"[Former] Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy, in a satellite video conference with foreign reporters, dismissed the argument that withdrawal of occupation troops would "leave the country in a state of civil war" or that a resulting Muslim fundamentalist government might pose any threat. "We get very impatient," he said in response to a question from an Italian journalist, with the claim that "there would be a bloody battle if [troops] were to suddenly leave," He pointed out that there has been a continuing "bloody battle' in the country since foreign troops first invaded. He called first for a "realistic timetable for withdrawal" of occupation troops before there could be any substantive international political engagement." Unlike the present-day Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Murphy is a real expert of the Middle East, and speaks Arabic fluently. He learned his Arabic in Syria in the 1950s.