hardest to influence politics in baghdad. iran's side won a big victory when the shiite prime minister, nuri al maliki maintained his position. the turks were backing the former prime minister, al alawi. after losing more than 4,400 american lines and after spending more than $700 billion on the iraq war effort, we are losing influence to turkey and iran. the real big picture here is that this is a sign that u.s. effort in iraq was always too focused on hard power, on military power and not enough on soft power, on political and economic measures. by the way, america's ice cream chain baskin robbins has 31 flavors. iran's ice pack has 34. i wonder what the extra three are. we'll be right back. do you think the obama administration has a special role to play here? >> they have had a special role to play here. they were very good early on,