Question and answer session following the discussion on the stage, open to everyone. This richness of the discussion will be enhanced by the absolutely interviewer who will draw the kernels of wisdom out today. Totom freedman needs note introduction, you can read him in the new york times, analysis for which he has won the pulitzer prize. He is the author of several books, several focused on the middle east and one of which from beirut to jerusalem was a textbook in my middle east coursework as an undergraduate. His fol full bio is available printed out here. Lets turn to the man of the hour, he is a nonresident senior at the Career Center for the middle east. In addition to reading his work on our website, you can read on his own blog middle east corner, nabeel retired for 26 years in the Foreign Service in 2013 with the rank of the counselor. He taught at the National Defense university Northwest University in his last overseas posting, he served as a deputy chief of mission at the u. S. Embassy in yemen. In 2003 during the iraq war he served his Department Spokesperson at the Central Command and in baghdad. He earned his bachelor degree in Political Science from the American University of beirut in his masters in ph d a Political Science from the new york and albany. Nabeel is published articles and leadership involvement the arab world in journalism of middle Eastern Studies and International Journal of middle east studies, try to get this straight if you can. When he was posted to yemen in 2004, i recall a conversation that i had at the time with a mutual friend of ours, ambassador to the united states. I told him that the u. S. Was lucky to be able to send him out because of the fluent arabic and understanding of culture would smooth the way for his work in country. But he corrected me. He said oh no. The opposite is true. Arab american diplomats in the region have a much harder time because everyone in the country expects the diplomat to do favors or make exceptions and they do not get rid the same respect as another diplomat because they say we dont have to listen to him he does not know any more than we do, he is one of us. In addition he said when youre government does something that the locals do not like, they hold the diplomat personal life responsible for not preventing it. We are eager to hear your thoughts on being a diplomat in the middle east during an era of volatile and vacillating middle east relations. As a reminder, the ground rules for our discussion are as follows. We are on the record, if you would like to join the twitter conversation about what we hear, use the ac mid east, please come to the stage and the floor is yours. [applause] this is a great audience, it is a treat for me too be here with you, thank you for the great introduction in the atlantic council. By this book. [laughter] the first thing an author has to say for another author, nabeel will autograph it. We have known each other for a long time, we stole horses together in casablanca, and baghdad and in yemen over the years. I dont know much, i am a connoisseur of people who know the difference between the maras and the oasis. Who know the real middle east. I was always drawn to him because of that. He really knows the region in its reflective in the book, it is a fascinating perspective of an arab americans perspective on american diplomacy and the work as a diplomat in the region and particularly in iraq during what was an incredibly heated time. Nabeel just for starters, everyone here does not know you as well as i do, tell a short story, how did you get from lebanon to senior position in the u. S. State department. It was all a mistake. [laughter] first of all thank you for stopping in for lunch and for some after lunch conversation and its really very special, thanks to tom for agreeing to engage me in conversation, something we have done several times over the years including seeing horses as he expresses in baghdad, he stopped by a couple of places where i was assigned and in baghdad i usually take them around, let him walk and let him meet some people, guys usually in baghdad i took him to meet a friend of mine very secular clerk as secular as they come. He invited us to dinner at his place but we did not know that he had the grandson as well. So the four of us sat there conversing for a good couple of hours in town came back and had dinner. And he expressed how optimistic he felt that there was such secular people, he really thought leaders in provokers in a country like iraq which back in 2003 was hot and still hot. The book, the occasion for the discussion today begins with a verse called you have your lebanon and i have mine. And he expresses the contrast between his vision of the beauty of lebanon and lebanon as a symbol of diversity, coexistence, harmony in reality back then, 100 years ago or more of the audience of secularism, of secretary is him and corruption, he might as well have written this yesterday. The situation in lebanon has not changed and in fact it has gotten worse because the corrupt political elite has not only ruin the economy, run it to the ground but they ran the country to the ground physically. If if he were alive, he would say nothing has improved. The book also ends with a very