I would imagine that there is an element too that's counterproductive where if if they're

embedded to a degree with that you know information and access and now all of a sudden their

family is gone that's going to throw a few flags up that's going to draw a ton of attention

and going to make it seem like you're probably doing that, I assume.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The first post that you had in Iraq doing what you just mentioned,

how long were you there for doing that?

I think like eight months.

Eight months.

Was that the only time you're in Iraq or did you rotate back in?

No, I didn't rotate back in.

Since we're on Iraq, I'd love to kind of cover it now as the looking back.

I know you haven't done the deep dive historically, but if you look at it from America's perspective and your involvement in it or our collective involvement. And you think, you know, 2003 to where we sit today, not just the country of Iraq, everything

that took place, the toll it took on America, but also the region, do you look at Iraq as a complete mistake?

Or do you think, like to go do it again, you're in Bush's seat,

do you do it again?

No, I don't think I would have done it again. I think Afghanistan was much more justifiable,

made sense. I think, you know, I think we should have gotten out of afghanistan after bin laden

after 2011 and started the process then of leaving um but that that felt like necessary um looking

back at iraq it's hard to justify the amount of casualties, the cost, you know, for both America and the Iraqis and our place in the world.

Hard to justify it purely from a perspective of like looking at it from grand strategy as a nation, what's the best way to secure America?

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