other allies of the united states and help transport them out of the country. in a very freedom of movement way. >> i want to finish with this. you get asked this a lot as authors. to you on this, tom, first. you asked -- you are asked this question, was it all worth it? and how do you explain it to your children? how do you explain it to your family in terms of understanding what we are living through right now? because you have so much expertise in understanding what is happening. >> so, when we wrote "the 20-year war" and we have 71 individual reflection stories in this journal. we feel a responsibility to tell an authentic story. authentically, a friends of mine, claire, who is a fellow writer, wasn't in the book. she was checking in on me and i expressed i was angry and frustrated. she said, you know, tom, what you and all of your fellow veterans did wasn't in vain.