by by the time i came to office, the taliban was in its progress military position since 2001. controlling or contesting nearly half of the country. we were left for a simple decision. eitherfollow country. we were left for a simple decision. either follow through on the agreement made by the last administration and leave afghanistan orsay administration and leave afghanistan or say we were not leaving and commit another tens of thousands more troops going back to war. that was the choice, the real choice. the decision to in the military operations at kabul airport was based on non—discrimination of my civilian and military advisers. —— unanimous recommendation. in his speech, joe biden put the decision to pull out in a much larger context. america, he says, will now realign its foreign policy away from the post—9/11 conflict. we succeeded in what we set out to do in afghanistan over a decade ago. then we stayed for another decade.