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They are trying to accomplish. what their goals are. as i said. most of these countries have another agenda. the saudis are worried about iran, the turks more about the kurds and so on. but they're both united in the fact that assad has to go before you can make progress against isis. i think we need to listen to them if we want them to be active and aggressive members of the coalition. but the reality the you hear people talk about sending combat formations from arab nations into iraq to fight isis, that's just not going to happen. first they are not going to send their troops, not willing to...

S arabia are not sort of following the u.s. strategic goal here? >> well, i think those two really do have to be on board or we have to be on board with them in terms of priorities, and i think we need to look at what they are trying to accomplish, what their goals are. as i said, most of these countries have another agenda. the saudis are worried about iran, the turks more about the kurds and so on. but they're both united in the fact that assad has to go before you can make any real progress against isis. i think we need to listen to them if we want them to be active and aggressive members o...

Don't aggravate the problem. you're not going to have combat formations coming out of raqqah wearing isis uniforms to confront american troops. they're going to melt into a population of several hundred thousand people or more broadly. so i don't see what a totally different kind of strategy, what kind of totally different strategy would actually work in those circumstances. >> robert gates, former secretary of defense to presidents bush and obama. coming up, it may be the biggest political endorsement of the republican primary season and it's the one that comes from the new hampshire "union...

Maneuver force where you can take out combat formations. these are individuals who have inserted themselves within the public. they're beginning to use human shields. but you're right, i think the intensity of the bombing campaign over the last month, since france has joined in, the united kingdom will soon join in. there's about seven or eight different nato nations that were actually conducting operations. remember, russia has taken some of that pressure off by not becaming isis, even though they said they had, and in fact they're bombing some of the people who are fighting isis, the turkmen...

A combat role. >> u.s. forces are not in an active combat mission. >> it represents a continuation of our advice and assist mission. >> our position is a support mission. >> we do not have combat coordinations there the way we had once upon a time in iraq. >> u.s. forces are not in a combat role in iraq. >> and it went on. retired army reserve lieutenant colonel tony shaffer is an operative. they got hammered from press across the board from every media outlet. >> yes, they did. >> for refusing to say this is combat. does it have anything to do with barack obama saying specifically back in 201...