Ben Rhodes: I'm sympathetic to the idea that whatever choice the United States makes in these conflicts is gonna turn out bad. There was a better choice available though would have avoided The civil war would have avoided hundreds of thousands of people dying, he says. "I don't want to seem like I'm just trying to absolve That there could have been somewhat better outcomes" He asks what's it about our national security enterprise that we became so fixated on this one part of the world relative to other parts of the world.