for more, we go to ryan crocker, a former career diplomat who served as u.s. ambassador to iraq until last year. he's now the dean of the george h.w. bush school of government at texas a&m university. and joost hilterman, deputy program director for the middle east and north africa at the international crisis group. he was in iraq during the elections. ambassador crocker, i'll start with you. is it a surprise that prime minister maliki's coalition failed to win? what explains it? >> i think it's been clear for some time that this would be a very close contest. the fact that just two seats separate maliki and alawi is an indication of that closeness. and in a sense it doesn't matter that much who is two seats up or two seats down. there is going to be a long, difficult contentious process of forming a government. and at this point there's no way of telling who is going to wind up in the prime minister's chair. >> reporter: mr. hilter-- hiltea did-- remind us of mr. alawi and where his support comes from. >> it a little bit of surprise because it wasn't clear fo

so, you still have this dynamic that ryan crocker, ambassador ryan crocker used to talk about, that there is a certain degree of self-limiting aspect to some of iran's influence, given that iraq does not want to be this 51st state, if you will of iran, and that it is very conscious of its identity versus the persian identity. >> admiral, can you comment upon yemen? it is an area you are concerned with and i'll ask general petraeus afterwards, it is a country with huge problems, depleting their oil and water resources and demographic challenges and they have a civil war despite al qaeda. youthful challenges. with that good news, besides saving money on your car insurance, what can you tell us? >> sir, yemen is a -- clearly a place that is being challenged. and, i second what general petraeus said about the rising presence of al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and their focus on yemen as a place where they are seeking sanctuary and our involvement from special operations community is relatively low level, we have a relatively small training engagement. with certain yemeni forces. but, beyond

ryan crocker, who is a hour ambassador, said the other day a lot of criticisms about going in there whether we should have gone in there. how we went in there. he said we can discuss and debate that but what matters most of all is how we left it and what we left. i think that will probably be the determinant of how we see what we did. and if indeed a democracy is established there, one that can sustain itself, i think it will be a double plus, double thumbs-up. that will be the result. you know, joe biden the other day, not my team, not my party but july and the other day said it looks very good, it looks promising and we can take some private as long is it is inclusive of a larger group i think i could agree with that. remember, too, and i try to point this out in the book, that there was a lot of unity in the decision. there was an awful lot of support as candidate obama kept reminding hillary clinton she was for this, john kerry was for this kochi rockefeller was for this, some people operate in of the same assumptions and what they thought were the facts on the ground all very much took

in may, 2007, after ambassador ryan crocker left islamabad, taking his post in iraq, president bush nominated ann to serve as our ambassador in pakistan. she continues her work in islamabad to this day, representing our nation at a time of great importance with the u.s.-pakistani relationship. during the times i had the honor of visiting her and our embassy officials in pakistan, i have been impressed by her dedication to furthering americans' priorities in that country, to protecting our national security interests and to managing our talented team on the ground. the life of a foreign service officer is not easy. ann, her husband, and their two sons and stepdaughter can attest that foreign service families face many challenges during a career of living overseas and moving frequently. in addition, foreign service families must make significant sacrifices to serve in dangerous locales like pakistan, afghanistan and iraq where there are restrictions on bringing spouses and children to post. these officers serve in the face of great hardship, not for financial reward but for the satisfaction of