one very real political way to look at this would be to say a lot of bad guys are killing each other. this is not entirely bad for the united states. hezbollah, for example, a terrorist group we really don't like is busy trying to support the syrian government and perhaps even upon hadding the iraqi governments. the iranian revolutionary guard are in there. all of these guys are distractioned from doing the bad stuff we worry about because they're helping their friends. at the very least let some of this sort itself out before we jump in there with very different notions. if we'll have 600,000 troops, maybe we can remake this region, but otherwise, let's watch for a little while. >> let's talk about one group that the united states would like to see acting more and that's the acting government of prime minister nuri al maliki where he essentially said no. i'm not going to form a unity government here. i know you want it, united states, but no, thanks. i don't think i will right now. what does that say right now about the u.s. influence on that