to some of my american friends like andrew, mad and samantha ravitch. i also want to thank my colleagues at hudson, the board scholars and staff and especially today's moderator, hudson ceo kenneth weinstein. thanks for your support and advice, thanks for your loyalty and friendship and especially great and good humor. i'm also greatly indebted to my two fellow panelists this afternoon and not just for agreeing to participate to make this an interesting event but has a slightly honor and privilege to share with assistant secretary feltman and abrams not just because their efforts in the middle east have played such a single rule of american policy over the last nine years and also in my thinking about the region. it was a -- as i read in the book it was a great time to be an american in the region. it was a privilege to be represented by u.s. government that had taken the side of freedom. i lived in beirut during the day of what we have come to called the seizure revolution where many...