much capable of going on the offensive and beginning to take back the country. but at the same time we had invested over four administrations billions of dollars along with the international community in the afghan security and defense forces. building a modern military. with the most sophisticated equipment. 300,000 forces strong. with an air force the taliban didn't have. and the fact is we've seen that force has been unable to defend the country. that has happened more quickly than we anticipated. >> the idea of them -- the force not being able to defend, i mean, what a lot of experts believe and you can disagree if you want is that having the usair support, having u.s. intelligence there to help the afghan troops on the ground is what stiffens their spine and enables them to do what they do. that is part of the larger issue about whether the u.s. should have left behind any sort of residual force. beyond that is again the