Scott Mann

I mean... I think that's why so many of the global war on terror veterans are so upset over how all this went down in Afghanistan, because the answers that we got from our politicians and the administration was things like, we're going to get out of Afghanistan so we can focus on near-peer threats.

The great, you know, so as our last planes are leaving HKIA, you have cargo planes landing in Bagram offloading Chinese nationals.

You have, you know, black SUVs rolling out of vehicles on the HKIA airfield heading to the Russian embassy.

You know, so there's, and of course we know Iran and the role that they are having in Afghanistan right now.

So to me, we completely ceded the key terrain.

You know, the very place where the near-peer threat is the most profound, right?

we walked away from it.

You know, we literally walked away and don't even have an embassy there anymore to manage the near peer threat that we're dealing with.

And which brings me to something that you said too, Sean, that I think is really important.

And look, I'm gonna speak for me, but I've heard this from a lot of veterans as we've toured with the play and talked to people.

For a lot of, for me, as I look at the country right now and I look at the politics of like this,

election and then whatever is going on with that.

For me, it really is, it's not, when we're talking about something like this, this is not a Republican, this is not a Democrat issue.

I've served under commanders in chief from both parties.

I know you have too.

And I frankly found them all to be pretty underwhelming.

in their ability to prosecute this fight, and their understanding in the depth of this fight.

I found their policymakers and their senior admirals and generals to be woefully lacking in their command of this problem set, and at times intellectually dishonest about what was actually going on.

I just know for me right now, I have a hard time when I hear some of the stuff that's coming out of D.C.

and when I hear some of the rhetoric around what's going on because it is so clear what is shaping up right now.