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The defense secretary’s decision to select his chief spokesman to lead the inquiry into the chaotic end of the war was highly unusual.
May 20, 2025, 6:35 p.m. ET
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that he had directed his chief spokesman to convene a panel to review the U.S. military’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and to ensure that senior military officials were held accountable.
In a memo to senior Pentagon leaders, Mr. Hegseth said that the department had been reviewing the operation that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. troops and 170 civilians at Kabul International Airport. He suggested that the effort led by Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, would be more comprehensive than previous reviews.
Mr. Hegseth’s selection of his chief spokesman to conduct such an inquiry was highly unusual and appeared to reflect a skepticism that uniformed military leaders would hold each other accountable.
Mr. Parnell served in Afghanistan for 16 months in 2006 and 2007 as a platoon leader in Paktika Province, near Pakistan’s border, where he was wounded in combat. A news release announcing the review noted that he “lost countless friends to the war on terror.”
He will be joined in the review by former Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who in October 2021 pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty, contempt toward officials and willfully disobeying a superior officer, after he excoriated senior military officials in the days after a suicide bombing killed the 13 U.S. troops at Kabul’s airport.
“I want to say this very strongly,” Colonel Scheller said in his video he recorded only hours after the deaths. “I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: I demand accountability.”
