Department of Defense Press Briefing by Gen. Campbell via satellite in the Pentagon Briefing Room

REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY: Afternoon, everybody.

It is an honor to welcome back to our briefing room the commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. forces Afghanistan, General John Campbell. Most of you already know General Campbell, as he most recently served here in the building as the Army's vice chief of staff and then before that, the director of operations on the Army staff.

General Campbell assumed command in Afghanistan on the 26th of August, and a lot has happened in just that first month. We've seen a new president inaugurated in Kabul. The new Afghan government signed the bilateral security agreement. And a NATO status of forces agreement will now make it possible for our allies and partners to solidify their plans to contribute to the Resolute Support Mission next year.

And of course, our troops and those of our partners in Afghanistan continue to put pressure on the enemy while enabling and ensuring that Afghan national security forces remain in the lead for defending their people and their country.

This is General Campbell's third tour in Afghanistan. He last briefed us from there during his tour as the commander of the 101st Airborne Division in R.C. East from 2010 to 2011. The general will provide us with a brief opening statement, and then he'll take your questions.

I'll moderate the questions from here. When I call on you, please identify who you're with, your name and who you're with because the general won't be able to actually see us the way we can see him. And there -- I would like to just remind you because of the satellite connection, there's about a three to five-second delay, so just allow for that -- for time for him to hear your question and then -- and then to respond. We got about 30 minutes to get -- to get through this.

And so, with that, sir, I'll turn it over to you.

GEN. JOHN CAMPBELL: Hey, John, thanks very much. And I appreciate the opportunity to address everyone, the Pentagon press corps. As John said, I can't see you, so I'm looking at a little screen of myself there. I'll try to continue to look at the -- the camera there.

I had a prepared written statement -- I'm not going to use it. I'd just like to cover some quick notes here and then really open it up for -- for Q&A.

As John said, I've been on the ground for six weeks actually from today. I do have to put a shout out to General Joe Dunford and the great job that he did in his 18 months here and the great transition that we had. I've known Joe for 15-plus years, and he really did set up the ISAF team for success here, and so I came into a very great team.

If I had one word to tell you what I've seen so far in the six weeks, it's transition, transition, transition. And that is transition from ISAF to the mission of resolute support. It's the political transition with a new president, the BSA signing the SOFA signing, and this really complete political transition.

We're currently with about 40,000 troops on the ground, just less than 40,000. We're moving to 12.5 by the end of this year. That's NATO forces and the United States. The number for the United States, you know, was 9,800. We continue to go there.

We're on a very good glide path to make that by the end of December, and I think that the BSA and the SOFA really has boosted the confidence of the Afghan people and -- also our coalition partners provide the necessary forces for the Resolute Support Mission. I've seen huge difference just in the attitude since the last week since the BSA and the SOFA and the inauguration came this week.

I had the opportunity to be there at the inauguration with Ambassador Cunningham. And really, the two things that struck me immediately from President Ghani that I did not see prior to that date was: one, the appreciation for the coalition forces; and number two: the appreciation for the ANSF. And President Ghani has embraced the Afghan security forces, the police and the army, that made an immediate impact on them and their morale. And again, I think that's going to be a great window of opportunity for Afghanistan as we move forward.

I do look forward to continuing to work with the NATO forces as we move toward this resolution support set. It's a fundamentally different mission, as we really work at train, advise, and assist at the corps level, and we'll be on four of the six corps, and then really at the ministerial level. And that's different from when I was here last time, when we were all the way down to kandak level.

So my battlefield circulation this time is different from when I was in RC-East. It is really in Kabul, although today I had an opportunity to get down to RC-South to see the great 1st Cavalry Division down there, talk to soldiers in (off mic) with both the Afghan forces and the NATO forces.

But I've been focusing on the security institutions, the ministry of interior, the ministry of defense, the national security adviser, NDS, and then working with both President Ghani and the CEO, Mr. Abdullah, so that's been my focus here the first six weeks.

I do think there's going to be some challenges as we move forward, working through the national unity government. I look forward to working with both President Ghani and Mr. Abdullah on that. And, again, I will take any questions on that as we go forward.

But I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to be the ISAF commander. We continue to have great success on the ground in many areas, and I think a lot of that has been taken away from the news through the last several weeks with Iraq and Syria, and I really do want to emphasize that you have men and women out there that continue to be in harm's way, that do great things for all of our countries, working with the Afghan security forces, and I'm proud to be part of that.

