dollars—of U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan,” Trump said.
The United States ended its 20-year military presence in Afghanistan in August 2021, following a chaotic evacuation that resulted in the fall of Kabul to the Taliban and the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The Pentagon’s review, Hegseth said, aims to fully investigate the missteps of the withdrawal and ensure such failures never happen again.
