jerry bremer has written one. several other books have been written. rumsfeld has written pretty extensively about it. and i basically took the approach that i could focus on a few things and what i really wanted to focus on was the surge and the counterinsurgency doctrine, a surge we put in place at the beginning of 07. so there is a lot written about that in the book, but i didn't spend a lot of time going back over what the state department did with respect to managing situation in iraq but the pentagon did outside the normal military activities. >> be re-jerry bremer's book and i have talked to people on your staff and elsewhere who said that you are asking questions about the u.s. military strategy in iraq during those years. things obviously weren't going well. asking tough questions, what is their strategy? do we know how to win? why are we doing the same thing? is the training effective? and i guess i'm interested on a personal level, when did you start asking those questions? >> well, on a personal level at some point we will sit down and talk

good, i think, about the policy in terms of setting up a new government in iraq, of, you know, jerry bremer's written one, several other books have been written, rumsfeld's written pretty ec tensively about it -- extensively about it. i, basically, took the approach that i could focus on a few things, and what i really wanted to focus on was the surge and the counterinsurgency doctrine that accompanied the surge that we put in place at the beginning of '07. so there's a lot written about that in my book be. but i didn't spend a lot of time going back over what the state department did with respect to managing, um, situation in iraq or what the pentagon did outside normal military activities in terms of the -- >> but if you read jerry bremer's book, and if you talk to other people, and i've talked to people on your staff and elsewhere who said that you were asking questions about the u.s. military strategy in iraq during those years that things, obviously, weren't going well. asking tough questions; what is our strategy, do we know how to win, why are we doing the same thing, is the training e

pretty good, i think -- about the policy in terms of setting up a new government in iraq, of jerry bedroom -- bremer has wherein one. several other books have been written. rumsfeld has written extensively about it. i basically took the approach that i could focus on a few things, and what i really wanted to focus on was the surge and the counterinsurgence doctrine that accompanied the summer that we put in place at the beginning of '07. so there's a lot written about that in my book. but i didn't spend a lot of time going back over what the state department did with respect to managing situation in iraq or what the pentagon did outside normal military activities in terms of the -- >> host: if you read bremer's book and talk to other people. i talked to people on your staff and elsewhere, who said you were asking questions about the u.s. military strategy in iraq during those years, that things obviously weren't going well. asking tough questions. what is our strategy? do we know how to win? why are we doing the saming? is the training effective? and i guess i'm interested, on a personal level, when

jerry bremer has written one. several others were written. rumsfeld has written pretty extensively about it. i basically took the approach that i could focus on a few things. what i really wanted to focus on was the surge and count counterinsurgency doctrine that we put in place at the beginning of 2007. there is a lot written about that in my book. but i didn't spend a lot of time going back over what the state department did with respect to managing the swaeuituation or w the pentagon did outside normal military activities. >> but if you read jerry and i have talked to people on your staff and elsewhere that said you were asking questions about the u.s. military strategy in iraq during those years that things weren't going well, asking tough questions. what is your strategy? do we know how to win? is the training effective? and i guess i'm interested on a personal level when did you start asking those questions? >> well, on a personal level at some point we will sit down and talk about it. >> i thought now is as good a time as any. and u ha