So, with that, I'll take your questions.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: Okay, sir, thank you.

First question.

Q: General, it's Scott (inaudible) with Inside the Pentagon. A recent GAO report said that the lack of a bilateral security agreement could delay the drawdown. Now that those bilateral security agreements have been signed, are you still on time to finish things -- or start things in October and finish up around the same time you were hoping to?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Yeah, John, you may have to -- I only got parts of that question. I think the question was because the BSA was signed late, into October, can we still make the resolute support set -- is that -- is that the question?

Q: Pretty much, make sure the drawdown happens on time in October and --

REAR ADM. KIRBY: Yes, sir, it's about the retrograde and the timetable.

GEN. CAMPBELL: Absolute great question.

Yeah, we're absolutely on glide path right now. We've been on a glide path to get to the resolute support set, probably by the 1st of November, and we're on that glide path and we're actually -- in some places, we're ahead of schedule, so I really have no concerns on the retrograde piece. There's been a lot of very hard work done by all the units here.

We've gone from -- when I was here last time, about 300 COPs [combat outpost] and FOBs [forward operating base]. We're just a little under 30 at this point in time. And so, I feel very confident that we have a good glide slope and we'll make the resolute support set by the end of December.

Q: Hi, general, it's Josh Fishel with Fox News. I wanted to ask you two big picture questions about both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Secretary Panetta, former secretary, is the latest in a line of military heavyweights who have suggested that it would have been a good idea to leave troops in Iraq. Do you agree with that?

And do you believe that 9,800 is enough troops for Afghanistan? And can you tell us what their new mission will be?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Yeah, I appreciate the question, the first part on leaving troops in Iraq. And I think the last time I was in Iraq was actually 2009 with the chairman. I left there at the end of 2007, first part of 2008 as a one-star.

I think when we left in 2011, that we absolutely left them in the best possible condition militarily that we could. Things that were done by the government did not bring all the different factions in Iraq together was not something that the military -- the U.S. military could have done or changed once we left there in 2011.

So I really can't comment on that piece, but I think we left them in as best shape as we could.

Afghanistan is fundamentally different than Iraq, in almost -- you can't compare those two. We now have a great window of opportunity after signing the BSA and the SOFA where the entire country of Afghanistan wants the coalition, not just the United States, but over probably 38, 39 countries, once we hit resolute support.

You got to remember, we've had over 50 countries tied into this ISAF mission in the last 13 years. I don't think -- that's unprecedented. I don't think we've ever had that many -- that many countries stick together in a time of conflict.

So this is fundamentally different where we're at. And, again, President Ghani, by signing the BSA, by signing the SOFA, has said they are a sovereign country but they do continue to want the assistance that the coalition provides. And I think we're in a different place than we were with Iraq.

The military here, the Afghan security forces, completely different than when I left Iraq, and they're completely different than when I was here just a couple of years ago. They've taken on the security mission from last June of '13. They had it mostly entirely by themselves for the summer of '14. I think they've done very well, supporting both the elections and through some of the major events.

The last couple of weeks, there has been an uptick with the Taliban trying to make a statement as they close out the fighting season.

What you may be getting in the -- in the media, probably in the Western part of Ghazni in a place called Ajristan, where you heard about potential beheadings, 250 houses burning, 150 people killed, that's absolutely false.

And we've worked very hard with the Afghans to make sure they get that message out to show that the -- the Afghan security forces can hold the terrain. There's nowhere that we have Afghan security forces that the Taliban can get the terrain and hold the terrain.

The Taliban may take over a district center or something, but only temporarily. Once the ANSF understand that piece of it, they go after that, they get the terrain back. So I'm very confident in their abilities.

They do have some shortfalls that we'll continue to work on, and that's what part of resolute support is. We'll work very hard on their aviation, on their intelligence, on their sustainment, those things that are very, very hard for any army, especially hard here in Afghanistan. We'll continue to work with them on that.

Q: Just to follow up really quickly, General, don't you believe that leaving a force in Iraq would've been good for the same reasons that it's good to leave a force in Afghanistan?

For example, they could have overseen some of the changes that Maliki made and perhaps urged him not to do so.

GEN. CAMPBELL: I think any military guy is going to tell you if you could leave a force, you'd always leave a force.

But again, those conditions in Iraq are completely different than Afghanistan, and by signing the BSA and the SOFA, we are leaving forces in Afghanistan.

We have at least two years here to continue to build on the security for the Afghan people, to continue to work with the ministries, the MOI and MOD.

You mentioned 9,800. That's just the U.S. contribution. We'll be at about 12.5, 12.7 with the NATO contribution. And we will have forces in the north, in the west, in the east, and in the south, and then in Kabul center.

So we're going to really a spoke and hub, and come 1 January, in the east, we'll have forces in Jalalabad, in Gamberi, in Bagram. In the north, they'll be in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the west, they'll be in Herat, and in the south, they'll be in Kandahar.

We'll be covered down on four of the six corps, and two of the corps will continue to advise, but just less frequently than we can the other four corps.

Q: General, Phil Ewing with POLITICO. Thank you for doing this.

Can you please expand on your point about the ANSF? What do they need the most help doing now, and where are you going to focus with them going forward in your time in Afghanistan?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Thanks for the question.

Again, we're not -- we're not out on patrol with the Afghans; they've taken over the fight. We're focused on the systems and processes that they have at the corps level. We're no longer with the brigades. We're no longer with the Kandaks.

The gaps and seams that were identified early on, aviation, close air support, intelligence, logistics, how to sustain their force are the processes that we continue to work on.

We've developed eight essential functions as we move into resolute support that will continue to work with the Afghan forces. Those include the joint fires piece. It includes working with their force generation.

And again, I'm very confident that the Afghan forces have the capability to withstand the fight internally inside here in Afghanistan. They're very confident as well.

But quite candidly, the last couple years, there's been some impediments to them, based on maybe some political decisions within their own country that prevented them from even going further.

And now, with a new administration in, with President Ghani, who has embraced the military here, that will probably change some of the directives that were out there that may have inhibited the military. I believe that they'll continue to grow.

The Afghan military is the most respected institution in Afghanistan. Every poll taken in the last two years, they're at the very, very top.

And again, I feel confident that there're some areas and challenges that we'll have to continue to work on, but there is no place that once the Taliban or any other insurgents take over, that the Afghan military can't take that back from them.

And the places that the Taliban and the insurgents are going after are going after are very remote locations where we don't have a lot of police, we don't have a lot of army, and they're trying to make these very high-profile attacks, spectacular attacks. And once we have the security forces in those areas, then the Taliban are quickly defeated.

Q: General, it's Tom Bowman with NPR.

I want to go back to what you were talking about with the Taliban. They seem to be making inroads, particularly in Helmand Province around Sangin, where there're a lot of Marine causalities winning that ground back.

And also, you referred to Ghazni. It appears they are pushing in Ghazni as well.

What, if anything, has the U.S. done to help the Afghan forces in those areas? Is it just advise? Or is it airstrikes or whatever?

And also, if can you talk a little bit about the Afghan security forces, their casualties, how much they've increased over the past year or two?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Okay, thanks, Tom. Great -- great questions.

Let me hit Ghazni and then Helmand, and then the -- the casualty piece.

Again, I said earlier in the opening statement in a place called Ajristan, which is western part of Ghazni, very remote area, that was part of our RC-East, continues to be part of our RC-East. I had issues when I was here -- a very remote location. For about the past week, there's been an uptick in activity out there, but nothing near like what the local media has provided here.

The district governor, the provincial governor, the district police, the provincial police made some phone calls back into the capital. They made phone calls to the press. They were exaggerated. We've had both our special operating forces that are partnered with the Afghan special operating forces, which are probably the very best in this part of the world, have been down in the Ajristan area for about the last four days. All of the reports that I get back show probably six Afghan military killed, maybe 12 civilians. That was as of yesterday was the last update. I was out of the net most of today down in RC-South.

But again, there's no terrain down there in Ajristan that the Afghans do not control. And there are some very exaggerated reports. I very -- feel very confident that Ajristan, western part of Ghazni is not an issue.

And Helmand, for the last several week, there's been an uptick in the last four or five days. There's been a pretty substantial fight. And again, both the commandos, the 215th Corps and the police, I think you'll see in the next day or two with the Afghans coming out and reporting the success that they've had there.

