Page 749 - Commitments News Today

Capitol hill and chaos in the region. next morning mattis handed president trump his notice saying in part you have a right to the have a secretary of defense whose views are better aligned with yours. back with me, my panel. joining us, former director of the national counterterrorism center and the national security analyst. nick, thanks for taking a few minutes. i understand in your time in government you were actually present in the situation room with the president, with the secretary of de...

Reducing troops in afghanistan is not a silly idea, something to be working toward. way it was handled is completely crazy and russia is a beneficiary. in syria, abandon the kurds, latest betrayal in 100 years of such betrayals. and it speaks to larger sense of chaos and undermining of our commitments. this was last straw for mattis but i think that for mattis the larger issue was the way the president was systematically undermining the systems that had helped keep us safe for 75 years. and reco...

The troops in afghanistan is not a crazy idea. it is something over time we should be working toward. the way it was handled was completely crazy and russia is a beneficiary. in the case of syria, we abandoned the kurds, the latest betrayal of the kurds in a hundred years of such betrayals t speaks to a larger sense of chaos, and undermining of our commitments, i think this was the last straw for mattis. for mattis, the larger issue was the way that president was systematically undermining what ...

The right. one thing i want to say is the human cost of this. theres 800,000 federal employees and a lot of of contractors involved here who over the christmas holiday arent bgoing to get paid. >> theres going to be a delay in -- theres a delay in the processing of paychecks. so theyll still get their paycheck over the holiday break, we have been told, but they will get the paycheck down the line. >> theyll get their paychecks for the previous period, but not for this time. but for a lot of them...

>> is it just silly? >> you know so the idea of pulling out troops from syria or reducing the troops in afghanistan is 23409 a crazy idea and its something that we should be working toward. the way this was handled was, indeed, completely crazy and, indeed, russia is a beneficiary. in the case of syria, we abandoned the kurds. the latest betrayal of the kurds in 100 years of such betrayals and i, you know, it speaks to this larger sense of chaos and undermining of our commitments. this was the l...

Leave, quietly, off the record, on background, express dissat fak shcti faction. you have new reporting of another drawdown of troops in afghanistan. >> reporter: what we are now told, jim, is that the president has also ordered the pentagon to begin planning for drawing down, withdrawing about half of the u.s. troops in afghanistan. this could come out to somewhere like 7,000 troops. that will take some time. theres a lot of equipment there, a lot of u.s. special forces. but drawing down those ...

Whose views are aligned with yours, meaning his views are not aligned with mr. trumps. you cannot underestimate a key fact here. this is a secretary of defense, a retired general with 40 years on the job, who basically tonight has fallen on his sword. he has said, i can no longer support the president of the united states. jim? >> it is a remarkable moment. weve had a lot of officials leave, quietly, off the record, on background, express dissat faction. you have new reporting of another drawdow...

Committed to the fighting forces on the ground, and the partners in the form of the kurds, they tell me they have been stabbed in the back. the only positive thing they can take away from mattis r resignation is perhaps they could honor commitments to fighting isis and those who have fought against isis and alongside it, and theres no sense that is going to happen. >> thank you very much for all of your reporting from the region and with all that te ins. >> lets do the late-night humor, next. �...

Comprehended what he was doing to him when he wrote the letter. but this shouldnt be all that surprising. what mattis said in the letter was consistent with what was put out last year in the national security strategy, which was in part mattis was an architect of that. when donald trump introduced that national security strategy, which talked about russia and china as sort of great power rivals, that we should be concerned about them. in his remarks introducing them donald trump undercut that me...

Will demonstrate that the presidents national security strategy in no way correspondence to the presidents choices. so you cant believe anything in the strategy. second, it will frighten americas allies in iraq and afghanistan and beyond that americas commitments that the presidents so erratic that no commitment can be relied on by the united states because hes frivolous in his decisions and doesnt care about the consequences for others. third, it will lead to a resurgence of terrorist activity ...