terrorism objective of degrading al qaeda and that mission while the u.s. presence in afghanistan drew down significantly over the last few years, the lack of defined strategy continued to erode the mission. one of the clearest inflection point was the ill-fated decision was to go to war in iraq just as we began to achieve momentum in afghanistan, bush administration s invasion of iraq threw critical resources, troops and focus away from the afghan theater. our best opportunity in afghanistan was squandered and never able to get back on track. throughout the war we were also unsuccessful in pakistan s support of taliban. even though we cooperated on mission the taliban enjoyed sanctuary in pakistan to regroup. it can be tied to the flawed do
morphed into the counterinsurgency and nation building. while the u.s. presence in afghanistan drew down significantly over the last few years, the lack of defined strategy continued to erode the mission. one of the clearest inflexion points was the ill fated decision to go to war in iraq. just as we began to achieve momentum in afghanistan, bush administration s invasion of iraq through focus away from the afghan theater. our best opportunity in afghanistan was squandered and never able to get back on track. throughout the war, we were also unsuccessful in dealing with pakistan support of the taliban. even as american diplomats sat down with pakistani leaders and forces cooperated on counterterrorism missions, the taliban enjoyed sanctuary inside pakistan with time and space to regroup. more recently the taliban s resurgence can be tied to the doha agreement which then president trump signed in 2020.