afghan national army, were the ones conducting the operations. what we were doing was we were doing the enablement. so, you know, supporting the air movements, supporting air strikes and logistics. and all that was being done, basically, by two relatively isolated bases in kandahar and bagram, with a huge amount of stand—off and with thousands of contractors who would only stay if the us stayed. so, you know, that is not... that is not a valid argument. the other idea you have made and others have made, which biden took on specifically when he spoke to the nation a few days ago, is the idea that this is like korea, like germany after world war ii. the idea that we could stay for decades and with far higher troop numbers that we have in afghanistan.