situation where we somehow reinforce astad sad or somethind then people get to work on papers -- >> is that possible? we've been in these wars -- not syria but afghanistan and iraq or for over a decade. is what you're saying we want to leave but we want to keep things stable? is that even possible? >> well, it's -- you know, there are no easy outcomes here. but certainly you can leave and leave behind more stability than you found. the idea of just precipitously leaving without any sort of iterative process either within your own government or with regional powers, without any effort to celt set up a diploma process going forward, is a recipe for creating more problems than there are now. so i hear the argument and a valid argument that look, we can't stay forever. people who say well, we stayed in germany for 50 years. that's not the point.