joining us now, michael crowley, james twitty and colin clark. deputy commander of the u.s. group. the israeli-based bergman has written an entire book on the israeli successful records, started assassinations. the kills of the hamas official, who else besides israel would have done this? >> well, israel, there's no question about it, you can see regev's remarks in trying to skirt the line. >> yeah. >> this is a big strike. it sends a signal not only to hamas, but iran, with the leadership in iran. and look, andrea, let's be clear, this conflict has been a regional conflict from day one. but we're now seeing spillover violence escalating into syria, into lebanon, and elsewhere. and there's real concerns that this could drag in other major actors in the region and kind of amplify some of the violence we've already been seeing. >> there's some comments privately from the military, the military in the u.s., current and former, that the u.s. has to be more aggressive but deterrence is not working and it's getting awfully close and the u.s. has to do something to work at it? >> w