Page 234 - Ground Force News Today

China down as number two. >> reporter: he put north korea and isis third and fourth. meanwhile, the u.s. army announced today it is cutting 40,000 troops from its ranks, which will result in the smallest ground force since 9/11. >> these cuts will impact nearly every army installation both in the continental united states and overseas. >> reporter: 28 installations in all, the army is effectively firing 17,000 army civilians, too. >> these arent cuts the army wants to make. these are cuts requir...

China down as number two. >> reporter: he put north korea and isis third and fourth. meanwhile, the u.s. army announced today it is cutting 40,000 troops from its ranks, which will result in the smallest ground force since 9/11. >> these cuts will impact nearly every army installation both in the continental united states and overseas. >> reporter: 28 installations in all, the army is effectively firing 17,000 army civilians, too. >> these arent cuts the army wants to make. these are cuts requir...

>> 7,000 are being vetted, but at this rate theres no guarantee theyll get more than a few more dozen by the end of the year. senator nelson, chairman mccain said that there is simply no willing ground force in syria or in iraq at this point there to help the coalition. these willing ground troops, again, moderate syrian rebels in syria and perhaps the iraqi military itself in iraq, they are a key component to the white house long-term strategy that kate was talking about. if they are not there ...

We have to degrade operation. >> and if you look at the air campaign as it is under way in iraq and syria right now. much like the drone campaign in yemen and other theater ares where local allies are fighting terrorist syndicates we are focusing on disrupting those organizations rather than containing them. and part of that is we are using air power. that is convenient to use and low risk. and you can put a lot of ordinance on people from a distance. but organizations like isis and al-qaeda bef...

To acquire. ask and the other problem, is the resolve. its from the headquarters that all the media attention is coming from. we can conduct raids there. ground raids by specialerations forces. theyre not without their risk but this is what we do in war, when theres an enemy embedded like this. were not doing this. we can conduct ground reconnaissance to develop targets better. and we need a ground force in syria, which we dont really have. >> and 16 air strikes against an enemys capital, for la...

Isis has seen mixed results. the fighters on the ground air strikes have been successful because they were paired with a ground force. but without a ground force, there has not been much in the way of success, and the lack of coalition partners the moderate rebels the u.s. is trying to train and find hasnt really materialized. so trying to find targets that havent been identified they havent been effective. the big question is can the u.s. administration get the moderate fighters on the ground? ...

25 page document. ash carter said defeating isis is ultimately the responsibility of the locals. >> the only way to have a lasting defeat of isil is to have someone who can govern and secure territory once isil is defeated. that has to be a local force on the ground. thats why the strategy calls for the united states to help train and equip, and then help enable a local ground force. >> thats been the problem for many years. the strategy pledges to continue working with our allies to fight islam...

On the ground there to fight there so you dont have to fight a group like this at home. i wonder if you can describe to our viewers, how far would you go? how many troops? are you talking about a large ground force or are you talking about military advisers? what exactly do you think is necessary to turn the tide? >> jim, what i said is if necessary we should not rule out using american forces to take out the recruiting centers their training centers their planning hubs where they are actively w...

I think he is wrong. i dont understand why if its going to happen on wednesday or thursday he doesnt allow it to happen today. it is simply putting americans at risk for a political reason. i think its wrong and i think its unfortunate. >> i want to move to the fight against isis. the fight against isis is not going well. the map virtually unchanged in a number of months and you had the key loss of ramadi and other areas in the last couple weeks. you have said repeatedly that american forces nee...

Is that some of what you had to say, that we need to do more in terms of target spotting and so forth? >> yeah, absolutely. when you look at the strategy the strategy of supporting an objective to degrade and defeat isis and theres no strategy to defeat isis in syria because theres no ground force in syria, and you cannot defeat isis without a ground force supported by air power. and yet syria is their main base. its where their headquarters is. its where they recruit train conduct logistics ope...