begin with? >> i think hindsight is always easy. i don't think the president wanted the narrative that he had ended the war in iraq. i think that would have been helpful. the situation is what it is right now. we can do a lot of finger pointing and the prior administration for getting us into this. we have to focus on looking forward. in looking forward, we need to understand that depth of the antagonism of the patronage. we need to see that in terms of reconciliation. >> phil mudd, michael crowley wrote this this week. this is not about iraq.