Mm.

And during this time, um, ISIS, the terrorist group, had really, really blown up as an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, and it, it began taking over huge swaths of territory in, in what is called the Levant, which is this area between Syria and Iraq.

And so I was part of a team, um, that was reacting to this movement of ISIS.

They were spreading down into Iraq, which at this point we had already s- spent huge amounts of money and blood- Mm ...

in this area.

Mm-hmm.

So the US military felt like it was very important for us to not lose any territory, especially in Baghdad, um, where we had the embassy and a very critical airfield at the Baghdad International Airport.

... to, to, to help that process of OCIA.