interfere with our withdrawal. it's important to understand that within 48 hours of the n.e.o. execution order, the facts on the ground had changed significantly. we had gone from cooperating on security with a longtime partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a longtime enemy. and to that environment, individuals of the army deployed their forces and did extraordinary work with the leading elements of the reinforcement package to safely close the embassy in one period of darkness or one evening to establish a deconfliction mechanism with the taliban, to establish security at the airport and to bring in the rest of our reinforcements into the airport. they accomplished this difficult list of tasks within 48 hours of supporting the transfer of the embassy to the airport. i visited kabul on tuesday august the 17th to see the work being done to establish security