short poem by palestinian poets, it is called the post man and he talks about himself as a palestinian poet and he says it feels like the post man who has letters and messages to deliver but he no longer knows who they should go through and wear. And something is a retired diplomat i was engaged in a still want to have an impact but sometimes you wonder whether you can still play a role and with whom. This is a long way of saying, my coming from lebanon, i was born and raised in lebanon, he gives me a deep feeling, not just for lebanon but the entire region. So whenever i worked in any of these countries i deeply felt the issues and i deeply tried to bridge the differences no matter how wide the gap. And in baghdad in 2003 it was certainly wide. So you had ivanka diplomacy to reflect this, you saw the transition that i lived there as well that america was present in the middle east and deeply embedded in open and integrated with societies to an america that hid behind walls as diplomats and embassies, i was actually there for the moment when it started, it was apri april 1983 and i was in my apartment april 13 at 6 00 p. M. And a blast happened so powerful it knocked the transistor radio off my desk. The transistor radio was about this big and i also had a typewriter. I ran out of my apartment and i saw the smoke cloud in the distance and i ran toward it as i got closer i said it could not be. I turned the corner around and there was the American Embassy blown in half. And i remember asking, i dont remember if it was a junior diplomat or some deals what happened and he said a man drove a truck up the front stairs of the embassy and blew it up in the lobby. In two things i remember, one i said you mean he killed himself, it just seemed incredible that someone would commit suicide but at that time how incredible it was in the other was, there was no perimeter around the nbc, you could literally walk up to the front door, ring the doorbell and there would be a marine inside who would let you in. Fastforward a few years later, thats why love the title of your book, i was in and stumble and i dont know if youve seen the u. S. Embassy in istanbul today, think for knox, only more secure. So i had gone after foreign interview and old consulate had to be in the heart of his double in the open part of the marketplace and whatnot, i was interviewing u. S. Diplomats and i said look at this embassy, this is like a fortress. And he said the terrorist who blew up the british consulate they capture them after words and they interviewed them and they said we actually wanted to book the u. S. Consulate but it is so secure they dont let birds fly there. And i wrote a column called birds do not fly because the birds dont fly, people dont me in commerce does not happen, you live that transition. From being open, integrated, a bridge from america to the societies to working out of embassies that are bunkers, indistinguishable from military bunkers, what was that like, what did that mean and with implications and so much of this book. My first was in alexandria egypt, it was an open door, we will longer have those, we used to have them all over the place. And it was a nice beautiful there, we had just one sleepy egyptian policeman sitting at a kiosk but nobody ever asked anybody, people walked in and the Muslim Brotherhood for alexandria which that branch was supposed to be the tough branch came to one of my roundtable discussions at the center and he engaged the former congressman but they will pull in after that i visited him in his home and he would come by from time to time in the discussions were always intellectual, friendly, there was never any sense of hostility. And the only thing was the ambassador at the time was alexandria and he said i was with the president this week and he said why is your culture receiving these bad people. I said we are engaging in the want me too stop and he said no, keep doing what you are doing. So this openness and atmosphere quickly changed and it changes in the region, shifting the nationalism et cetera. In the turmoil that that created and the action is very popular, the u. S. Policy in the region which over the years never seems to adjust or learn, i remember because i was a spokesperson, mainly with the media and that is the reason we open the office in london, i became a wellknown figure and i had a member coming back from baghdad to london and in baghdad sometimes i literally had to carry guns because we would drive out of the green zone and people with tender protective task force. So my friend, colleague and at the time working there worked for dod and he was always carrying a gun and he would put a gun in between us and say this is for you, just in case. And in fact, we have a veteran here with us who remembers, hes an egyptian. He took me to the shooting range to practice and you feel what happens, diplomacy has shifted, you feel the danger, i was at the hotel when it was bombed, 27 rockets hit the building as i was hiding under my bed, you become a soldier and you say people do not understand the diplomats particularly, american diplomats, faced the same dangers the soldiers in the battlefield phase but they do not have the training, they are not soldiers, you do not have the