If not by phone you can take part by social media. s our twitter handle. And facebook that calm a is able to so deadly mayhem. He writes that in the past few weeks see islamics date has sustained a string of literary defeats. Struggling to maintain its cold on mosul and losing ground in syria. The deadly truck attack in berlin made clear, those losses do not diminish the groups power to inspire mayhem around the world and may even help to fuel it. In the past year, even while under continuous compartment by the americanled coalition, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks. That figure does not include the organizations home terrain and syria and iraq where it has lost 50,000 fighters in the past two years, according to the pentagons. Were carriedttacks by assailants who cited as a motive for acting at home. At the core of the Islamic State access and vulnerability is a peculiar blend of theological , something al qaeda, its predecessor and rival ever achieved. The newhe piece in and our first call is from john in spring texas on the republican line. Russia. My concern is i am 65, i was in the cold war and donald trump is talking i dont want to go through that again. That is my main concern. The u. S. T do you think poster should be towards russia, especially under the new president . Once is more than enough. Hope they would reduce the number ofs, not reduce it not increase it. Is it 900, 700 . I cant remember what the number is. We have 20 more than russia does right now. John talking there about russia. You might be interested in this piece. 20 20 billion a year to update the nuclear. A twitter message on improving Nuclear Capability obama committed spending 20 billion a year to update the nations ability to conduct a nuclear war. Mr. Obama has plus the goahead for a major new weapon systems. He also funded a new and more accurate atomic. Just some of the details there as the president leaves office about what he has been doing. Becky is on the line from illinois, democratic line. Good morning. What is your Top National Security concern . Caller donald trump. Im afraid he doesnt know what he is doing. Host in what particular area of National Security are you afraid of most . I am afraid he is going the bushesext, middle easted , theicts and all that weapons of mass destruction and now we are fixing to get another republican in that doesnt have a clue what he is doing. She has never been elected to anything. Thats not smart. Host based on what you said about the new president , what would you say is the next role for congress or maybe the media or the public in general in this area of National Security . Caller everything he does to make sure that it is in our best interest for congress, for the media, everybody that seemed to turn a blind eye to his stupidity during the election. Host thank you for calling. Len from new york, democratic caller. Good morning. Caller i dont know who this last caller was that i have a very similar feeling about ump, heelect trytr is erratic, narcissistic. He could be so nskinned that he decides just to point out what happened the other day with pakistan reading fake news and thinking israel was going to attack them. Trades in thep fake news and the ability to start a war simply because he likes this talk tough and make people guess what is going to happen next. This is the biggest threat we that someone can control the Nuclear Arsenal of the United States and saying why cant we use them if we have them. A. Guy is a crazy son of one day we will be able to hold him accountable if anything goes wrong. But we did not hold bush accountable for getting us into the war. It is only economic insecurity. Host what would you say president obamas legacy should be in the area of National Security . Caller his legacy is going to road,king cans down the when he could have made both statements about the future, he chose to sit back like you did with a lot of other policies. Some relatedre stories what you are talking about, here is a piece at wire. Com. They say it is complicated now wait until trump get started. The issues they face as , are clear. Ey write president obama will leave behind wars in iraq and syria and a new year deal with iran and a network of alliances to manage and big spending decisions. Lets see what david has to say, from davis, california, democratic caller. Caller hello. A main issue is i think it is huge mistake to alienate the muslim community. That is the wrong way to go. I think people are giving in to fear in this Movement Towards nationalism is a big mistake. I disagreehave to, with that completely. I think it creates more terrorists abroad. Host lets hear from the shell on the from michelle democratic line. What is on your mind the most . Mainly the interpretation of a lot of the a lot of disrespect, President Donald Trump has the , commanders in the military. He is going to take the advice of the advisors. He is a businessman. He is not a politician. He is not in it for self gain. He is not in it to control. We have had so much devastation and economic disasters in each state. We need a new breed of blood, somebody educated and not in it for self money, power. A group of famous, wonderful, strong individuals that have made our country great. That is what we need. Host thank you for calling. Wendell from decatur, georgia, independent caller. What is on your mind in terms of National Security . Caller mine is more concerned that the agreement obama made with it around . I am afraid that donald trump will undo the agreement that was made with the wrong with iran. Calls mad dog mattis and kelly. These are serious war hawks. Of americanone foreignpolicy is the protection of israel. That was the best interests of america. I am afraid the oppression pressure will be from netanyahu, to get rid of the agreement that was made with their run iran. Im afraid it will cause war with iran. Host thanks for