So tell us, what is the House and the White House trying to accomplish with this reconciliation bill?

So this had been a moving target for some time over the summer.

There was a lot of speculation as to whether or not Congress would try to move another reconciliation bill.

You recall the last one was essentially to fund domestic security agencies.

And now this one is somewhat oriented around funding the Department of Defense and resourcing a lot of the costs that have been associated with the conflict in Iran.

And that the House passed a simple budget resolution that offers the opportunity to fund about $95 billion worth of those activities.

And if the Senate were to adopt it, they could override a filibuster and sort of be done with it.

And I mean, what elements of the economy that people feel in their everyday lives are connected to U.S. fiscal policy?

What is your understanding of the reason for the Secretary of State's visit? What was he trying to achieve on this tour?

If I had to put it into two words, I would say damage control.

The United States and Israel started this war on February 28th without prior consultation with, uh, the US partners in the Gulf.

They suffered the brunt of the Iranian response, both in terms of the missile attacks and in terms of the, uh, closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which prevented them from exporting energy, uh, to the rest of the world.

And so, um, uh, Secretary Rubio is in, as he said in his, in the words we just heard, he's, he's trying to reassure the Gulf allies of the United States that the United States will not, uh, make any agreements with Iran that undermine their, uh, uh, their security or economic interests.

Whether they, whether he's successful, whether they believe him is another story, but that's what he's attempting to do.

Explain the basic transaction that's gone on over the years.

Basic transaction is that the United States has, uh, supported Saudi Arabia actually since before that meeting in, in 1945.

Would you agree?

I would certainly agree, uh, with, uh, Daniel about the hollowing out of the US interagency process and the unfortunate, uh, purge of, uh, expertise on, on the Middle East, on Iran, on other, uh, regions of the world as well.

The, uh, uh, I, I'm not sure that, uh, uh, the Israeli government would have had, um, much input into, into the speech.

Um, I don't, I don't think there are any...

Uh, I didn't hear anything that, uh, made me think Trump didn't believe it or was, uh, uh, reading from some script provided by, uh, others.

What we didn't hear, or at least what I didn't hear, was any, um, uh, reiteration of what Trump's strategic objectives are for this war.

And I certainly didn't hear any, uh, plans going forward, any indication what he intends to do.

Do you think, um, Israel will be happy with where things are with regard to their missiles, given that Israelis are still under attack on a regular basis?

Just a few days ago, its defense minister said, "Well, no, it'll be 8,000 now." This is all falling apart, is it not?

The 20,000 fig- uh, troop figure came from, uh, uh, came from Major General, uh, uh, Jasper Jenners.

The Indonesians had pledged, uh, 8,000 of those, uh, uh, 8,000 of those troops is, is, um, the figure that I had seen.

But I think it's, it's worth pointing out that, uh, even 20,000, uh, troops may not be sufficient to do the job.

The reason I say that is, um, Kosovo in 1999 had approximately the same population as Gaza does today, and the, uh, the NATO force, K4 as it was called, that, uh, kept the peace in, in Kosovo consisted of over 50,000.

Those were 50,000 troops who had trained together, who had in- interoperability.

Uh, that's a far cry from, uh, even the 20,000, uh, uh, troops hoped for, much less the 8,000 troops pledged.

Do, do you share that, uh, assessment?

Uh, Ambassador Gray, can I put this to you? It sounded like you were starting to answer this and Robin is wondering, what exactly is the difference between an ambassador and a diplomat?

Well, uh, any embassy is, um, is staffed with not just Foreign Service officers, but also with representatives from other agencies as well.

The ambassador is the, uh, only person who is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the leadership, as the leader of, of the diplomatic mission....

in any given country.

But there are many, um, m- many people working at, at the embassy are, are diplomats.

There are career foreign service officers who are engaged in diplomatic work, be it political reporting, be it commercial advocacy, uh, be it protecting US citizens.

Um, there, each, uh, embassy has a senior defense official who is, uh, in effect a, a military diplomat because he or she is responsible for maintaining a good, good relationship, uh, with the host country, um, host country military.

Can you just share what your experience was like representing the US during that time?