protection. What are we missing because of that because so many diplomats needed permission from security to go outdoors, it cannot be spontaneous, ill meet you for lunch, coffee, come on over. You cannot come into the embassy to see you without an appointment and without Social Security first and you can go out in most places without having a guard, and yemen are used to have a bodyguard and a driver but also the car with guns going behind us, i had my own personal car so i had to take my own security at times and tell them i want to go out, i want to meet people and dont worry ill let you know where i am and we used to go to the villages and i tell some stories and i had a british friend, diplomat and i would go in her car because their cars were not stopped when you exit. In the story here is, there is Something Special if you want about american diplomats because the french and the brits and the chinese do not take the precautions that we do and they are not attacked and surrounded and burned like our embassies are. So one has to ask, partly it is something that we do, it is the image that we project and it is usually an image of arrogance and stupidity that rubs people the wrong way that they say lets go after the americans. Why not the russians, why not the chinese, why not the french. In reading the rocks and should, i noticed there was an attention between so many things that went wrong, something that went right but you ended on a note saying the french revolution between the periods in more democratic ones and do you think that is what we are seeing, were seen in different ways in different places, saudi arabia has a virgin, morocco yellow version, struggling to find its way towards pluralism. I use that line when i was a spokesperson in baghdad because i would trace very angry journalism and personally i do not think the invasion of iraq was a good idea. And i did my job but as a spokesperson i was lucky that way, i never went with official talking points and i had limit of 70 wants to put that, i engaged them as a person, as a human being, i listened and i responded the academic amy allowed me to go into broader areas and not to say this is our policy to me he detest the fact that most of the arab world is all dictators. Against big cases like that and many people would tell me that they didnt want to demonstrate against the u. S. Because part of them. I said think of the french revolution. It goes through a very ugly period. Now of course the french case it wasnt the u. S. Coming on horseback. So, whether it is a force from outside or inside getting rid of a ruler like that, it has to be a good thing in the long term. In the short term youre going to go through hell probably. What is the difference between the era of spring of 2010 and 2011. In beirut and baghdad. Get rid of the tyrant or strongman. This has real content. Its about what kind of pluralistic Secular Society we want to have. Is that a right to pressure or are we reading too much into it . I think tanisha was a cakewalk compared to syria, lebanon, iraq because of many reasons and partly they didnt have the same kind of diversity. But what you have in places like lebanon we cant talk about syria because of the devastation that has been wreaked upon the people but in places like lebanon and iraq you have for the first time genuine peoples revolt. It isnt about israel are about the u. S. This is about people linking hands across the religious sectors. They are more divided than anyone else in lebanon with a genuine feeling that this corrupt political elite the whole thing changed. The negative side of it is lebanon doesnt have a single dictator like saddam. It meant all of them, get through all of them. The problem is the various political interests get in the middle and scuttle it should be or could be a very serious and thorough reform plan that is if somebody is wise enough and the leadership in lebanon today. Instead of wrangling this ministry and in fact, thats what they are arguing about. I told some friends of mine in government, i said forget about the person. You could put them in the position of Prime Minister and th isnt important. Present people with a serious plan, this is how you change the system from sectarian corrupt and feudalistic to the proper democratic republic. That is our plan. Are we going to start implementing it tomorrow. Unfortunately, they are too wrapped up in frankly each side benefits materially from the system as is and they dont want to get rid of the advantages they have. They havent solved the problem of the state and arrangement if you are not going to destroy the militia that carry the weapon, you need to at least have a good political understanding and its a tough thing to do with iran intervening into the u. S. Intervening. The whole region intervenes in baghdad, said there is a Positive Side to it and i look optimistically in the longterm i think it has risen and they are going to stumble but i think they will finally understand they are being abused by the corrupt political elite that eventually has to go. Host do you have any hope or what should i hope for regarding syria . That is such a sad story. Like some of the other places like yemen which is a disaster started out as a hopeful revolt in