>> reporter: i think they are being drawn 100%. i spoke to a commander who said, well, maybe we can get one out of two. there's a pride issue here. there is a legacy issue. the u.s. military's prestige is on the line. generally the consensus is iraq didn't go very well, and they're hoping that if afghanistan doesn't totally fall to pieces that it will be something of a saving grace for the military, that they can pull out from this experience and say, look, we didn't fail over this last decade in our foreign endeavors, we didn't launch these wars only to see chaos and turmoil in the wake. but the question is, going back to iraq and going back to afghanistan, and these aren't theoretical issues. these are issues that we're going to face right now. what would have happened if the u.s. left a small force in iraq of a few thousand? we can never know, but i think you can have a pretty good idea. let's say we had left behind 5,000, 6,000 troops.