is happening in realtime and the world must bear witness and hold the taliban accountable. let me turn to the focus of today's hearing. mr. secretary, the execution of the u.s. withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed. this committee expects to receive a full explanation of the administration's decision in afghanistan since coming into office last january. there has to be accountability. we will have other hearings to develop a set of lessons learned over the course of the war to understand the many mistakes made over the course of 20 years. the diversion and -- when the bush decided to invade iraq. double dealing by pakistan in providing a safe haven to the taliban and the list goes on. we need to understand why successive administrations made so many of the same mistakes repeatedly. perhaps most urgently we need to understand why the afghan