be easier for us to achieve those things which afghanistan needs at a force level of 9800 than it would be if we wound down faster. that's one of the reasons. gordon. one for gordon just for old times sakes. he and i were on an airplane all last week, and might be again. i do need to see the defense minister on the republic of career. anybody wants to join us. >> just on the draw down plan, we're hearing it's not calendar based plan on the 5500 into 20 effort at the end of 2016. it sounds like it is a counter base plan. if the commanders at the time next fall, at the end of 2016, says we don't want to go down to 5500, how big of a lift would it be to reassess that and let the