The problem we've had in the past is we've encouraged the Afghans to go ahead and report this to show the success that they have. And quite candidly, they've been afraid to do that. And they've been inhibited in some places to -- to tell some of the good news stories. But I think, again, under President Ghani and Mr. Abdullah, you will see the police, the army, senior leadership, come out and speak with the media more and show you the
great success that they're having.

There are casualties on both sides, but I think here in the next 24 to 48 hours, what you'll see in Helmand is that the Taliban do not own any of the ground that they've tried to get, and that they'll end the fighting season '14 here very discouraged, and that their leadership continues not even to be in Afghanistan and that their morale of the Taliban continues to be low.

They have, quite frankly, won the information war because I think all of you back there -- Taliban have made success, and they haven't. And so, we have not done a good job in telling that story. But I'm here to tell you in the six weeks I've been on the ground, I've been very, very confident of what the Afghan security forces can do. We'll continue to provide ISR close air support. Some of those things that we will build up their capabilities, but we're not there yet. And that's why we'll continue to do the train, advise, assist as part of resolute support in both '15 and into '16.

Q: Follow up. I was asking about --

GEN. CAMPBELL: Some are the last, probably, 30 days on the casualties that the Afghan forces, especially the police have taken -- I don't -- yeah, I don't know if you're asking another question. But again, on the casualty piece, and there's a little delay here from what I can hear from you -- on the casualty piece, there has been an uptick in the number of casualties that the Afghan security forces have taken. But that was expected because they're in the lead.

There's much greater percentage rate on the police because that's really the first line of defense. The police are not trained. They're not equipped the same level that the Afghan army and the special operating forces are equipped. So they've probably taken the brunt of those casualties.

Helmand, again, for the last six weeks has been a pretty good fight, but I think, again in the next 48 hours you'll see reports from the Afghans that show that they've done very, very well there.

But the number of casualties for the Afghan security forces for the summer of '14 is just slightly higher, actually, than '13. But the last month or so, that percentage has gone up to kind of get it to where it was in '13. But that's because they've been in the lead almost completely this summer, more so than they were last year.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: Jim?

Q: General, this is Jim Michaels of USA Today.

A question about air support. Will the U.S. be in position to provide air support to the ANSF after this year? And that would include both close-air support and medevac missions under certain circumstances.

GEN. CAMPBELL: Jim, I understand the question. Will we be in a position to provide air support, medevac to the Afghans in '15? The number of platforms that we have, the amount of ISR, the amount of CAS, the amount of medevac we'll have will be greatly diminished from what we have today, in proportion to where we're going with the 12.5.

We continue to work through the Afghans what we will be able to provide and what we won't be able to provide to the Afghans starting on 1 January. And I have to have that discussion both with President Ghani, Mr. Abdullah. And I have to have that discussion with General Austin out of CENTCOM and General Breedlove, SACEUR.

Q: Hi, sir. Tony Cappacio with Bloomberg News.

I want to shift to waste of government spending concerns. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has continually voiced concerns about so-called oversight bubbles emerging in the country, because his people and U.S. officials cannot go to projects and oversee how well U.S. dollars are being spent. There are still billions of dollars to be obligated as U.S. troop levels go down.

Is that a legitimate concern? And are you working with Afghan Ministries of the Interior and Defense to strengthen oversight of U.S. tax dollar expenditures?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Thanks for the question. Absolutely, we're working both with the SIGAR to make sure that we're open and transparent, that they have the ability to see all of our processes. And we are working very hard with both the ministry of interior, the ministry of defense to strengthen the controls as we move into 2015 on how we leverage the funding.

I just brought in Minister Atmar. He's the new national security adviser. I had Major Kevin Wendell in probably two days ago brief him on a change in business and how we will tighten those controls to give us better accountability and oversight of how we use the money.

I'll just -- in fact, I wrote down a couple of bullets here on the reporting requirements, new procedures to really minimize expenditure of the budget codes. There's a mandatory use of the electronic payroll system and the monthly reconciliation of the payroll submissions. There's a greater emphasis now on linking the payments to contracts. There's a simple thing like we're going to pay them in afghanis as opposed to dollars.

There is a new piece on contract transition and how we work that. We brought, again, the national security adviser in to give him a little bit of oversight on that. We're working now probably starting next week as we work through these commitment letters that I sign, and personally talk to the MOI and the MOD to make sure they understand how we will tighten up those controls.

