brilliant analysis to conclude that if you radically change an already bad status quo by removing u.s. and nato forces by enabling air support that the status quo will collapse in favor of the taliban. this is not an argument in favor of staying. i think that ship has sailed. we're not debating the withdrawal. what i'm arguing is we have a terrible status quo and the afghan government after billions of dollars and was not self-sustaining and we should begin to know as we draw down that we'll see the potential for a collapse and that is what all of the pieces pointed to as well. and no one shaw all of this and could conclude there that would be a rapid collapse. more to that point, we began to seek clear signs weeks ago that this is where it was headed. without air strikes, the taliban now began to mass and maneuver going from intimidating the small afghan outposts, to