so jon meachum bringing us the cuban missile crisis i don't think is melodramatic. the stakes may not have been quite as high last night but if things had gone badly last night -- and, again, they still can today as we're all saying -- it could have led to catastrophic consequences. >> two reactions to what jon said and you said, joe. the russians have not just reentered the middle east militarily in places like syria, but they have reentered it diplomatically. they are now the only country that talks to saudi arabia, iran, israel, syria. putin has basically positioned himself in a unique space diplomatically. whether we spoke to him or not, quite possible we did, i think it's just important to remember no one else has the access to all the parties to tamp down a crisis if indeed that's what he did, and the other point is that in all these crises and the other thing that came to mind to me was also the gulf war, when something happens -- then it was the iraqi invasion of kuwait -- what you want to do is slow down the pace of decision-making, you want to build some t