Assad Problem News Today

Why werent we invited? >> we should have been. theres a vacuum that has been creat created. its been filled by the russians, the iranians and the turks. we dont want to own this problem. we cant afford it. were concerned its getsing worse than better. the good news is, isis almost destroyed in syria. the bad news is you have this assad problem and theres no easy solution. >> well keep watching. the president promising some sort of announcement in the next one to two days on how well respond. wer...

>> yes, absolutely. we heard from his top officials in his administration who it seemed were having a hard time articulating what the trump doctrine or what the next plan is for syria, and maybe that suggests there is no plan. this was a one-off that sent a message, and by the way, basically a day later assad was flying flights out of that airfield doing more attacks, not chemical, but more deadly attacks on his people, so maybe it was a symbolic gesture that doesnt really have long term repercu...

Something against the american soldiers. is this something we should be concerned about? bret: the truth is you cant solve your isis problem without solving your assad problem and s vice versa. one depend on the other for its legitimacy. assads base of support -- im standing between you and isis. what is it that stands up isis in syria and the rest of the arab world in we have two problems in syria, one is assad and one is isis. there will be tactical complications.al but the russians have more ...

>> well, its clear to me with what weve been saying for the last 24 hours after the attack its going to take a serious provocation for us to repeat what we did last night. look, as sad as this is, anderson, we want to park the assad problem over here, just let it sit, while we solve what we think is the more high priority problem, which is isis. so the strike yesterday is in essence our telling assad, settle down. were not going anywhere, and were going to turn our attention back to problem numb...

It is going to be a festering sore for a very long time. but i think, frankly, at best, were going to have to handle this sequentially. park the assad problem. work on isis. and then go from there. >> how difficult -- the level of russian involvement in syria, it seems like it is even more complicated now than it was during the obama administration before russia got involved. having them on the ground and iran as well, its much more three dimensional battlefield. >> exactly. again, i would have ...

So i think this will have a real sobering affect on adventurism from the assad regime. >> is there a benefit in not -- in the regime not being clear on what u.s. policy is, on not being clear on, well, what is the red line? is it just not using chemical weapons? if im assad and you use barrel bombs, are they going to intervene? is the lack of clarity, is that a possible intentional benefit? >> yeah. i think so. look, its clear to me based upon what we have been saying the last 24 hours after the...

Isis, of course, will retreat into the desert, theyll continue to launch their insurgencies, and they still control a third of the country. so the fall of aleppo will not end the war. but it is likely to change the war in a pretty dramatic and decisive fashion. >> quick, one more beat on this. for americans who say, look, i care about isis. i cant -- the united states cant be the worlds policeman, we cant fix syria, there are 100 guys like assad out there. i only care about isis. what do you say...

It does appear the u.s. making it up as they go along. in fact, there have been long standing plans and recommendations to the president to ramp up and have some more forces on the ground. but this would be first time that were acknowledging, at least, forces on the ground. a small number in northern syria. the big game changer really has been what russia started on september 30th with their air strikes, without much prior warning if at all to the u.s. even though this came only 48 hours after t...

Unicef. where is the leadership at the u.n. the americans can step up and give money, but if youre talking about giving refugees a home here, you are never going to be able to solve this massive crisis around the world. people are escaping the violence. we should be able to put humanitarian shelters and spaces even inside syria so that these individuals can escape the violence. they can be fed and be in a safe place. and we should solve the assad problem and put them back in their home country w...

So you have to deal with the assad problem. the administrations folk us in syria, however, is not on the assad brutality. it is on the islamic state. >> laum pause you that. >> while that is also a big problem it is not going to fix the refugee problem. >> do you think our focus is wrong? do you think our focus should be on the assad regime, and then focus onnize isis? >> i do believe because the regime is drive iing mem memberp into isis. why is that? because they are able to recruit from angry...