the regime. It could have been assisted at the right time i would say the First Six Months to a year for the obama administration. I liked obama very much as a person come as a president. There was too much thinking. They jumped in in 2015 and the u. S. Had no record to play. You come to the table you have to have something otherwise you are not invited to the poker game. It is assisted by russia and iran and lebanese hezbollah. Without them he wouldnt have lasted a few weeks without all that supportive. So, he has asserted himself into the humanitarian aspect is going to take time to fix it yourself. To feed their kids and keep them warm, but then you have to go back to the established regime and try to take it down somehow. If you could do it politically, i would love to see a woman arab dictator say you know, ive had enough and so come into the possession and lets see how we can do this. But it is not happening. I have developed the deal, some rules of the middle east reporting and they are so politically incorrect published in rule number one i will share with you and that is that any American General assigned to the middle east should have to take a test, a very short test, only one question. Do you think the shortest distance between any two points is a line, and you can talk to korea, germany, who are the diplomats and military officers who you felt understood the region and why . What was it a habit that the others didnt . Because we met some who were just completely lost, and others who really the region flowed through them. When i was ibm, over the years, particularly in baghdad, and then again in yemen, i had the considerable contact with the military at various levels. Also teaching them that at the Marine War College i interacted with a lot of lieutenant colonels, and there is usually a fresh look at some of the military officers that are people in government, the elected officials that they dont have. We will give you one anecdote. The lebaneseamerican [inaudible] was the head of centcom when i was at the u. S. Embassy, and he came over for visits. I took him over in 2004 ended the war just stopped between the north. So, we were waiting outside and he said whats going on at the north. Is there something we should be involved in. I said the short answer is no. When he looked up and down and sideways and it wasnt there. The system has to work for everybody. Then the whole country would break apart and be worse than afghanistan. He was someone that truly understood that force should be the very last resort and that there are preconditions to buy young people become radicals in the middle east. And that we should help the government in a friendly way to succeed and become more democratic and observe the peoples human rights. The problem has been consistent throughout. We never got out of the cold war mentality which is getting to the security collaboration that is easy and then we can fight the soviet influence later on with other guys in the region up to the minute they abdicated and signed off on the agreement some of us in government, and i dont name names and there were different kinds of views within the state department certainly. We are still trying to convince people that are trying to change the system and the regime. Lets keep the security establishment because we work with them. We were never able to let go. Sometimes i think when it comes to understanding anything in a very narrow vision, that obama, very intellectual, he certainly understood the region and understood the transition even when he gave that famous pirate speech, the need for democracy or for the young people in the region want. And he wanted to be of assistance. And yet, when they rose how he hesitated. He was afraid to jump in and he used that famous phrase leading from behind so they were going behind them but afraid of receiving the 2003 mistake. And more importantly, he stayed with all of the Security Apparatus is in the region. I would never forgive him for what he did to yemen, which is key and the flail over and he facilitated the siege on yemen which is starving the yemeni children and spreading disease. And going along with that, instead of realizing that this is not what the young people of yemen want, this isn once, thie direction that the yemen should be taking. So we can blame trump all we want for what he is doing, thats the problem in yemen started with obama and i sometimes think of him as a trapeze artist who swings from one to another. You have to let go of one to catch another in have to have the faith that you can reach and grab onto the other bar. And its shifting. For all of those that claim has been against terrorism. To jump onto the new way of dealing with the region which is those working in civil society. And its useful that whe you sae to visit me in morocco and the society that i saw him this was in the mid90s and really inspired me. When i went to yemen i found reflections of that civil society. That is what we should be encouraging and working with. And look at the budget and you will see. When people ask why didnt you invest more in tunisia, he was saying the answer is there is no terrorism there. One reminds me of the line the wizard of oz are you a good witch or a bad witch. Is it a good