operations in both afghanistan and iraq at different times. general -- general patrias comes to mind. was there ever a command change or a tactical change in afghanistan after you served there that made you think, oh, this might work? >> no, i think that this has been inevitable from the very beginning. and it was just -- you know, there was a systematic institutional lie in place that was, i think, per -- perpetuated just to make sure that the american people believed that this investment in afghanistan of, you know, 20 years, almost 2,500 u.s. service members' lives was worth it so that we could keep staying there. and they are perpetuating that on the news right now. almost saying that we need to go back because they are trying to somehow say that it was worth while. the same way that they are saying iraq was worthwhile and that the 6.4 trillion we spent over there was okay. and, you know, these are the same people that refused to spend just a fraction of that amount of money right here in