Page 7 - Fighting Assad News Today

The people who were fighting assad were, you know, they were business people, they were students, they were professionals, who had risen up against his tyrannical rule, that had really kept so much of syria under his thumb. and before him, his fathers thumb. if we had been able to move in to help organize and support those people on the ground, maybe we could have made a difference. well, we got to deal with where we are right now. its obviously now, a different set of circumstances and what the...

We are going to train up the locals -- in tickets difficult in syria because our fight is against isis but the syrian rebels to a large extent are interested in bringing down assad, rather than necessarily going over isis. some of them in order to survive go back and forth between the two groups. this is the problem that we have, when we vet and figure out who is really going to go after isis versus this whole assad issue going on, the group gets narrower and narrower because we dont want to tra...

Opportunities to take out enemies. >> it turns out the free syrian army are deciding not to be trained by us because were not letting them go after assad which was their main onlybjective. the army that was supposed to fight doesnt want to fight and were not doing it either. >> the free syrian army theyre fighting assad. the crisis in the middle east they also fight isis. on two fronts theyre having to defend a free syria. in many cases the united statess promises have been broken. a lot of them...

On the ground there. we know, the defense department confirms there are armed drones flying over, although no authorization for strikes right now. i want to ask you both, and ill start with you, senator casey, at what point do you think the president needs to come to congress to authorize any further level of involvement in iraq? >> well, shannon, i dont think were at that point yet. i hope that the president will continue to on the path hes been on, which is to assess the situation, make sure o...

On the ground there. we know, the defense department confirms there are armed drones flying over, although no authorization for strikes right now. i want to ask you both, and ill start with you, senator casey, at what point do you think the president needs to come to congress to authorize any further level of involvement in iraq? >> well, shannon, i dont think were at that point yet. i hope that the president will continue to on the path hes been on, which is to assess the situation, make sure o...

Assad has banned the unhcr having anything to do with opposition areas. the best work is done by syrian groups that are risking their lives with no protection. the other group helping out is the turkish government and also the governments of saudi arabia and qatar. very troublingly. i say this is troubling because these governments are funding fundamentalist fighters and yet also making very, very visible shows of aid. >> the syrians that you talk to who are not fighting isis is there an awarene...

Approved. its still going to be a big battle about skpes ipecifics. just four weeks ago when he announced the creation of this military program it was reported that the secretary of defense chug hak el had begel was concee a way to vet the moderate opposition and whether there was enough of them or enough time remaining. i think a lot of members of congress feel that way. >> you know charles, there is years. about 150,000 civilian deaths too late in terms of the syrian civil war, what kind of pr...

We are leaving beend chaos in counsel row after country. the arab spring had promise but led to chaos and thats in which al-qaeda thrives. whether it is in syria or iraq or yemen al-qaeda is greater numbers than before. the reason it will get worse. in syria now that assad is firmly in charge and that fighting may wind down. the guys who are fighting assad, the rebels, the largest is islamic extremist and if that dies down, where are they going? they will not go home and join the pta. they will ...

Reportedly seen in this video seen fighting assads army have been linked to al qaeda. shed some light on these groups. the united states hopes the strikes will help rebels gain an upper hand. but what do we know about these opposition fighters that we would be helping? >> reporter: well, we can say that they are generally divided into a few different types of categories. on one hand, you have what are known as the free syrian army. these are a loose-knit group of rebel fighters made of either de...

The united states is now a distinguished fellow at the brookings institution. honored to have you on, sir. do you agree with that assessment? is it in israels interest for assad to stay in power? >> no, it is not. if assad stays in power under the present circumstances, this would be a victory for the axis of russia, iran, hezbollah and assad. assad will be even more of an iranian puppet than he is now. and definitely it is not in our interest. >> why, then, has israel not been more of a vocal a...