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WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz (FL-6) pressed U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and Commander of U.S. Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie on the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

“This war is not done, it’s not over,” said Waltz. “This is a war against Islamic extremism, it’s a war against an ideology. Just as it took decades, decades… to defeat the idea of communism and the idea of fascism, it’s going to take decades to defeat the idea of Islamic extremism.”

Waltz went on to question Gen. Kenneth McKenzie on whether al Qaeda is still at war with the United States. Gen. McKenzie replied, “Absolutely, Representative.”

“I would have thought we would have learned a lesson from Iraq,” said Waltz.

Pointing to a map of Iraq and Afghanistan, Waltz asked Gen. McKenzie if we have a single base in Afghanistan, any in the neighboring countries or any local allies approaching the capability of the Kurds. Gen. McKenzie replied, “no.”

“The Panjshir has been taken. Frankly, they are being slaughtered as we speak with our weapons, with our own damn equipment. Our allies are being slaughtered. Every morning we wake up to beheading videos, to executions, to people being hunted down with our own database,” said Waltz. “How many soldiers are we going to lose because we have no allies on the ground with no bases in the region?”

“The President of the United States is selling a fiction that we can do what we are doing over here [pointing to Afghanistan] with nothing, what we are doing over here [pointing to Iraq] with neighboring base access, with allies on the ground and with ocean access.”

Watch the full exchange here: