The Biden administration has announced a Sept. 11, 2021, date for the withdrawal of all U.S. military forces from Afghanistan.

I imagine that many in our military and intelligence communities are reflecting on their time spent in this distant land. What Rudyard Kipling and many others called the “graveyard of empires,” and James Michener beautifully described as an exotic and mysterious land, Afghanistan has perplexed warriors, diplomats, and spies for generations. I am not here today to extol the virtues of remaining in Afghanistan, nearly 20 years after the first CIA teams entered that nation only weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Nor will I call for us to leave outright, putting a final bookend on a war that has taken more than 2,400 U.S. lives. Instead, having spent a year of my life in eastern Afghanistan a decade ago, I simply reflect on my personal stories, particularly the recollection of heroes that I served with, both American and Afghan.