calling. Here is look at facebook this morning. David writes, being able to adequately identify warning flags of domestic terrorism in ed by isis, also , protectedcurity under the constitution. Those are davids concerns. Writer, sandy writes the last time we had a president that ignored the intel reefing we had the worst terror attack ever to happen in the country, and now we have to make people believing fake news instead of fax making it easier for an attack to happen. Here is a two minute piece of commentary from an assistant to the president in domestic security area. She talks a little bit about this Country Strategies since 9 11 and moving forward. She was asked the question at a recent event whether the u. S. Has been good or lucky. I think we have been both. There has been a tremendous defenses,build up our to strengthen our systems, whether it is boarding systems, screening systems. The Intelligent Community and Law Enforcement community to interact with our foreign partners that has stopped countless attacks in planeuring the socalled plot i was at the fbi. We were engaging with our ontish partners twice a day secure videoconferences to understand what they had, so that we could compare it to what we were looking at domestically and that kind of integration of information and relationships has only gotten greater and gotten better. We have gotten better. As often has been sent we have to be right 100 of the time and they only have to be right once or it to your question about recalibrating, i agree, we do need to recalibrate. That is what i was getting at in my reference at the top to the new face of terrorism that we are in. The immediate threat that we judge comes from isis and in particular, their ability to inspire individual actors or small groups to conduct less spectacular but certainly deadly attacks that have real consequences and have a unsettle to communities quite justifiably. We have to calibrate the tools that we apply, whether it is counter violence, or human the tech sector to work with us to address the abuse of their platforms. These are all efforts that we did not talk in the immediately aftermath of 9 11. We have to build up those tools as well just as we have build up these tools to harden our borders. Eventyou can watch that at cspan. Org. Joe centreville, virginia. I believe it will be russia for the next couple of years. , wee cyber attack strengthened our Cyber Security because they can shut down our entire power grid. The president at his News Conference said the u. S. Will do something, some type of her italian nation against russia hackedt they believe during the election season. What are you advocating . Caller i dont think we should do anything. We spy on germany. Ifs ok for them to do they do it to us its not ok but if we do it it is accessible. Host gloria from michigan on the democrats line. What is the name of your town . Caller negaunee. Believe we do provide money to israel. How they use it i am sure in part is for their protection. Not netanyahu can summon our ambassador to him as if we owe him some great debt. I think that hubris in the first degree. That is what i have to say. Host thank you. We are asking you what your Top National Security concerns are heading into the new year. From twitter, steve writes that the loan will is the toughest threat to identify and contain. Carroll writes we need to make it clear to our adversaries that we are strong. Actions speak louder than words. Cyber weakness is a concern and a lack of a fallback of electronics and media are rendered useless. Caller talks about this concept of fake news that people have been talking about. Pakistan threatening a Nuclear Attack on israel. Coming from this. This is yahoo news and it says the concern about the effects of fake news ratcheted up a notch on sunday with a tweet from pakistans defense minister threatening nuclear more on that mistaken belief that pakistan was britain. News now a typo riddled fictitious story on news was posted quoting the defense minister israels current defense minister adding as saying he would destroy pakistan and it prompted a response from pakistans defense minister threatening retaliation. The Ministry Said pakistan would retaliate against any nation that threatened it. He was reacting to a fake news story. Yahoo. Com. You can read more about it there. Call from berkeley springs, west virginia. Caller good morning. Obama was concern was. Oo timid he could have set up a safe zone. Serious have destroyed air force and set up a nofly zone, a safe zone for all the refugees and they wouldnt be scattered all over the world. The people in the world could have contributed to help those people. I think it was a big mistake to open up the floodgates and let from these middle Eastern Countries come into our country without being properly vetted. News, i have fake heard a lot during this campaign and the biggest one was about. Hazi being the cause of thats what you call fake news. Democratic line calling next. Your National Security concern . When you look at the encouraging all that is theld risk. What is going to be left . When theyre moving from one country in europe to another, thats a very big risk. Way tohat is the best beef up that security that you are speaking of . Caller beef up alliances. The countries have to be able to communicate, to share information. Host what are you expecting under the new administration here in the u. S. In that area . Their strategy is to isure that alliances think they should read think that strategy. We are at a greater risk. Stan is on the republican line. I am a my thought is minister of the gospel of jesus christ. The big threat is going to ifpen one day, i dont know donald trump will be the tosident, we know according ezekiel chapter 38 and 39 in the bible that russia and china will come against israel. What will have to happen after that, we will have a big war against russia