and joel rayburn is here. raise your hand. distinguished gentleman there. colonel joel rayburn. he has just drafted a history of the iraq war and i think what that's going to be is a tremendous jumping off point for historians to dig into aspects of that operational history in greater depth. i think in large measure we have been distracted about iraq by not the wrong question. but, you know, a question that we have asked and probably answered which is should we have done it? right? i think the great question to the is who the hell thought it would be easy, you know? and why? i mean, so -- then how did the war -- how did the war progress from that point on? so i think the iraq war and then obviously connecting it to what's going on today, i think michael gordon is working on probably another volume and he's very good. been very good. i think that's the contemporary history -- histories that are going to stand the test of time. his cobra and end game books. in the next volume. what other -- what other conflicts need to be written more about? gosh, you know, i think there's always

. -- joel rayburn is here. seminaldrafted a operational history of the iraq war. i think with that is going to be is a tremendous jumping off point for historians to really dig into the aspects of that operational history in greater depth. a large measure, we've been distracted by iraq, but not by the wrong question, but a question we asked and probably answered, which is should we have done it? right? the great question to ask is who the hell thought it would be easy? and why? and then how did the war progress from that point on? i think the iraq war and connecting it to what is going on today. those of this contemporary history's that will stand the test of time. what other complex need to be written more about? gosh, you know, i think there's always -- you know, as my said,r at north carolina dick allen, don't think there's too much written on a particular topic. because there is always another good book or a different approach you can take or access to new materials. look at what rick atkinson did in world war ii. he took the storage approach of doing multi-ar