i understand senator shotz is with us virtually. before senator shotz, i'll ask senator kaine to preside so i can vote and come back. >> thank you before appearing before the committee. i want to sort of zoom out a little bit. defense establishment, political appointees so called think tank expert defense contractors are complaining loudly about tactics. it's their strategy that failed. they're complaining about how america's longest war ended because they didn't want it to ever end. they're mad because they think we should be an occupying force indefinitely and they know that position is untenable so they want to talk about sending forces into kabul. they won't acknowledge fundamental mistake was that because they said a country in central asia without a good understanding of its people or its culture. after 20 years, trillions of dollars spent and training hundreds of thousands of afghan security forces, the afghan government was no more capable of being a referee in a civil war than before we invaded. that's not the fault of our