more. let s listen? pending military nominations to the senate. there a second? second. all in favor please say aye. the motion carries. thank you. good morning. the committee meets today to discuss the end of american military operations in afghanistan. after nearly 20 years of war, enormous sacrifice by american and coalition military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel and vast u.s. investment the afghan state has failed and the taliban has taken control. we need to understand why and how. as part of this hearing we will seek to understand the factors that contributed to the taliban s rapid takeover of the country and the collapse of the afghan national defense and security forces. while there is a temptation to close the book on afghanistan and simply move on to long-term strategic competition with china and russia, we must capture the lessons of the last two decades