 I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan in the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals and vulnerable Afghans. The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 30th this afternoon at 3.29 p.m. east coast time and the last manned aircraft is now clearing the airspace above Afghanistan. You will soon release a photo of the last C-17 departing Afghanistan with Major General Chris Donahue and the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, aboard. While the military evacuation is complete, the diplomatic mission to ensure additional U.S. citizens and eligible Afghans who want to leave continues. And I know that you have heard, and I know that you're going to hear more about that from the State Department shortly. Tonight's withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11th, 2001. It's a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end, along with many of his Al-Qaeda co-conspirators. And it was not a cheap mission. The cost was 2,461 U.S. service members and civilians killed and more than 20,000 who were injured. Sadly, that includes 13 U.S. service members who were killed last week by an ISIS K. Suicide bomber. We honor their sacrifice today as we remember their heroic accomplishments. That was head of United States Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie confirming that America's longest war, the war in Afghanistan, has now officially come to an end. It's hard to believe that this is the case, because this war has been going on for most of my life, but it's officially over. Now, he gave us some statistics about the war, general information about how long it lasted, how many American lives were lost. But there was one really glaring omission. As John Keely of Common Dreams explains, critics of the war noted that McKenzie, though he referenced, the 2,461 U.S. soldiers, contractors and civilians killed during two decades of war in the country, failed to mention in his remarks the human cost to the Afghan civilian population during that time. According to the costs of war projects at Brown University, more than 70,000 Afghan civilians have been killed since the U.S. invasion in 2001. On Sunday, 10 civilians, all from one extended family and including children, were reportedly killed by a U.S. air strike in Kabul. So needless to say, our presence there from start to finish has been a disaster. The way we entered was a disaster. The way that we left was a disaster. And we leave with a parting gift of blowing up civilians and multiple children. It's just heartless, it's disgusting. And really this should serve as an example as to why future generations should never advocate for war. Look back to this moment, look back to the Afghanistan war to acknowledge that there is never a good reason to invade another country. There's a lot of reasons that are cited as to why we should invade, perhaps the media will cite humanitarian reasons, but understand we always make matters worse. And we didn't just occupy Afghanistan for almost two decades. We rated them of their mineral resources. Just the entire situation is incredibly disgusting. And the fact that relieving is good. But still, you know, the media was screaming up until the very last second, trying to pressure Joe Biden to extend it. And the fact that he left, in spite of all of this pressure, is honestly really surprising to me. And I think that Trina Parsi put it best, it is a sad reality that it takes more courage in Washington to end a war than to start one. But that is precisely why Joe Biden deserves credit for going through with ending the US military involvement in Afghanistan. And he's exactly right. With all of this pressure from the mainstream media who brought on neo-conservative after neo-conservative, warmonger after warmonger, individuals from the Bush administration who helped get us into this mess in the first place, you know, after hearing all of them, I thought there's no way that Biden is going to be able to remain, you know, a strong in spite of all this pressure. But thankfully, he proved me wrong. And he does absolutely deserve credit because what Parsi is saying here is correct. It is a sad reality that ending a war is more difficult than starting a new one. You have the media constantly antagonizing towards more invasions. I mean, how many times throughout the course of the last year have you heard antagonism towards Venezuela, Iran? They want more wars. There's a plethora of reasons for that, right? These mainstream news pundits, they came from these neo-conservative administrations. They have a defense contractor advertised defense contractors advertising on CNN MSNBC Fox News. And some of it is just stupidity. But overall, ending a war is more controversial and requires more courage than starting a war. That is really a sad state of affairs. It's a sad reality, but it is exactly what you can expect in a late stage capitalist society where we commodify everything and even war becomes a money making venture. Now, to all of the warmongers in neo-conservative mainstream media pressuring Biden to remain longer and longer and, you know, push back the deadline, there's one interview that I want to show from a US Marine who served in Afghanistan, and what he says here is just, it's spot on. All these people are playing the blame game right now over what's happening right now because they want to distract us from the fact that we spent 20 years, $2.3 trillion and 2,500 US service member lives over there for absolutely nothing. Like the same people right now who are saying, one more day, one more month, one more dollar are the same people who said that for 20 years. And what we saw last week that what that means is one more Marine. It means one more Marine over and over again. It reminds me of the saddest day of my entire life, which was standing on the flight line in Helmand, Afghanistan in the middle of the night, watching the fallen body of one of the members of my battalion loaded onto a transport plane to go home. These people are trying to keep us focused on what's happening right now because they have been telling the American people that it was worthwhile to spend 2.3 trillion dollars over there for absolutely nothing while they've been refusing to spend that much building up our own country here at home and we can't let them win. We have to fight back against that narrative because it's wrong and it's just part of the systematic institutional dishonesty that has us in this position right now. He's absolutely correct here. We spent 2.3 trillion dollars on death and destruction and the media still thinks we should be there longer to accomplish what, to do what. It's just it's frustrating that this is what we have to deal with. So I give Joe Biden credit for actually holding strong and withdrawing and I feel really bad to all of the lives that we ruined as a result of our invasion. And I just hope that this serves as a lesson for future generations and even the present generation that our presence in another country is not going to be beneficial. We need to leave these countries alone. If we believe that there's a humanitarian violation, the answer shouldn't instinctively be, well, let's go ahead and invade. The answer should be international organizations get involved. The UN get involved, whatever, but not us because we're not looking out for anyone in these countries. We're looking out for the pockets of these defense contractors. So it's disgusting. I'm glad that the war is over, but I'm sad that with this war's end will come more wars in the future because very clearly the media hasn't learned their lesson and if the media hasn't learned their lesson, then the US citizens unfortunately won't have the right takeaways as well. Now, thankfully, it seems like support for the withdrawal, even if it's decreased, is mostly still surprisingly high, but still, you know, this goes to show you how powerful the media is at trying to manufacture consent. If they all scream something loud enough and all in unison, you know, it really, it makes a difference. And so, yeah, the war's over and I, you know, my thoughts on this are a little bit jumbled, but overall I feel relief and I feel just depression and sadness for all of the lives that we ruin up until the very last second, droning children. It's just it's morally reprehensible, but I don't think anyone will really truly be able to grapple with the scale of the destruction that our country caused being there for two decades.