let's get additional military perspective on all this with lieutenant colonel michael kay, from the uk ministry of defense. obviously the uk a big player in the 2003 invasion, much like former president bush, still paying the price for us going in. former british prime minister tony blair still faces blame as well. we're going to get into this in a minute. michael, what are the american military options as you see them now? and is staying out a real option? >> well, let me first just -- i think you hit the nail on the head with the introduction. the friks and conflict that exist between shia and sunnis have existed for centuries. it goes back to the ottoman empire. they also haven't been through the west failure system where most of europe went from being a religious based society to a capital based society. there are two issues here which i see very important for the west to really understand. one is regional and one is local or with respect to iraq. i'll come to your question in a second. the first is locally you've got a prime minister maliki who has been supremely devicive in the w

also michael kay, a retired british lieutenant colonel and reporter with six operational tours in iraq and afghanistan. thank you all so much for joining me. nancy, i want to start with you about this question of a political solution and what's likely to happen with prime minister nouri al maliki. he's under a lot of pressure from within his own party, obviously from the u.s., from shiite clerics. do you think it's possible for him himself to change and forge a more open, inclusive government, or does he really have to go to begin the march towards what we hope is a potential political solution? >> well, there are two issues at hand. one is nouri al maliki himself who at his very core really believes in defending the shia and the shia cause. he has been like that from the very beginning. i've interviewed him in the past and he always spoke in a quite sectarian nature. so asking him to come forward and being a national consensus leader is a challenge. another factor is that he has a long history of not beingin kla -- being inclusive so how one overcomes that history is quite difficult.

contemplating such a thing to think about that, but, kay, you're in this foundation because of a personal situation? >> i lost my 28-year-old son michael2011, and i found out about the bridge rail foundation by reading the john basin book, the final leap, suicide from the golden gate bridge which came out in 2012. i said, oh, my gosh. there's an organization like that. i donated and ended up speaking with the president and eventually getting very involved. >> wow. i can't even imagine what it was like when you lost your son. can you tell us a little bit more about that? >> well, of course, it was shock. >> did he tell anybody? >> no, no. not a clue whatsoever. he was to start new job. it was a monday morning, and he gone to work. he went to work, as we thought he was doing. of course, i didn't live with him. he lived in san francisco, and he went to the bridge at 9:00 in the morning and was witnessed jumping from the bridge. >> oh, my goodness. and the phone call that you got was from the coroner's office? >> actually, there wasn't -- there was no longary coroner. there's a sheriff. i got phone call at 3:00 in the afternoon and that's

kay. along with willie, joe, and me. joe, the shock waves continued throughout the day. i saw you on "hardball" with chris matthews and michael steele yesterday. this cantor story, i mean, it's really caused quite an effect across both parties, actually. >> yeah, i said last night and it just came to me. this is one of the biggest upsets since douglas beat tyson in japan. >> that's big. >> willie geist, it may have said more about the fact that cantor was more mike tyson on a very, very down decade and maybe buster doesn't make it for very long. but i think it maybe had to do more with the weaknesses of one than the other. but you had this dave brat who had what it took to pull off the stunning upset. you remember that one? you remember that fight? that was a massive upset. >> do i? i think it was 42-1 that buster douglas would win and he did win. i think like mike tyson, eric cantor took some things for granted in that race and it came back to bite him. >> also republicans have been putting up, quote, tea party people over the past few years that just weren't that talented. they were amateurs. it's like pat buchanan says, he