the border. we're not doing that. ultimately, no matter how you play this, it's a political solution. this is where we have again not done the right thing. if you recall early this year, in february, the government in the box didn't work. it's now in tatters. we're again not looking at what we need to do logically here. the bottom line is no matter how many years we put into this, if we're not applying the right force and we're not applying the right political solutions, you're going to continue to see the mess we have now. i don't see any fundamental changes this next year. >> so, what, richard, what does success like or what do administration officials that you talk to say success looks like in a way that seems practical? >> on a limited scale, it means stopping the al-qaeda movement in afghanistan. and to a degree, i think you could say that's been taken care