Page 2 - Opposition Elements News Today

>> remains of the dead were scattered. >> the group that morphed into isis. >> the wounded were carried away in blankets. >> was suspected of master minding a car bombing of serious state security officers. >> one car goes in and blows up to take down the other defense and a second car goes in to detonate. >> the criminal attack carries the blueprints of al qaeda. >> this is a hallmark tactic of al qaeda in iraq. >> back in washington, ambassador ford met with david petraeus, who was then the he...

>> the wounded were carried away in blankets. >> was suspected of master minding a car bombing of serious state security officers. >> one car goes in and blows up to take down the other defense and a second car goes in to detonate. >> the criminal attack carries the blueprints of al qaeda. >> this is a hallmark tactic of al qaeda in iraq. >> back in washington, ambassador ford met with david petraeus, who was then the head of the cia. the extremists in syria were getting stronger, he said. while...

Petraeus, who was then the head of the cia. the extremists in syria were getting stronger, he said. while the moderate rebels fighting assad were getting weaker. >> do nothing, extremists will continue to gain ground. thats what our syrian contacts were telling us. this isnt rocket science. >> petraeus urged the white house to arm the moderates. >> recommendations were made to assist some of the opposition elements and that decision was obviously not forthcoming to do that for quite a very long ...

>> remains of the dead were scattered. >> the group that morphed into isis. >> the wounded were carried away in blankets. >> was suspected of master minding a car bombing of serious state security officers. >> one car goes in and blows up to take down the other defense and a second car goes in to detonate. >> the criminal attack carries the blueprints of al qaeda. >> this is a hallmark tactic of al qaeda in iraq. >> back in washington, ambassador ford met with david petraeus, who was then the he...

This isnt rocket science. >> petraeus urged the white house to arm the moderates. >> recommendations were made to assist some of the opposition elements and that decision was obviously not forthcoming to do that for quite a very long time. >> the president was skeptical. he saw the syrian civil war as a quagmire in which the moderates were too few, too weak, and too disorganized to prevail. >> i think this notion that somehow there was this ready-made moderate syrian force that was able to defea...

Force against isil. now, this is a great oversimplification of the situation in syria. we have tried, not very successfully, but we have tried as a government to pull together the various opposition elements, the modern elements as best as we can identify them to get together politically and military. for assad, they have always been seen as enemies, as terrorists. its a smear term he has used for the last three years. its not true. some are more violent than others. some could be called terrori...

Essentially over. so at this point, what i would focus on is making the best of a terrible situation. i would put pressure on this isis group in syria. its long since time to provide serious help to alternative opposition elements in syria so they dont have the luxury of just focusing on iraq. i would accept the fact that the kurdish area of the north is now effectively an independent state. i would make sure theyd essentially what they need. i would provide economic support for jordan, which is...

Were going to get assad out of there, theres got to be a credible opposition. so were going to have to bite the bullet on how to do that. weve been doing some military assistance for some opposition elements. weve certainly done a lot of talking to the syrian opposition and coaching, but they have to belly up to the bar. if the president had le-- the leadership has to be in there on the ground. they have to be suffering there with the people and they have to be seen to be leaders. this is one of...

Is there -- is there the political opportunity for prime minister cameron to develop the same coalition with the president on syria that was done with libya? >> one of the questions which was at the top of his agenda when he called the president to say congratulations on thursday was syria because david cameron was in jordan just the day before yesterday. he went up towards the border. he began to talk to syrian opposition people. were very supportive of the attempts going on to try to bring the...

The opposition support, for example? >> gadhafi has so few friends, i doubt it. gadhafi does have a track record of negotiating with opposition elements. for instance he led the cease fire agreement with the islamic fighting group. he not only led the negotiations, he actually initiated them. he does have the reputation in libya of being slightly more reasonable with his other brothers, prince. >> general clark, david gergen. peters going to stay with us for a little bit. if youve been following...