militia or bad militia because on the one hand, i get it but what gives you the right to take over the central government, too. I dont understand that story well enough. I appear in the media a lot and very harshly criticized saudi arabia. Just like in egypt when i was accused. This isnt in my book because it just happened recently on my way to lebanon. I stopped and backed with the leaders who lived there and cant go back and forth for obvious reason. And as we were talking about things, i told them first of all i was there to get to know them. Secondly, to see if i could advise them and point out some positive things they can do to change the situation. They made the first mistake. This of course provoked us into the war, so it is mistaken and secondly, they have had some control in much of north yemen for the past five years. They have not ruled while. Theyve been abusing the rights of the media. There is no transparent system economically or judicially. And i told them that we were meeting in moscow. I said sometimes people accuse me of fighting with you too much because i express sympathy. At the end of the day you are not iranian. And there is an obsession with saudi arabia and the Trump Administration that we are fighting iran and yemen that we are not. I said that you know, there are a lot of mistakes and the biggest end they all laughed. Unfortunately ruling the area that you control like any other of the party dictators. So there certainly full of holes. At the end of the day it is and to go out and become americans. It isnt to work outside of the borders. They understand the tribal structure and yemen does not allow for that. They are now being forced into a corner. When it started out weather was zero interest in yemen. A lot of the members of parliament didnt know who they were, but as saudi arabia intervened and the war went on and they had to go more and more so the assistance is there and the longer that it continues, the stronger the influence will be mainly through hezbollah experts and technicians. To the extent they can smuggle some equipment that isnt anywhere near what we give the saudis that are invading yemen and have been in control of them in much of the south and what have they done it isnt a Success Story than so they are middleoftheroad and al qaeda and they are not the lebanese army. Was it right for the administration to assist them . No. I thought that was a very bad idea. A very poor judgment. First of all, forget the lining and the eminence that was not the case. This is that th the end of the y political assassination. It means you picked the personality and leadership position and thought that if you got rid of it you would improve matters if you made matters worse, one because removing a person is in portland they made co. In portland. Within seconds of his death, he was replaced. And theres a good group of people that can run these organizations for good or bad. We are not talking value judgment. We are talking strategies and tactics. What is the goal of this, it is to change the behavior for the better. You have done the office of. I think partly they didnt understand and your point is well made. But the fact is for all the bad things, he is very, very important politically, militarily, culturally. To the people that we consider enemies now if we want to somehow fix the relationship with, i dont think the president understands that and i doubt people around him, the people who gave him this option didnt think we would pick it. I talk about the presence of the american troops in baghdad. Killing somebody like that, whether we like it or not, its very important. It almost had a halo. For people in lebanon certainly in iran, that you should understand is going to generate hatred and acts and i dont think we have seen the end of that just as the bombing of the base here we go firing off some rockets. I think we will see more acts. His dad before we get to the question, we havent mentioned the israelipalestinian conflict once. Where does it stand what you say in the minds of the region right now and in the minds of u. S. Diplomacy into the minds of u. S. Diplomats . In how we address the problem now. First of all, as a conflict between the palestinians and israelis is that the deadend and i felt it was at the deadend ten years ago or more. I dont see any real hope over there anytim any time in the rer midterm. As far as the diplomacy, i always used to be as islamists as possible as a spokesperson, and when people would say what about the u. S. And israel and how we always say you know, mea culpa. But if we failed, the people of the region have failed so dont just criticize the u. S. , and i fully understand that the u. S. Report that unconditional support for israel over these years and if they are not talking about israel and palestine over time it doesnt mean theyve forgotten about it. I think that given if you can call it a peace plan of this administration, it isnt a peace plan, it is a joke and everybody sees it for what it is. There are some personal, economic and emotional interests and that is how it gets seen in the region and quite frankly, that is how i see it. So, i dont think that it is serious. Before because of questions, i have one more i have my land and