Donald Trump is compiling a list of senior military officers who could face being court-martialed for the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, reports say.
His transition team is said to be exploring charges as severe as treason, although the legal reasoning remains unclear as they were acting under Biden's orders.
'They're taking it very seriously,' a source said to NBC News, stressing the gravity of the discussions.
President-elect Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, condemning it as a 'humiliation' and 'the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.'
The chaotic exit in August 2021, marked by the Taliban's rapid takeover, the deadly bombing at Kabul airport's Abbey Gate, and a botched U.S. airstrike, left 13 U.S. service members dead alongside more than 170 Afghan civilians dead.
As U.S. forces were trying to help Americans and Afghans flee as the Islamist Taliban movement took control of the country, a suicide attack at the entrance to the airport killed the group of Americans, compounding the U.S. sense of defeat after two decades of war.
The transition team is reportedly considering the formation of a commission to examine the withdrawal in detail, scrutinizing decision-making processes and the military's execution of the operation.
The commission would also investigate whether senior military officers bear responsibility for the disastrous outcome.
Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotic and global threats, is reportedly helping lead the effort.
Trump's team frames this as part of a broader review of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, from the initial deployment to the final chaotic withdrawal.
Trump's choice for secretary of defense, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, has also been a harsh critic of the withdrawal.
In his book The War on Warriors, Hegseth described it as a 'humiliating retreat' and slammed Pentagon leaders for their failure to prevent the deadly consequences.
'The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired. The debacle in Afghanistan, of course, is the most glaring example,' he wrote.
'These generals lied. They mismanaged. They violated their oath. They failed. They disgraced our troops, and our nation. They got people killed, unnecessarily.
'And, to this moment, they keep their jobs. Worse, they continue to actively erode our military and its values - by capitulating to civilians with radical agendas,' Hegseth penned in his book.
He further argued that many senior military officials retained their positions despite these failures, calling them 'an embarrassment, with stars still on their shoulders.'
The transition team is reportedly considering recalling certain commanders to active duty, a move that would allow them to face potential charges.
Whether treason charges could be brought remains uncertain, but the team could pursue lesser charges to hold individuals accountable.
'They want to set an example,' said the person familiar with the plan.
The 2021 withdrawal has been widely criticized, with both the Trump and Biden administrations sharing the blame.
The White House released a classified review of the withdrawal in April last year, acknowledging intelligence failures but blaming Trump for creating the conditions leading to the rout.
In a declassified summary, the administration said the February 2020 deal between Trump and the Taliban had placed the incoming Biden government in an impossible position by agreeing a date for withdrawal, but providing no plan for executing it.
Trump's 2020 agreement with the Taliban committed the U.S. to withdraw all 13,000 American troops and release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison.
The Biden administration followed through, underestimating the Afghan government's ability to resist the Taliban.
Democrats have insisted that some blame for the messy end of the war - less than seven months into Biden's presidency - should be laid at the feet of Trump, who began the withdrawal process by signing a deal with the Taliban in 2020.
'When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan.
Days before leaving office, the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500,' Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs panel, said in a letter to committee Democrats in September
Republican committee aides dismissed that contention as partisan politics, saying Biden could have ignored Trump's agreement or enforced it, accusing officials who served during Biden's presidency of allowing the Taliban to disregard its commitments.
A 2022 independent review by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction highlighted failures across both administrations, underscoring the lack of preparedness for the swift Taliban resurgence.
Howard Lutnick, one of Trump's advisers, told NBC News that Trump regretted trusting 'Democratic generals' during his first term, vowing not to repeat the mistake.
Former officials from Trump's administration have previously warned against decisions they believed could weaken national security.
These included Trump's push to withdraw troops from Syria and his controversial suggestion to deploy active-duty troops during domestic protests following George Floyd's death in 2020.
As the Trump transition team continues its preparations, the proposed investigations into military leaders signal a dramatic shift in how Trump plans to address what he views as failures in U.S. military leadership.
The move has already sparked significant debate over the limits of accountability and the potential implications for civil-military relations in the United States.
Some 800,000 U.S. servicemembers served in Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion triggered by the September 11, 2001, attack on the U.S. by Afghanistan-based al Qaeda.
During the war, 2,238 U.S. servicemembers died and nearly 21,000 were wounded.
Independent estimates put the number of Afghan security forces and civilians killed at more than 100,000.
