republican line with james kitfield. caller: james, i have an observation for you. that is that many of these wars that we have become involved in are merely proxy wars. we are drawn in all the way from johnson in vietnam up to president george w. bush to where we are bankrupting our country with these proxy wars. i think that what has happened here is president obama is withdrawing, and he is becoming an isolationist, and we cannot afford to be that way, but we cannot afford the proxy wars either. guest: therein lies the crux. it is very clearly a proxy war. the proxies on one side -- the asad regime is being used as a proxy by the iranians -- the assad regime is being used as a proxy by the iranians. we have come meanin, as i have r allies, because of the horrific slaughter, 60,000 people now dead, hundreds of thousands of refugees, one million displaced inside the country. there is a valid concern of not having syria drag the whole middle east of the cross -- at a crossroads of the sectarian divide. it is a proxy war. the question is, can you afford, as the unite

for more on what would be an historic change, i'm joined by james kitfield of the "national journal." what has been-- has this been in the works for a while, james. >> a couple of years inge within last year, they opened up 14,000 additional jobs. so they've been thinking about this. you know, wars are great levelers. anyone who spent time in iraq or afghanistan knows that women are on the tip of the spear. there are no front lines in these counter-insurgency wars. if you're a logistic battaon that hawomen in it, and during the iraq invasion there was one that got captured that had women in it. there was artillery battalions led by female colonels during the invasion. those artillery units ended up being foot patrols -- >> ifill: it sounds like you're saying this is a difference without a distinction. >> i'm saying wars have a way of making some of these distinctions meaningless. women have been in combat, quite honestly. and men have seen they can hold up their own, and women hoput their lives on the line, in some cases more than 100ave paid the ultimate sacrifice, women are not will

gwen: covering the week -- david wessel of "the wall street journal," james kitfield of "national journal," alexis simendinger of real clear politics, and christi parsons of tribune newspapers. >> award winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capitol, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. corporate funding for washington week is provided by >> we know why we're here. to connect our forces to what they need when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to support and protect all who serve. >> that's why we're here. >> additional corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by prudential. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator, gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. this week we got a peek at the obama administration'