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His troop withdrawal strategy, called for about 5,600 troops by 2015 and an exit for combat force by the end of 2016. but there are currently 8,400 u.s. troops stationed there alongside several thousand international forces. 2,388 u.s. service members have been killed in afghanistan since 2001, and as for civilian casualties, just the first half of this year have seen 5,243. okay. as promised, still with me are medly hassan and retired general mccaffrey. medly, let me start with you. very strangely you have found yourself in agreement with what we know donald trump has been saying about afghan...

Patronage. in the first shot 40,000 men and all of their equipment ran and it was captured by isis. now what we see is the nucleus of a combat force that has real inspirational leaders, guys who they want to follow in to combat and people who are really willing to fight isis. >> let's just understand what ma ra ramadi, where strategically it is so significant, very close to baghdad. sits between baghdad and mosul really. why is it so strategically significant? >> if you look at it just to the west of isis -- besides the fact that it cuts off the euphrates river from north to south, if tu go to...

Isis. >> let's step back and to a little history here. this is one of the things i think is absent in the united states. we have a bad case of amnesia. we invaded iraq in 2003. we had a combat force. a massive combat force of 125,000 men, which cut through all resistance within three weeks like a sythe, all right. now, i fought every war in the middle east and let me tell you something, that was an overwhelming piece of force. however, we occupied that country for eight years. we took 4,686 dead soldiers. there's a number no one remembers. people fought and they died for this operation. and it...

Chairman, it is hard to say because it -- that depends much on the progress of the iraqi security forces which i described in building themselves in to a more capable combat force. with respect to ramadi -- >> raqqah. >> oh. raqqah. well, raqqah, there, the -- you noted this yourself, mr. chairman -- the syrian kurds to the north have done an excellent job of clearing their territory. we're in with the syrian-arabs -- >> we're not going to go into raqqah, and you and i know that. >> oh, they're not going to go to raqqah, no, no, no. it would be the syrian-arabs. >> i guess the point is, mr. se...

>> with respect to mosul, mr. chairman, it is hard to say because that depends much on the progress of the iraqi security forces which i described in building themselves into a more capable combat force. with respect to ramadi -- >> raqqah, raqqah. >> oh, raqqah. well, raqqah, there the -- and you noted this yourself, mr. chairman -- the syrian kurds to the north have done an excellent job of clearing their territory. >> we're not going to go into raqqah, and you and i know that. >> they're not going to go into raqqah, no, no, no. it would be the syrian arabs. >> i guess the point is, mr. secr...