joining us is retired major general paul eaton, assigned to iraq in the crucial years of 2003-4, andg a leading critic of the bush-cheney administration. thanks for being with us. >> great to be with you. matt: what was the original sin in the planning execution conception of the iraq war? >> well, the -- in the planning phase, military planners deal in sequels and branches, and sequel is what's next? when we took baghdad, and secured it with the third division in the marines, we did not have a plan to address a failed state. we didn't have the phase four planning, so when the pot boiled over, we were unprepared. we were ill manned to address the problem. we didn't have enough troops on the ground to work it. >> and do you think that the subsequent instability throughout the middle east and places like syria and libya, which have made headlines in recent years and months. that that is directly related to the fallout from the iraq war conflict? >> i think they're related, but it goes back to the 1920s, the pico arrangement that never did settle the political realities of the region, a