Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the Department of War will do a deep dive on the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, focusing on the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members. At a press conference on Friday, Hegseth said the investigation will be “probably the most comprehensive review this department has ever done.”

Q: Thank you. So, uh, Pope Leo has made some comments about the war in Iran, and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently put out a statement suggesting that the war does not fit the requirements of just war theory. And I wondered if the Pentagon had, uh, thought about, uh, this war against the terrorist regime in Iran in terms of the framework of a just war? And if either one of you could talk about that. And then just my second question would be, um, the Pentagon recently, this week, gave well-deserved, um, award upgrades to the members of Golf Company 2/1 Marines who served at HKIA and Abbey Gate during the withdrawal and evacuation. I wonder if you, Mr. Secretary, could speak a little bit about that and maybe give us a little bit more in terms of what to expect from this Afghanistan review in terms of further proper recognition and proper accountability? SECRETARY HEGSETH: Um, on the first question, Pope’s going to do his thing. That’s fine. Uh, we know what our mission is. We know what authority we have. We’re very clear about that. We follow that, uh, the orders of the President. We’ve got, uh, lawyers all over the place, looking at what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and giving us every authority necessary under the Constitution and under our laws to execute it. So we feel very confident across the spectrum about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, and the legal justification that we’re following in order to do it. You mentioned the Marines at Abbey Gate, uh, and, you know, what we’ve undertaken at this department is a historic, uh, Afghanistan review. So we have, over the course of months, reviewed what happened leading up to and including the events at Abbey Gate and the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan. There’s never actually been a full accounting in this department of the decisions that were made. There’s been sort of papered-over Congressional attempts, but never a real deep dive, where we brought everybody in to talk about what happened and why it happened. That has happened. That review will come, uh, later this summer, and I think you’ll find it to be probably the most comprehensive review this department has ever done about a single series of events. And it’s because the cascading effect of what Joe Biden did in abandoning, uh, that mission the way that he did, and that disastrous withdrawal had ripple effects for our military, for our country, and for the world. That’s why reestablishing deterrence is one of the core pillars of what we’ve been doing at the War Department, is because the world looked at that disaster and made choices, Vladimir Putin made choices, Hamas made choices, and saw that America wouldn’t do anything about it. Houthis shot at ships. They made choices because Joe Biden and his administration were seen as feckless and weak. And that withdrawal was a part of what the world saw, people hanging to planes as we fled. That deserves a full accounting, which is exactly what we’re doing. Sean Parnell, our Chief Spokesman, one of my senior advisors, has been leading that effort, getting to the bottom of it. And one of the revelations was that those Marines at Abbey Gate who showed courage, who were out there exposed, knew there was a threat, nebulous mission, the only gate that’s open, did not receive the kind of proper recognition they should have for their heroism. So one of the early results of this Afghan review is to ensure they get the due recognition and award they deserve for the heroism and courage they showed at that gate. Despite the bad decisions of this building and that administration, those Marines acted heroically, and we’re going to recognize them for that.

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