10,000 troops, even, in iraq. would that have been enough to stop the civil war from breaking out again? would it have been enough to stop this sunni/shiite divide which is a 1,300-year-old conflict, from return to that country? i'm not sure that it would have, especially when you had this absolute outbreak of violence across the border in syria. you had the whole arab spring. would that residual force in iraq have been enough to stop the flow of history, as it has changed? and i'm not sure the same thing in afghanistan, would a small force, even 12,000, be enough to keep the taliban from coming back? already, the taliban is coming back. already, they are making inroads in southern afghanistan and eastern afghanistan. and that is with 50-plus thousand american and other foreign troops on the ground right now. if 50,000 can't do it, how could 12,000 do it? >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel,