communication on this very significant number of americans being stationed abroad came from. i don't know if it was a failure of the pentagon to adequately brief the senate foreign relations committee, i don't know if it was a failure on the part of the senators to really absorb information that was delivered, but somewhere along the way someone needs to do a much better job of communicating. >> bill: general mattis was on the hill on friday. >> part of what's really sad about this is that i think this attitude of we didn't know we had troops in niger is representative of a larger u.s. government attitude towards africa, which is we don't know and we don't care until something happens that directly affects americans and that doesn't happen that often. >> bill: you think that's it? >> i don't hope that that's it but i suspect that the deep apathy that a lot of u.s. government lawmakers have shown towards the african continent is something we're seeing played out here. this is not the first time it's happened. >> bill: we've been involved in