something that the pentagon officials here have realized way too late. the taliban has been, ever since president biden announced we would withdraw in april, they have been conducting an steeply effective influence campaign as well as their physical campaign across the country. they've been taking advantage of tribal politics across the country. they've been making deals with village elders as well as afghan forces, saying we're going to attack, but if you lay down your weapons and surrender peacefully, we won't kill you. they've been doing this across the country. this has really he roded morale even as the americans have been withdrawing from 2,500 to before this happened just a thousand or so troops there. we've really seen morale erode among the afghan security forces and many of them are fleeing, on foot or by plane, and we think people in the pentagon really just did not understand just how bad of a situation this was going to be, and how effective the taliban were at their