Page 2 - Syria Problem News Today

Say maybe the starkest way to say this is that only a week or two before trump made this decision, senior officials in this government said our policy in syria was to do three things, to destroy isis, to draw down -- to destroy isis, to get iran out, and to construct a political settlement for the syria problem. so by abruptly announcing that were leaving, i think people in the world dont know what to think. they dont know what to believe. its made the united states a very unstable, unpredictabl...

An impact we have to really up the game diplomatically, and militarily, in order to have an impact on the outcome of this -- this vast syria problem. >> andrea, were learning theres going to be an all-senators briefing tomorrow. reuters reporting thats that got to be dunford and mattis briefing them. as john alludes to, my sense, a lot more support in congress for the limited version of this mission. already a lot of noise about a potential use of military force. certainly if the strategy is bro...

Redline, the one that madeleine albright was talking about, that he ignored, he handed it off to the russians. that is right, he colluded with the russians to syria problem, it gave russia an opportunity to get a stronghold in that region, and now, if we try to do something against assad, we are doing something against the russians also. it is much more escalated thanks to the obama and john kerry and competence. >> shannon: there are no easy solutions. as the white house tries to figure out the...

>> but how do you do that? the diplomatic process in geneva they keep talking about has never worked. now they had a meeting on syria last week, which didnt even include the united states. it was erdogan and rohani from iran and putin. so robert ford, what would the next steps be? >> i think we have to be reasonable about whats achievable. i agree with david that it would be far easier if assad would step aside. but assad is not going to step aside, and militarily, his forces are prevailing in t...

U.s. troops out of syria within five to six months from now, but reportedly warned his national security team to not call it any sort of a timeline. can you explain that, what the significance is of calling a time frame a timeline? >> whenever youre talking about deployment of u.s. forces overseas and the word timeline enters the situation, you may signal to your adversaries exactly what youre leaving and exactly on what terms youre leaving. that of course doesnt work to your advantage. i can un...

Might look like it emboldens assad. >> assad now is sitting pretty. he has momentum on his side. the last important town that was held by isis, isis has been driven away. the non-villages, the non-terrorist opposition to him, which was backed by the u.s. in the past is not getting the same kind of love from washington under the trump administration. assad is sitting pretty. he has two powerful patrons who are closer to him physically than the united states in iran and russia. >> our defees of is...

Thats where the calderon is. thats where isis is based. thats where the syria problem is. if hed gone to indonesia or another muslim country, i think it would have been tone deaf to the problems we create. i dont criticize them. i understand, and farah makes a good point. i dont think he had a choice. he also understands theres a strategic relationship being developed between the israelis and the calledies and the jordanians and egyptians. that is very promising and to align against iran and ali...

>> well, i dont know. the answer is i dont know what the reason is but one my surmise weve heard this president talk very often at the top of the show as a desire to work with the russians to solve the syria problem. perhaps he was sharing some pieces of information that he had in his head from some briefing that he could impress upon the russians in a way that he could help their efforts in their relationships with assad and in solving part of the syria problem. perhaps. but heres my larger que...

Discover yet another layer of complexity to the syria problem. it may scare him off or it may strengthen his resolve to do something about it. >> vivian, from your seat, is what were watching just a presidency, a circle of aides and a mindset just kind of revolving and changing? >> of course, and thats bound to happen. again, just the fact that it is happening so quickly and within the first 100 days. remember this is a group that is very new to politics, washington and governing, a lot of them,...

To be developed, you have to take account of the realities. and the realities at this point, starting point are, i mentioned three in particular. first, the russians and iranians have facts on the ground through thousands of troops theyve committed there and the iranians have lost more than 1,000 in battle. second, the diplomatic process is dead in the water as near as i can determine. we stepped back from it, and its been run principally by russians, iranians and turks. we have to get back in t...