government. for many of last year i was the acting chairman of intelligence, i'm now the vice chairman of intelligence. i've been tracking this very, very closely. going back to the beginning of this year, i could just obviously i can't quote the titles of pieces but let me suffice it to say there will numerous pieces that will be categorized as it is going to hit the fan. but for a moment, let's put that aside. because i think any analysis of those pieces would have led nip to that conclusion. putting that aside for a moment, we have every reason, we had every rn to believe and to plan f -- of the rapid collapse of afghan government. at the beginning of 2020 we have a bad status quo in afghanistan. we had a small footprint but a strong commitment to air support and that sustained the afghan security forces ability to resist the taliban. the security forces in afghanistan were suffering the 10,000 casualties a year. the taliban was suffering