gen. odierno: no. because what would happen if -- is you put your soldiers and marines at risk for being arrested. there's also to the international -- friendly, we -- frankly we were in violation of international law. we were there under a u.n. mandate that ended at the end of 2008 and then we have agreement with iraq that ended at the end of 2011. we would have been there illegally if we didn't have that agreement. >> the way you frame that you make it sound as if there was never any serious robust effort to convince the iraqi parliament. gen. odierno: i hesitate to say that because i was not there during that time. i am told there was an effort to do that. i can't tell you if it was a robust effort, i don't want to comment because i sibley wasn't -- simply was not there at the time. if i was there, i would give you an honest answer, but i was not there at that time. >> on syria, how you see the future of syria? do you believe a political solution could find place without having the syrian president

gen. odierno: i don't know.would be aation think it would be different to have a serious look like syria and we did before. i think it is probably forever changed in some way. one of the things we have to work through is with our partners in the region, what will it look like? we have to think about that. i don't inc. any of us have a solution right now for that. and whether that includes the current leadership that will still be in place or not, i don't know. i think that is some thing we have to think about as we go forward. >> when you say partner in the region, do mean iran as part of those partners? gen. odierno: i don't know, we have deceived. the best solution would be if we get everyone to agree. i think you want anybody to be involved with that. whether that comes up with a resolution or not, that's probably a good question. >> when you call the war against isis a stalemate and u.s. intelligence agencies estimate that isis is the same strength, 20,000 to 30,000 fighters it was the beginning. don't you g

gen. odierno: i'm not going to react to one incident. it's important we work with our allies and we have to continue to do that. he not going to predict what issue will be inside japanese politics, but i think it is important that as allies, we work together. there are risks in the work we do every single day. we understand that going in and we want to prevent any of those risks, but sometimes, unfortunately, we have access. reporter: if you weeks ago, general hodges told reporters about a plan with the united train what is to the equivalent to the international garden rack and there's a plan to train military forces in ukraine. do you have enough data on that? gen. odierno: we do have a plan but we have not made a decision on whether we have decided to move forward on that. if you had extra money to use, where would you use that? gen. odierno: modernization and no lowern strength than 450,000 as our active component. we have to invest in readiness. i'm going to take one more question and barbara, i'm going to let you -- let you ask it.