another option, quite a few options but another option is to have about half that number added to what general mcchrystal has and third option is to just pull out altogether. it is unlikely the last will be the case. most likely event, quite frankly, they will pick a suboptimal situation and instead of giving general mcchrystal everything that he says he needs, they will select something between zero and that which will probably not be enough in order for him to accomplish his mission. >> okay to, but if they give him everything he says he needs, if he says i need x-number of troops and i need them by january 1st and the president makes that happen, what happens, at that point if the situation does not stabilize in afghanistan? >> well, then you have a lot of the same situation that we had in vietnam, as you recall, where we incrementalized the addition of troops in vietnam and still did not accomplish the mission because the mission was not specifically articulated in the first place. i think mcchrystal is in a