at one point we had a number of advisers down to fairly low levels. as we began to lift the numbers of advisers there and scaled back on the people we had interfacing with the afghans on a daily basis, we began to lose that fingertip feel. it continued to erode and the smaller we got. >> it wasn't just at the end. it was an endemic problem for ooem over a decade. that's my final question. what are we actually doing to learn from the conclusion of these military operations, particularly from a strategic assessment point of view when it comes to end-of-conflict transition? we'll have potentially other