Four years after the Abbey Gate bombing claimed 13 American lives, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is demanding answers for the catastrophic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as Just the News reports. This week, marking the tragedy’s anniversary, Hegseth’s push for accountability targets the missteps of top military brass. The effort, backed by President Donald Trump, signals a rejection of the progressive narrative that glosses over military failures.
In August 2021, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan spiraled into chaos, culminating in the deadly Abbey Gate bombing. Hegseth, alongside Trump, met with grieving families of fallen soldiers in the Oval Office earlier this week. Their mission: to hold accountable those responsible for the bungled exit.
The review zeroes in on former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, whose rosy predictions about Afghan forces crumbled spectacularly. Milley’s assurances in 2021 that Afghanistan wouldn’t mirror Saigon’s fall in 1975 were proven wrong within weeks. His miscalculations, echoed by the Biden administration, fueled a disaster that demands scrutiny.
Milley told Congress in 2021, “The Taliban is not the North Vietnamese Army.” That bold claim aged poorly as Kabul’s fall evoked haunting images of Saigon. The woke confidence in Afghan forces’ strength was a fantasy, and Hegseth’s probe aims to expose it.
In July 2021, President Joe Biden dismissed comparisons to Vietnam, saying, “There’s going to be no circumstance” of embassy rooftop evacuations. Yet, by August, the Taliban had overrun Afghanistan, seizing control in a month. Biden’s denial of reality set the stage for humiliation.
Milley claimed on June 23, 2021, that the Taliban controlled 81 district centers, but the Long War Journal reported at least 139. His testimony understated the Taliban’s grip, misleading Congress and the public. Such distortions, Hegseth argues, cannot go unpunished.
The Taliban’s conquest began after Biden’s April 14, 2021, withdrawal order, accelerating their territorial gains. Milley’s claim that gains spanned six to ten months was false; most occurred in the three months post-order. This timeline, confirmed by the Long War Journal, reveals a Pentagon desperate to spin failure.
Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal told investigators the Pentagon deliberately misled to hide policy flops. General Austin Scott Miller, in a 2024 interview, called Afghanistan “on fire,” exposing the disconnect between ground truth and Washington’s narrative. Hegseth’s review seeks to bridge that gap with hard facts.
Milley and Biden repeatedly cited 300,000-strong Afghan forces, with Milley claiming up to 350,000 on June 17, 2021. Yet, analyses from Jonathan Schroden and the International Institute for Strategic Studies pegged the real number closer to 180,000, riddled with ghost soldiers and desertions. The inflated figures propped up a doomed strategy.
Biden claimed on July 8, 2021, that a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely.” His administration underestimated the Taliban’s strength, pegging their numbers at 75,000 against Giustozzi’s 2017 estimate of over 200,000. This misjudgment left Afghan forces outmatched and America humiliated.
State Department spokesman Ned Price echoed the 300,000-troop myth nine times in summer 2021, claiming a 3-to-1 advantage over the Taliban. Milley later admitted in 2024 that the Afghan forces needed 600,000 to 700,000 to compete, revealing the scale of the deception. Hegseth’s probe aims to unravel this web of falsehoods.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s September 2024 report, “Willful Blindness,” detailed the Biden-Harris administration’s failures through 18 interviews and 20,000 documents. A former senior investigator, now aiding Hegseth independently, quit the committee in August 2024 over disputes with Chairman Michael McCaul. The report’s findings fuel the current push for accountability.
Hegseth told families this week, “America deserves answers” for Afghanistan’s failures. His words resonate with those who lost loved ones, rejecting the progressive urge to sweep the debacle under the rug. The Oval Office meeting underscored Trump’s commitment to truth over narrative.
McCaul’s spokeswoman, Emily Cassil, defended the committee’s work, stating, “Chairman McCaul stands by his comprehensive report.” She noted that further questions about Defense Department figures fall outside their jurisdiction. Hegseth’s review, however, refuses to let bureaucratic boundaries shield the guilty.
Milley, now a Princeton professor and JPMorgan adviser, dodged comment requests, leaving his legacy to face Hegseth’s scrutiny. Biden’s January pardon of Milley for any offenses from 2014 to 2025 raises questions about accountability’s limits. Yet, Hegseth’s effort ensures the fallen are not forgotten in a sea of woke excuses.
