how do we know what we see from eric snowdon today is really from eric snowdon.yes, it is a damage and it's inflicting our ability to get other things done. john kerry wants to go to a meeting with a foreign minister and he wants to work on syria or the israeli-palestinian conflict, and he wants to move some other issue forward, and this will be a distraction, and people will be in a ma bad mood about it. >> if you remember part of a damage control team, i don't know what you would name t but if you were part of a team, how would you approach it? >> first off, be honest about what we've done in priority. secondly, set rules that we're prepared to live with that will satisfy our allies going forward. and then thirdly, make the point in public that this is who we are as countries. we are on the same team. the u.s. germany, france, u.k. share the same values, same interests in the world. let's not get distract and focused on each other when the real problems in the world are syria killing it's own people or iran building a bomb. >> thank you, former ambassador to n.