and china because we are going the u. S. Will have to make a decision to support israel or not to support israel. Now, we are talking about two state solution. There will never be one after the rapture. That is the big issue that i have, russia and china will come against israel, and then the United States will have to make a decision. Thank you calling. More of your calls in a few minutes. Lets check in with a few were. Ore reporters as we talk about National Security on this monday. Joining us from beirut is erika solomon was a correspondent in the middle east for the Financial Times. Talk to us a little bit about syria. Oft is the lead story out syria today in regards to the conflict . It is about turkey, claiming an attack that isis on the civilians, turkey is trying to take back with the help of Syrian Rebels on the ground. They had airstrikes on their town. 70 civilians died. On top of that, videos of isis killing turkish soldiers. Host what is the status of the syrian president assad right now, especially after actions of recent days. What is his strength and what is he saying at this point about the future of this country . Still after what has been a complete victory in the electoral aleppo. He is claiming they are going to try to recapture all of syria which is in some ways is against what the regional powers of trying to strike. One of the big diplomatic developments is talking a lot with turkey, one main backers of the opposition. They are trying to strike a deal create aake transitional body. Say people on the ground sort oflly means it is understanding that different parts of this complicated world has power locally. What happenednst in syria. How about of russia and speak to the change of leadership. The u. S. With donald trump and what the expectations might be there, the thoughts and actions of people here in the u. S. Atthe way russia is looking this after this big win for them and local allies, how can we submit this into a deal . That is working with turkey. This is significant because it shows how in the past few months the u. S. Has been in a way sidelined diplomatically. Seem to want that because they think this can get a little bit more of what they want. They are inening is a rush to get asthma star before donald trump comes into power. We generally dont know what will happen. These guys to dont understand how trump will affect the coming years of this conflict. They want to try to do as much as they can before january 20. Host i have to ask about your work is a reporter in the relative difficulty it is to cover a story like syria. How difficult is it to find out what is going on and report the news . It is difficult because we are relying a lot of from people who are inside. You cant always be sure what the motives are. Its a complicated situation. One of my colleagues said for him it was the most is our do reporting on a war that is only two hours away from us. That is the reality. Thedo have journalists on ground especially on the government side. That will lead to an improvement in coverage, seeing multiple sides of this war. Im hopeful for that. Ast air kiss solomon is Financial Times correspondent. Thank you for your time this morning. Purpose christi texas has been hanging on. Julie is a republican. Largelymy concern is. He borders i am glad we have had the example of the free borders elsewhere in europe and how we shouldased use the example of the historical on other countries why isis and terrorism is on the rise. Is right therety on our part borders. I live right there. Thinking ande you what you will see from the new president and the Republican Led Congress on immigration . I dont think it will be as extreme as everyone thinks it will be. The wall and whatnot. That will take a while to get past and cooler heads will prevail and security concerns has to be them concern of any country. On the border down here in south texas, probably not. Protecte other ways to and watch people. They are looking to increase trade with america, all the way up to canada. ,o t core door corridor coyotes bringing in people. Its not just people from mexico it is from all over. Host thank you for calling. ,owell, fredericksburg virginia. Republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. My greatest concern is people like al sharpton, coulter, obama. Divided the divine they are created the between blacks and whites. They dont appear to see the hoax that has been perpetrated on the u. S. For the last eight years, if we have this racial divide in our nation, and it it will returnd to some type of civil war. I already think we are in somewhat of a race war. Host thank you for calling. This is the voice of newt fox news he was on sunday program yesterday talking about National Security. Back in an arms race with russia . This is the same donald trump the liberals were terrified was look we sell out putin, can be your best friend or your worst enemy. You want to make threatenings beaches, let me show you what a threatening speech looks like. The russians have been rebuilding their Nuclear Capability and we have allowed our stew weekend. We have allowed hours to weaken. I think for the president next president to say we will have to systematically rebuilt our Nuclear Capability is right. And he has also served notice that if you succeeds economically in making America Great again and we get back to 5 or six or some real growth, what he is telling both the chinese and russians is you really want to be in this competition . We have the potential to win it. The manner in which he did it. You say that 140 character theres, is this any way to conduct Foreign Policy. Its one thing to talk about modernizing the Nuclear Arsenal or in but expanding the arsenal that flies in the face of the half century of arms control, reducing our number of weapons. Control, andd arms the North Koreans have developed Nuclear Weapons. The russians in the last few years