evidence: Emboldened by that disaster, Russia invaded Ukraine. They saw this group of people that were incompetent. We took the soldiers out first, no, no. We're going to take the soldiers out second. If they would have followed my plan; we had a great plan. But the plan only kicked in if they did everything perfectly, and they weren't doing things perfectly. So we said it doesn't kick in. You know, 18 months in Afghanistan, we didn't have one — they were killing them left and right, snipers. And I spoke to the head of the Taliban. You've heard this story. Abdul, still there. Still the head of the Taliban. The press got on me, "Why would you speak to him?" I said, "Because that's where the killing is." I don't have to speak to somebody that has nothing to do with it. [...] But he could figure it out. And for 18 months we had not one attack on an American soldier by the Taliban. Eighteen months. And then we had that horrible day where soldiers were killed. I was not there because of a ridiculous election. But we had that horrible attack.