The US Department of War expects to complete its review of the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan by the summer of 2026, a Pentagon spokesperson said, describing the process as a comprehensive effort to provide the public with an unfiltered account of the operation.
Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon spokesperson, told reporters the review — examining what she called the “catastrophic withdrawal” under President Biden — would be released with minimal redactions so Americans could “read for themselves what happened on that decisive day and during that decisive exit.”
“We owe it to our service members to do this,” Wilson said. The review is being led by senior Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, a former US Army Captain who served in Afghanistan, and an adviser to the defense secretary.
The US evacuation from Kabul in August 2021, which followed the Taliban’s return to power, has been widely criticised in the United States and abroad. Trump has repeatedly labelled the withdrawal one of the “most shameful moments in US history.”
A suicide bombing at Kabul airport’s Abbey Gate during the evacuation killed 13 US service members and at least 170 Afghans, becoming one of the deadliest incidents of the war’s final days and a central point of political scrutiny in Washington.
Thousands of Afghans who worked with US forces during the 20-year conflict were left behind during the withdrawal and have since faced threats from the Taliban. Advocacy groups say many remain at risk as they wait for decisions on asylum or special immigrant visa applications.
The Trump administration has recently halted processing of Afghan refugee and visa cases, saying the pause will be “long-term,” prompting renewed concerns among veterans’ organisations and lawmakers about the fate of US-affiliated Afghans still in the country.
