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0 also a key part of the plan was to maintain an embassy in kabul and maintaining that embassy would allow us to continue to engage the government, to continue to provide resources to support the afghan security forces so it was -- the plan was to leave a diplomatic presence there, and in conjunction with that plan we also were going to leave a small military force there to help secure the embassy, so that was the plan, senator. >> but you didn't address the issue that you made -- if it was your plan, you acknowledge it was your plan and your plan said you would do all these things before we g...

0 >> thank you, senator. you're right, the tempo upped significantly, the taliban continued to make advances. our entire chain of command, myself, the chairman, general mckenzie, routinely engage the afghan leadership to encourage them to solidify their defensive plans, to make sure they were providing the right logistics to their troop, and further stiffen their defenses. to no avail. to compound that, president ghani continued to make changes in the leadership of the military, and this created further problems for the afghan security forces. >> mr. secretary, i don't mean to interrupt you bu...

Did you personally reject a recommendation to hold or to recapture baghram air force base? >> here's what i've done -- are i'll answer the last question first. on the tactical questions of how to conduct an evacuation or a war i gather up all the major military personnel that are in afghanistan, the commanders as well as the pentagon. and i ask for their bit of military judgment, what would be the most efficient way to accomplish the mission? they concluded, the military, that baghram was not much value added, that it was much wiser to focus on kabul, and so i followed that recommendation.

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Seriously threatening kandahar. this notnhat all of a sudden this popped up two weeks ago and they birdie able to storm through the case, that's not true and there was a concern. there is now a colleague here saying that the state department the diplomats said in addition to the military more than a month ago there was an urgency to do, to get these people out, and it existed way before this mission started on august 14th. >> courtney, why are we handing baghram over before we got people out. it eems like a real whiff here. >> yeah, i understand. two big reasons it didn't make sense is that it...