robin cook was a serious reforming chair. forgive me if this sounds cheesy, but in my first parliament, i was thrilled to have gotten into the house. you would ask why. i was delighted to be sitting in the chamber at 2:00 a.m. and debating matters played at night -- late at night. you would say that my right hon. friend would give way. we thought that this phenomenon was enormous fund. i was quite convinced that i was at my best at 2:00 a.m.. there is a difference between thinking your best at 2:00 a.m. and being the best at 2:00 a.m.. i thought that this was nonsense. around 2003 and changes in my own life, i started to think how we combined effective scrutiny was being rounded people with normal lives? the idea that we should be sitting late into the night an act and acquitted procedures -- into the night and have antiquated procedures, there is a proper balance to conducting parliamentarians shares. i would love to say that new zealand played a big role. but it was america, losing an election, and changes in my own life. >

and robin cook who was one of the few outspoken opponents of the of the nation in the first place the british member of parliament he said if you direct had the weapons that we say that they have we would never it's like when he was absolutely right. we saw that we could be the bully boy and that we could have our way in the region with very little cost and it's been proven to be wrong well ok that said today we have president obama speaking to veterans about this and he seems to be talking about it all in positive terms and the accomplishments and his victory is making good on his pledge to pull out of iraq it sounds like both of you gentlemen think that it's been a failure so what happens now what happens when when they do pull out when u.s. troops are completely out because you both have said that there are a lot of complicated issues that start with you well you know people say can he end the war with i don't know if you end this war the united states came in and change the war there was always a warning iraq it was saddam laying the smack down the shia and the kurds of the united

they work for you and a series of websites that monitor and track the performance i think when robin cook was still leader of the house, and certainly when jack straw walls, it discontinued. there might have to be some sort of limit. there is a number of questions that you can table, i think it is five a day. >> you are indeed. >> that you very much. that is heartwarming. you can take the five questions that day, but there's no limit at the number that you cannot table. i would be sorry if we got to the place, but without shan't -- sounding poppas, with freedom comes responsibility. people who work as officials and department who are very burdensome. to some extent that is the price of democracy and i have never been taken and by this calculation of of being done at the restaurant -- showing how enormously expensive this is. an estimated amount of time that an official spends preparing the draft answer. to some extent, time spent by officials in that way is probably more productive than in other mischief. i am not particularly thinking of it in terms of the workload. one should not try th

cook those eggs all the way through. >> all the way through. >> rich besser, thanks very much. >>> time now for the news. juju chang is here. >> good morning, george and robin. good morning, everyone. well, the economic slowdown is forcing more americans to dip into their retirement accounts. a new report from fidelity investments shows a record number of people made so-called hardship withdrawals from their 401(k)s between april and june. meanwhile, new claims for unemployment benefits have just hit their highest level since november sparking a sell-off on wall street thursday. >>> well, a major step forward in the middle east peace process. today, secretary of state hillary clinton is expected to announce the israelis and palestinians are ready to resume direct talks for the first time in nearly two years. leaders will be likely invited to washington next month. >>> in iraq, the u.s. combat mission is quickly drawing to a close after the final combat brigade departed this week so we sent dan harris to baghdad on his seventh trip to the country to show us where things stand. he joins us now. good morning, dan. >> reporter: hey, juju, good morning. we've on