Undoubtedly, there are members of the former regime that are cooperating in some fashion and then there are extremists that are within Iraq that are cooperating with them.

The United States is the most powerful nation on Earth and it just can't walk away from the Middle East and central Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Well, the hardest thing to do, as we know from our own experience on 9/11 is protect everything all the time.

And so I think that if the person has the funds, the network, and the equipment to do this, and also the experience, which is the key factor, then they can be quite deadly.

But the truth of the matter is that there is there is an opportunity for them to participate in the economic and political future of the country and certainly in the security life of the country.

You know as well as I do that counterinsurgency is a very nuanced type of military operation.

Nobody's more mindful of the sacrifices of our troops than those of us that command them.