A devastating investigation has uncovered a cascade of errors by top U.S. military leaders during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, painting a grim picture of misjudgment and tragic consequences.

According to Just the News, a six-part series revealed that then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, then-CENTCOM Commander Frank McKenzie, and other commanders made critical missteps during the chaotic evacuation following President Joe Biden’s Go-to-Zero order.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, now leading a probe into these failures, met with Abbey Gate Gold Star families alongside former President Donald Trump last week, reaffirming his commitment to hold those responsible accountable for the disaster that claimed 13 American lives.

Strategic Blunders by Top Brass

Milley’s assessments in 2021 were alarmingly off-base, from inflating the Afghan security forces’ strength to a fictitious 325,000 or even 350,000, to underestimating the Taliban’s rapid advance across districts. John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, debunked these numbers, exposing a dangerous disconnect from reality that left our forces unprepared.

His dismissal of parallels to Saigon’s fall, echoed by Biden, aged about as well as a paper umbrella in a monsoon. Both leaders’ assurances crumbled as Kabul collapsed, revealing a failure to plan for worst-case scenarios that should have been standard protocol.

The speed of the withdrawal, driven by a “speed is safety” mantra from Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, ignored glaring risks like the Taliban’s jailbreak of ISIS-K terrorists from Bagram Air Base. Biden’s public endorsement of this rushed exit, after the quiet abandonment of Bagram in early July 2021, only cemented a policy that prioritized haste over foresight.

Prison Breaks and Preventable Tragedies

The abandonment of Bagram unleashed horrors, including the release of ISIS-K bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari, who killed 13 U.S. service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians at Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021. Neither General Austin “Scottie” Miller nor Command Sergeant Major Jacob Smith knew of any contingency to secure terrorist prisoners if the base fell, a staggering oversight.

Biden’s Pentagon later claimed the Abbey Gate attack was inevitable, arguing another bomber would have struck even if Logari remained locked up. This excuse wilts under scrutiny when you consider the Taliban freed over a thousand potential terrorists from Bagram, a catastrophe that might have been avoided with U.S. control of the base.

Worse, Taliban forces, including the Haqqani’s Badri 313 suicide units, failed to prevent the attack despite providing supposed security at Kabul airport, while McKenzie admitted they refused to raid ISIS-K hideouts. A U.S. military investigation confirmed both the Taliban and our own forces fell short in securing the airport, with no constant surveillance at Abbey Gate despite known threats.

Missed Opportunities to Save Kabul

In a jaw-dropping lapse, McKenzie rejected a mid-August 2021 offer from Taliban leader Mullah Baradar to keep enemy forces out of Kabul, opting instead to rely on Taliban goodwill for airport security. Similarly, Rear Admiral Peter Vasely dismissed Afghan generals Haibatullah Alizai and Sami Sadat’s plea for U.S. support to impose martial law after President Ashraf Ghani fled, telling them to abandon the fight.

These decisions paved the way for the chaos that engulfed Kabul, leaving harrowing scenes of desperation and death in their wake. While we can’t know if different choices would have altered the outcome, the refusal to seize these last-ditch options reeks of defeatism at a critical hour.

Milley and McKenzie also peddled the myth that Afghanistan fell in just “eleven days,” a narrative parroted by Biden and others to downplay months of Taliban gains after the Go-To-Zero order in April 2021. General Miller later admitted the collapse unfolded over months, exposing this as a deliberate attempt to obscure the scale of their miscalculations.

Accountability Slips Through the Cracks

The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s report under then-Chairman Michael McCaul sidestepped key military failures, omitting Milley’s inflated troop counts, McKenzie’s rejection of the Taliban offer, and the lack of planning for Bagram’s prisoners. McCaul’s pre-hearing call with the generals, where he promised to shield them by blaming the State Department and White House, reveals a troubling reluctance to confront Pentagon shortcomings.

McCaul’s spokesperson, Emily Cassil, defended the report as comprehensive, but its silence on military accountability speaks louder than any press release. When even the generals’ false claim that the Taliban didn’t attack U.S. bases, despite evidence to the contrary, escapes scrutiny, you have to wonder who’s really being protected here.

With Hegseth now digging into these failures, there’s a flicker of hope for the Abbey Gate families seeking answers, though Milley and McKenzie’s silence through their respective institutions offers little comfort. The American public deserves transparency, not narratives spun to deflect blame from those who misjudged an enemy, abandoned a stronghold, and left our troops vulnerable to a preventable tragedy.