And quite frankly, from Mr. Atmar, he was very appreciative of the increased scrutiny that we'll put on any oversight that we'll have both over the MOI and MOD. President Ghani has stressed many, many times about the issues of corruption. And we want to make sure that we continue to fall in line with that, learn from what we've done in the past, work with the SIGAR, work with both the MOI and MOD, and have a little bit better ability to see that.

Now, we're not going to be out in numbers that we were in the past, so we won't have the touch points out in the brigades, kandaks. We'll continue to have that at the corps, and we're actually increasing the numbers that we've ever had in the ministries. And because of that, I think that will really help us in really the central function number one which is plan, program, budget and execution -- really, the PPBE system which is, you know, really hard for U.S. to understand as well. But I think we've been working that very well with the Afghans.

We are trying to do something else that will help us, and that's really build up the civilian positions inside both ministries. The MOI is a little bit better than the MOD at this point, but to bring in young people that really understand the programming, the budgeting, and that execution, and to bring in that young talent as civilians so they continue to grow and have continuity.


The MOI has embraced that. I've had discussions with the MOD. I believe they will embrace it as well. And I think that also will help us with our transparency and the accountability oversight.

Q: Hi, general. Gordon Lubold Defense One.

I wanted to follow up on Justin's question again about the drawdown plan which you inherited. What would give you any pause about the current plan over the course of the next year or so, that would make you think maybe the plan wasn't a good one to sustain, and then potentially make a recommendation to change it, even in terms of the sustainment and some of these aviation and intel issues that you're talking about working with the Afghans on? What would -- what would give you that pause?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Great question, thanks.

And, again, I'm very comfortable at this point in time with the plan and the ramp of the drawdown and, quite frankly, the organization that's set up to leverage the folks that we'll have here, getting the right people with the right skill sets at the right level in the ministries. And, again, I feel comfortable that we're on the right -- the right path to do that.

I have to measure it in risk to the force and risk to the mission. And, again, some of that will change based on the new administration. Some of the policies that the new president puts out will -- will come into my mind as I take a holistic look on how to evaluate some of the gaps and seams that we identified and the goals and objectives that we wanted to get at in resolute support.

I think it's really, really early right now for me to be able to do that, because, again, we're just starting this political transition and we haven't even started resolute support yet. I think I have the ability to make those recommendations to the chain on command at the appropriate time, but right now, it's really way too early.

We're going to still try to figure out who the new governors are, who the new MOI or MOD, if they switched out, who within those ministries. So we've got to try to work toward that continuity and continue to work that base.

But, really, the advisers that we have, that's our new weapon system. And those are the folks that will be out there, engaged at the right levels to really work on the gaps and seams that we identified probably a year and a half ago with our Afghan partners here.

And I feel very confident that we have a good plan, but as any commander on the ground, you know, I reserve the right to be able to take a look at the risk to the force, risk to the mission, and then provide my assessments to my chain of command as we move forward.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: We have time for a couple of more here. Yes.

Q: Thank you for being with us, general. I'm Carla Bab with Voice of America.

One of the goals of the resolute support mission is targeting the remnants of Al Qaeda. And I know that you have said that we are no longer on patrol, but will U.S. troops be on running some missions in the future and taking the lead, or are they only going to be serving as a support?

And, just curious, how long have ISAF forces no longer been on patrol?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Okay. I had a hard time hearing, but I think it was will we -- we will -- how long have we not been patrolling with them, and will we continue to attack Al Qaeda.

As part of the U.S. mission here for train, advise, and assist, the train, advise and assist at the corps and ministerial level, I also have the mission of counterterrorism, or CT. And so, we are embedded with the Afghan special operating forces, and we'll continue to work the CT mission and build their capacity there.

We have not been patrolling with the -- at the kandak, or brigade, level really since late last summer because they've taken over the lead of the security piece.

There are some patrols that we've been partnered with, them, in and around COPs and FOBs, and what that really does is provide for our own force protection. But really our best force protection is by, through and with, and layered with our Afghan partners.

But we have not been out on those kind of patrols for the most part for at least a year here. But, again, at the special operating forces level, with the commandos, with some of the other SOF forces they have in Afghanistan, we continue to do train, advice and assist at a much lower level.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: This will be the last question, (inaudible)?

Q: You just mentioned Dan DaLuce from AFP. I have two questions.

