Good morning. Im christopher prebrle, the Vice President for defense and Foreign Policy studies here at the cato institute. Thank you for being here today and thank you also to our outstanding conference staff here at cato who do such a terrific job organizing our many events. Welcome also to those of you watching on cspan and online at cato. Org. Following the september 11th terrorist attacks in october 2001 the United States initiated combat operations against al qaeda targets inside of afghanistan and against the taliban government that had harbored the terrorists there. In the ensuing 16 years u. S. Goals have changed marginally, but they typically include defeating al qaeda and other terrorist groups with global reach, strengthening the Afghan Government, and Security Forces to prevent the taliban from retaking political power and denying terrorists a safe haven. Assessments of our progress to date are mixed at best. In june secretary of Defense James Mattis stated, we are not win
Vice president for defense and Foreign Policy studies here at the cato institute. Thank you for being here today and thank you also to our outstanding conference staff here at cato who do such a terrific job organizing our many events. Welcome also to those of you watching on cspan and online at cato. Org. Following the september 11th terrorist attacks in october 2001 the United States initiated combat operations against al qaeda targets inside of afghanistan and against the taliban government that had harbored the terrorists there. In the ensuing 16 years u. S. Goals have changed marginally, but they typically include defeating al qaeda and other terrorist groups with global reach, strengthening the Afghan Government, and Security Forces to prevent the taliban from retaking political power and denying terrorists a safe haven. Assessments of our progress to date are mixed at best. In june secretary of Defense James Mattis stated, we are not winning in afghanistan right now. One could s