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Retaining Bagram would have required putting as many as five thousand U.S. troops in harm's way, just to operate and defend it. And Retaining Bagram would have contributed little to the mission that we had been assigned, and that was to protect and defend our embassy which was some 30 miles away, staying at Bagram -- even for counter - terrorism purposes -- meant staying at war in Afghanistan, something that the President made clear that he would not do.