that she and i give you three wishes for the american policy in the middle east. What would they be . For the american policy, there is just you get to be king for a day can you get to define the policy to whatever. That is embedded in this book. Give us the ultimate take away. You get to redirect policy. What should we be doing . One of the areas i started with poetry and independent poetry in the book is the need to understand. You understand the era of world more than through the speeches given by politicians regardless of the color of these politicians. They sent cables considered by some. A. They talk about this seven or ten years ago. They had their fingers on the post. They understand how people feel. Listen to this, broader people. Indicated to the culture. Weve had some very good diplomats over the years who really understood the culture and the language and read some of the literature. Its to abandon the autocrats and dictators and understand the they desire freedom and democracy they dont understand the democracy and they cant deal with it. That is what young people want. They want to live in dignity. And for the large part, they are not being treated in a dignified manner by their own governments and Security Apparatus is, which we work with. And so, when they see usputting out these regimes, then it is towards us and i think i wish we could finally make the break and say you know, we end with the crowd and we need to cultivate a different kind of constituency and help the people who genuinely wanted to improve their record of human rights and democratic practices. And to do away with the corruption frankly. It aligns with the second rule that we always overestimate ideology and underestimate the governance. How people are governed on a daily basis, whether it is abused, humiliated, it matters so much more than all these other ideologies. I covered the last day of voting with members over time it was like a tenday period and the last day i went with the reporter and we went to an elementarinelementary school, on voting station and we stood outside and interviewed women when they came out, every one of the most covered and said they voted for the Muslim Brotherhood except for one of them that workeworkedfor the lost and i ah one of them why did you vote for the Muslim Brotherhood and they said that her sidewalks, streetlights, security, health care. There wasnt one that said if i see another woman in a bikini on the beach in alexandria, im going to blow myself up. You know, it was just so telling of a lesson of just what your point is. We were aligned with a criminal syndicate that is how people so the government. Is it anyone or we consistently time and again underestimate the relationship between governing and the governed its so much more important than the ideology and that is what comes out in the poetry. Exactly that is exactly right. I will give you question number three leader. [inaudible] im particularly interested in the situation in lebanon and i would be in a state in why you think they are so genuine and ongoing and peaceful here and in europe and a second how you think because get involved and whats your prediction of the situation is. The problem with this, and i was explaining a bit earlier what starts out as a genuine results across sectarian lines into the corrupt of use it immediately gets pulled in different directions. Different parties ascend into the streets and claim they are with the process and when they get something they want or they are about to give them something they dont want and they pull people out or worse they send people into create chaos with the demonstrators, i think that there still is a strong genuine desire for change. Its very picky though. A friend in iraq was telling me before that the americans have a moral obligation. They should intervene. I said that is the last thing you should want especially in a country like iraq. Thank you very much when you were in charge of the country for ten years and look at the mess we left behind. So, in lebanon i think we have to be careful of the wellmeaning americans in lebanon and Start Holding seminars and giving speeches in here also dont touch the people in the streets. You have to be very careful. When you approach a hornets nest you should be very careful where you put it or better yet not okay. I think advice certainly behind the scenes conversations this isnt a place where we should step in a strongly. In the end i think in lebanon you do not want to provoke violence. I have some friends in government and sometimes we exchanged views. I said at the last thing you want to do is use force against demonstrators because it would blow up into something far worse than what you have now. I think as complicated as the situation is, some people in government ought to have their own think tank or invite some of the people that are demonstrating it really put their Heads Together and come up with a serious reform plan that may take away from their games and everybody in lebanon as these games but that is the only way out. We are running it into the ground and need to consider how do you uproot a system like th that. How did you stop worrying about the government. Its a difficult thing, but it is better. Im doing a phd