The first is, can you just elaborate a little bit on casualties, again, with the Afghans. You said the casualties were higher this summer than last summer. Can you give us a rough estimate of what that means? Is it several hundred a month, as some reports have indicated?

And then I have a second question.

GEN. CAMPBELL: Yeah, I didn't bring those numbers with me. I think the overall average of casualties, and this is probably both wounded and killed, is slightly higher, not very much higher, than the summer of '13. The last month or so it's spiked to reach that level, otherwise it would have probably been lower than '13.

The number that's been floating around out there, and, again, sometimes hard to measure based on working through our Afghan systems, for overall casualties, this includes both wounded and killed, is in the neighborhood of 7,000 to 9,000 for '14. And, from '13, I think it's about the same number.

So again, not -- not much higher than '13, in fact, the big spike here in the last couple weeks, because of the fighting done in Helmand and a little bit down in Ajristan.

Q: I mean, as you know, there's been a lot of --

GEN. CAMPBELL: And we expected those numbers to be up than were in '11 and '12.

Q: You know there's been concern in Congress about the use of Russian-made helicopters by the Afghan forces.

Can you tell us what role those helicopters play, how useful they are, or not, especially among the Afghan special forces?

And -- and could you give maybe an example, maybe in Helmand, for example, they played an important role there?

GEN. CAMPBELL: Yeah, thanks for the question.

There's about 84 or so Mi-17s here in Afghanistan. The requirement's about 87, so we have three to go.

We continue to work both with the Afghan air force and the special mission wing, which supports the special operating forces.

I had an opportunity to go on a flight line here a couple weeks ago and sit down both with the air force and then with the special operating -- or the special mission wing.

The capability that the special mission wing -- just think the comparison between -- that's their Task Force 160 -- and the ability they have to take Afghan soldiers, to fly with very low aloom and put them on an LZ to provide resupply is pretty incredible.

And I think that they've been a force multiplier for the special operating forces. And for the conventional forces, the army and the police, they've been mostly moving forces and then providing resupply.

And I think that capability continues to build confidence in the Afghan security forces, in the Afghan people, but I've been really, really impressed.

And they also have an ISR capability with an aircraft that provides them full motion video that they work with the special operating forces, and they've used that quite extensively in the last couple of days in Helmand.

I just looked at a storyboard the other day that showed an insertion of about four Mi-17s at very low aloom into a very, very small, tough, dusty LZ. And those Mi-17s with those pilots put them down in the right place at the right time very safely, and then also for the next couple days, were able to provide these resupplies at very, very low aloom in very hard places to get to.

So the Mi-17s are a -- General Dunford used the word many, many months, a "game changer," and I absolutely believe that as well, that they provide them a capability that gives them confidence, boots their confidence to continue to -- continue to fight.

So we'll continue to work there. The issues that we work with on the Mi-17 is making sure we continue to keep in the -- in the pipeline and then work on the maintenance piece.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: Okay, sir. That's -- that'll do it from questions.

But I wanted to give you just any change -- your last chance if you have any -- any final comments you want to make, sir, before we -- we sign off.

We appreciate your time tonight.

GEN. CAMPBELL: Yeah, John. Thanks for what you do for all the DoD and getting the -- the great stories up for all the soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines and Coast Guardsman.

But I'd just like to pass on to everybody that we continue to have a very, very tough environment here in Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, we lost a soldier the other night. We lost three about five days ago. So this continues to be a -- a very tough environment for our soldiers, for all of NATO and for the Afghan security forces.

But I do believe that the difference that the coalition's had over the last 13 years continues to bring hope to the Afghan people.

And with the new president, the new administration, there's a renewed sense of opportunity here to continue build a better Afghanistan for the future, and I'm very proud to have that opportunity to do it.

And I'd just like everybody out there to know that the -- the sacrifice of all of our men and women that have served in Afghanistan in the past and the sacrifice of their families has not been for -- for naught, that they can be -- they can be proud of what -- of what that has meant and what the forces here, as part of ISAF, continue to do and will do.

So I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you. I look forward to continued engagement.

Hopefully, we'll get some of you over here, so you can see for yourselves really what this new Afghanistan looks like with the Afghan security forces and a government will embrace them and the international community.

So appreciate your time tonight. Thanks.

REAR ADM. KIRBY: Thank you, sir. Thanks everybody.

That concludes today's press conference. Thanks.