Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has plans already in progress to investigate the disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan undertaken by President Joe Biden and his administration.
Hegseth told Breitbart News during an interview last Thursday that he had selected people to handle the investigation and planned to put things in motion as soon as he was certain that he could get things right.
“We’ve already identified folks that’ll be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon,” he said, adding, “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.”
Hegseth went on to explain that he believed a full investigation into everything that happened during the chaotic exit from Afghanistan — the decision to remove troops ahead of civilians, the shuttering of easier-to-defend Bagram Air Base, and the billions of dollars in equipment left behind — was the only way to truly bring back accountability and restore the American people’s faith in the military.
“The way you establish real accountability is by establishing real fact chains — chains of events, information, what happened,” he said. “Why did it happen? Who made the decision? What was the reason they made that decision? Why did they give advice or not give advice? Why did they execute an order a certain way? Did they speak up when they were supposed to or not? I don’t think there’s anybody that feels like there’s been an honest accounting of what happened in Afghanistan. That’s our job.”
“So, we’re going to drive that full investigation and get a sense of what happened. And as I stated to the workforce on Friday, I guess less than a week ago, accountability will be coming for what happened in Afghanistan, and that’s important to reestablishing trust at the Defense Department,” Hegseth concluded.
