Page 222 - Ground Force News Today

To this message from the kremlin? >> its frightening. it would be disconcerting, but this is what they train for. they train every day to fly into hostile environments where youre bombing a target with a nation that has a full integrated air defense system, that has capable aircraft of intercept, so its not like this is new to them. theyve trained for this. but it is noteworthy this is the first air to air engagement weve seen against a manned aircraft since 1999, so this is very rare. despite a...

All problems in the world, youre naturally going to overextend it. so there is risk there. >> general, youve commanded special ops troops. what do you think? >> i agree with chris. theyre called special for a reason. theyre not better forces, theyre specially focused on certain missions. so i think its important we not assume that theyre a tool of a thousand uses. >> general, right now there are more than 5,000 troops in iraq, nearly 1,000 in syria and isis fighting other terrorist groups. do yo...

Townsend talked about how they encircled the capitol and warned civilian to leaves. we were the first to report that isis moved their leadership out of raqqa down the euphrates river. today captain jeff davis said there were a few isis fighters left in raqqa and many civilians which will make this a long fight, shep. 26,000 syrian kurds are leading the ground force to strike this symbolic blow. no so were clear, this hammer strike in paris in no way related to this raqqa operation. is that right...

Assad is in power. >> yesterday we heard from rex tillerson, the secretary of state, and he said that removing bashar al assad is still not necessarily a top u.s. priority. what is it? >> right, and we heard from nikki haley, the u.n. ambassador who sounded a lot like language-wise like sean spicer. what is it? i dont know that they know candidly, wolf. theres no obvious answer here. i always remind people this is -- this is not on donald trump necessarily. this is deeply complex set offish are ...

Casualties, unintended civilian casualties and that could be a down side. other down sides would include some type of conflict with iranian forces in syria and russian forces in syria, so there are absolutely potential pitfalls here. >> right. its not just about syria but about some of these other countries that you just mentioned, russia and iran, who are also backing syria. david, at what point do you think president trump needs to get congress to sign off on military action in syria? >> well,...

To have much appetite for another military intervention in the middle east. >> well, were in syria right now. we not only have been bombing, but we have people on the ground. the exact number is up for debate. so its not like were not at war yet. the question is do we want to increase that? listen -- >> also do we want to go to war against another -- i mean the point here should be clear, right, that we have not been striking assad as shadi has said. weve been going after isis, which in a perver...

The battlefield is strikes against the regime to make clear the use of chemical weapons the benefit youll gain are outweighed by the costs incurred by strikes. decapitating al-assad from his field of forces and hitting his command and control and hitting his ground force by hitting the airfield and destroying the rung ways -- runways is how you prevent the use in the future. >> bill: you have russians there. you have isis there. you have several hundred u.s. service members on the ground there. ...

Administration and world community, assad and russia and hezbollah and iran, asserted their position in syria. that will not change anytime real soon. what we need to do is focus on the next step. we need to defeat isis. we have to start asking questions. what is the primary ground force to defeat isis in raqqah? who will hold that ground? once we do that, it changes the conditions on the ground. we can put pressure on the assad regime. i dont know what the trump administrations reaction is. aft...

It will make it easier for isis to recruit. if you are a ten-year-old kid, your dad was killed by somebody. you see isis as the only kind of opponent to bashar al-assad and brutalized their family and you dont have an education or opportunity, so i would like to see long-term humanitarian safe zones, a no-fly zone enforced by the united states and its allies and ultimately there will need to be a ground force, it does not need to be american troops. i think the middle east partners have said the...

Their gut churning at the implication of civilian deaths, and its terrible but part of combat, and it could be part of propaganda by isis as well. they have been known to do these kinds of things as other terrorists groups have been in the past as well, and the investigation will show, and the military will have location of bombing targets, because all of the weapons -- or all of the ordina ordinance dropped, they will know where they went and they will have gun camera film to show the bomb drop...