in International Relations and i want to pushback on the issue of democracy and some of the countries. If i may i wanted to point out that this is true when you look at the history you have someone at the top who tells everyone you do this in the back. And i think that in 2020 it is still the same thing. Do you really think that they are capable of having a western style democracy as we have in the states and transfer the United Kingdom or should it have its own style of democracy . Its like i told the people to the history in the middle ages and see how the western culture are usewesternculture u. It used to be far worse. So we looke we look now and save persiansay thatpersians and arat understand democracy. That isnt true. They are human beings just like the need for freedom is a very human thing and everybody wants it and everybody can get their. But the arab world and iran are going through what youre up went through in the middle ages right now, and hopefully it wont be as bloody as the european experience. But i dont despair or say i dont know what they need to do. To tolerate one another and agree on a new social contract we need these in almost every country. I am just going to go around the room here. Youve given a very excellent presentation. One thing that you havent talked about is economics, job creation, the rule of law. In when i traveled i havent gone for the last 40 years. [inaudible] it is perhaps as a microcosm as a good example and supposedly they ran out of money if yo but after they were denied the right to vote they just stayed in this another vote has been reinstat reinstated. There is a lot of money but its in the wrong hands. Its been impoverished and poor people have been driven almost to hunger. Its very bad. But the rich people are doing very well. And many of them happen to be in powerful positions. What is needed is precisely i think that the Prime Minister hariri, you dont nee need the injection of cash particularly in the corrupt country like lebanon. I used to say that in yemen, please, dont give him any money. The projects, encourage new industries, new businesses. And exactly what you need in lebanon is a more productive economy. What you have is a ponzi scheme atlarge where the banks and people that have exchanged money have been shuffling money around if not producing new jobs. A very basic services. If you do that, if you can provide electricit electricity e warfare people need, it has been since the war ended in lebanon and they havent been able to fix that because they dont want to fix it. They cant even pick up the trash and nowadays just moving cash around to producing things if the people that are unemployed now to work. American task force for syr syria. I am surprised about your analysis and you dont think it is a mistake by the Current Administration even though we all know and if a government admitted that he was the mastermind behind the talk of the embassy behind a iraq. It gave a boost for the thousands of fighters at the hands. We knew that they were dating before he moved to damascus. So, probably getting rid of the man is a symbolism for a lot of people. Somehow it is very ironic they are benefiting from this series that started from tunisia to egypt to syria into the foreign power and all that. My question to you how do you think the Popular Uprising is a how would it affect these issues we see economically if you think that the demonstration would somehow affect positively or negatively . You can say as much as you want to. That depends on where you stand. A part of the problem in the middle east and we tell each other trying to prove it. So, good luck. Maybe he deserved to die. Apparently he welcomed it and wanted to be a marker so we gave him the opportunity to become a martyr but i hope it doesnt turn into a bloodbath for everybody else. Just because you think somebody is bad. In thand the more somebody faciu with weapons is some demand when you pick on a perso click on a y that this is an important leader for these people, im going to get rid of him, lets see that change. You have to know whether you are fighting a war then by all means go fight the war or are you engaging in diplomacy to try to solve the problem and therefore dont go picking on people because they can do the same thing to you. And if they come after an American General of some sort, that is a bad way to go. Where the positive and negative scenarios and implications to what they think of that . If you were on his side which includes a wealth of militias and certainly beyond the end of a blog event should people on the other side that hates what he represents, it was a great feat. The u. S. Is very polarized right now but politically if you hate or love tribe and somehow get there in a friendly way, does that change anything . You have to find some accommodation and some way out. The middle east as a reporter Everyone Wants to own you if they cant, they want to destroy you. No one says i appreciate your free, frank and honest analysis but i just want to say i appreciate your honest analysis here in this book. Everyone gives him a big round of applause. [applause] he will be signing books afterwards and if you dont buy one, i know who you are. Thank you very much. [applause] hellory