mr. o'rourke. >> guest: all right. >> many years ago, gail sheehey wrote a book, it's been taken off the shelves, about the man who changed the world. she was like praising mick kell mikhail gorbachev and making him like jesus christ pretty much. and it was proven that ronald reagan basically cleaned his clock, in particular in reykjavik. ronald reagan cleaned his clock. and one other point i want to make. i saw this in a book. i can't recall which one and i'll hang up. ronald reagan talked about his negotiating skills and said he learned his negotiate skills when he was the head of the screenactor goods guild when he was negotiating actors' contracts with the studio heads and then the said-that experience he took, quote, gorbachev was a snap. i want to talk -- hear your response about sheehey -- that's a fact, sir. i want to hear your comments on that. have a good one. >> host: all right, jack in providence, rhode island. >> guest: i do think that reagan and thatcher were largely responsible for t

mr. o'rourke: what syria is missing right now is more pain? there hasn't been enough pain in the last few years? mr. ford: there hasn't been enough pressure put on the assad regime to accept major compromises. mr. o'rourke: what -- is there -- with everyone on the panel agreeing that assad should go i think he should also go, but i think you also said that should be a decision of the syrian people. would you be willing, do you think the united states should be willing to accept his staying for some short period of time in order to achieve some of our other goals? there's no perfect solution to the situation right now, that's at least within our control. should we be willing to concede some things, including assad's presence in order to get less suffering, more peace, more stability, serve our interests in the region? i'm out of time so i'll take that response for the record from the panel. thank you, mr. chairman. mr. coffman: thank you, mr. chairman. i served in iraq with the united states marine corps in 2005 and 2006, in al anbar provinces.

mr. o'rourke: thank you, mr. chairman. ambassador, i'd like you to comment on a relatively recent development which is the u.n. security council outline for a peace process in syria, and i'd like you to do so within the context of everyone's agreed goal of ultimately seeing assad replaced. want to make sure that we minimize any threats to the united states and our allies. we'd like to see stability in that region. we want to minimize the loss of human life and suffering. and i think we all, the united states and the world community, would like to see justice served for some truly horrific crimes in that area. train and equip hasn't worked to that end so far. it's been an abysmal failure. mr. morrell, prior to saying at the end they have day we've got to get rid of assad, assad's got to go, we don't have a credible ground force in syria. tell me, ambassador ford, your thoughts on the prospects for this process, how aggressively we should commit to it, if you agree that it's the path to take, and what we can do most effectiv