the arab league came out and issued it, saying the international community, the united nations must do more to get involved to prevent the slaughter. that's what happened. when that got to the level of being an international conflict, the united states took the lead, the united nations passed a resolution that allowed or authorized the protection of civilians by any means necessary. and in this case, the only international organization that can do that is nato and the united states. and that's what happened. that's what led the united states to get militarily involved in this operation. >> are we going to do anything in terms of egyptian decision making with regard to mubarak? are we going to get involved? will we let them execute, if it comes to that? >> this will be interesting to watch. the united states has tremendous influence over egypt because of the $2 billion of tax money that goes through the military, and more importantly, because of the relationship between the two militaries. the united states has to exert more influence on the military to allow a clear democratic process to take place. so far, the egyptian military has completely derailed it, not to the extent that the egyptian people want. >> back to pure politics here. my -- check me on this. i don't think a lot of these decisions the president makes with regard to catching bin laden and killing him, bringing down gadhafi, him having been killed, getting awlaki, i don't think they have a lot of immediate effect on the polling, but i think come the debates of next fall, when the president gets in that pit, basically, with one of his opponents, won't it matter a lot that he's been