isis. that's the theory of it. so i don't even think anyone is claiming that money is going to bring this all to a conclusion. what we have is a giant sort of strategic vacuum that goes almost all the way from aleppo in syria to baghdad in iraq. and everybody is fighting over it. the saudis are involved. assad's regime, the iranians are huge players, these guys from isis. it's a complete mess. and the united states, unless it wanted to get in a huge way with all kinds of hundreds of thousands of troops, which we're not going to do, we're kind of reduced to this kind of measure of attempting to manipulate the balance from a long distance through proxies we don't entirely trust, going to mara's point. i think at best it's a prolonged, difficult struggle, and i wouldn't bet on any outcome. >> and nuri al maliki says he's staying. can he survive? can he be helpful in any way? >> he's not helpful. part of the reason we don't have