furth furthermore, what's at risk here, and the president laid it out is the safety of our consulatemericans there. he said quite unequivocally we will not let it fall. you can expect a target of opportunity to continue to be engaged by stand off weapons like laser guided bombs and tomahawk cruise missiles and so on until there's evidence that the -- that the lay siege is over. >> we should mention there's american oil facilities in the area, and that is not insignificant in the context either. just to come back again on the question asked of you, if the president is now planted the american flag in the conflict, and in the belief presumably if the kurds lose, iraq is lost, what is he going to do if the onslaught continues? if he continues to bomb. isn't there a risk that inevitably, some, perhaps say, you get drawn back into the conflict? >> i think you always have the opportunity -- opportunity's not the right word, but risk of special forces on the ground. we got them on the ground now. a possibility we'll increase the number of special operation forces on the ground, but sending