capitulate to the taliban because originally in some of the earlier fights there was a sense that they were fighting hard and trying to resist and launching counter-offensives. but in the past couple of days the taliban has been taking provincial capitals without firing a single shot. indeed, when we drove to ghazni thr , we saw afghan soldiers running out of their base hailing civilian car and booking out of there. so very quickly afghan forces have essentially decided to give up on this fight. it is truly stunning and we are confirming now that several of president ashraf ghani s closest advisors are at the airport awaiting a flight out of kabul. so make of that what you will. clarissa ward, thank you so much for the reporting. let s talk more about the u.s. troops that are being deployed to afghanistan. u.s. officials say they are going to be there to ensure an