Yes, we should have been better prepared, and we were doing the best we could as a collective body. That's what caught most of us off guard. We were anticipating the inevitable. Why weren't senior leadership and the government doing the same? The signs were there. Everybody was seeing those signs. We were passing this on back in July. Wendy and her team were advocating years before this.
The signs were there. We just don't understand. The senior generals on our teams, our godfathers and all the other senior veterans that you're looking at right now spoke so many times at so many levels, trying to gain interest. It was almost like we were treated as a rogue entity.
The signs were there. The Afghans themselves.... You could see the economy and the bank system. You could see what was happening inside Kabul at that point in time. Remember, the government was starting to become frail. It was unfolding in front of us. Other nations and the Canadian embassy at that point in time in Afghanistan did not want to engage with our team. The Canadian military didn't want to listen to us.
We could see the signs. Why couldn't anybody else? I guess I have to stop there and maybe let the rest of my colleagues jump in.