(Adnkronos) – A few days before the Midterm elections in the United States, the debate on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, five years ago, during the Joe Biden era, could reignite, based on an agreement with the Taliban, now back in power in the country, reached in 2020 during Donald Trump’s first term at the White House. According to sources cited by the Washington Post, the Administration is indeed expected to publish the ‘review’ commissioned by Pete Hegseth, which includes interviews with high-ranking officials who oversaw aspects of the withdrawal and the chaotic operation that ended the mission after the collapse of the Kabul government. Several sources cited by the Post state that they consider it increasingly likely that the results could be released before November 3 and that the report could ‘suggest’ disciplinary measures for the generals involved at the time, although it is unclear how they could be held accountable today. Other sources, however, speak of uncertain timing.
Meanwhile, the newspaper notes, the Trump Administration continues not to release details of the most recent military operations in Iran. In a written statement, Hegseth’s staff stated yesterday that “practically every statement” on the document has highlighted that “there will be accountability” for those involved. In August, Hegseth had assured that “by the end of the year” there would be “a complete report to present.” And he chose his spokesperson, Sean Parnell, with a background in Afghanistan, as the ‘supervisor’ of the operation.
In April, Parnell said that his staff’s goal was “to produce the most detailed, transparent, and honest account Americans have ever had of what happened in August 2021” and “to identify failures in decision-making in order” to “prevent” the recurrence of “this tragedy.” In April, Parnell spoke of the involvement in the ‘mission’ of Stuart Scheller, a former Marine officer who was later court-martialed for criticizing generals on Afghanistan, and journalist Jerry Dunleavy, who had served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (Republican majority) at the time of the withdrawal review and who later resigned in 2024 after calling for tougher measures against high-ranking officers.
In the past, it had emerged that several generals had repeatedly suggested to the Biden Administration to avoid a complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. Among them, the Post recalls, Kenneth ‘Frank’ McKenzie, then commander responsible for operations in the Middle East, and retired generals Mark A. Milley and Austin ‘Scott’ Miller. Milley was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Biden’s number one military advisor, while Miller was the highest-ranking US general in Afghanistan until a month before the conclusion of the withdrawal. Both, the Post highlights, have become political targets of Hegseth and, according to the newspaper’s sources, Biden Administration officials did not participate in the interviews for Hegseth’s ‘review’.
