The defense secretary’s decision to select his chief spokesman to lead the inquiry into the chaotic end of the war was highly unusual.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered another review of the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed American troops and Afghans.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Sean Parnell, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, to conduct another review of the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a main point of criticism from President Donald Trump against his immediate predecessor,