Page 32 - Combat Role News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

How is the president going to explain what the mission is in afghanistan for these fighters? >> we'll have to hear from the president to try to explain this reversal and how things change because remember the president was emphatic back in march about keeping this promise is to end both wars before the end of his term. >> we have gone from 100,000 down to 10,000. they are not on the front lines because they are not in a combat role. the date for to us have completed our drawdown will not change. >> reporter: you can expect the white house to spread the responsibility for this decision around. ...

And this is a reflection of that. and it's a dangerous area. so part of what we're constantly trying to balance is making sure that afghans are out there, they're doing what they need to do, but that we are giving them a chance to succeed and that we're making sure that our force posture in the area for conducting those narrow missions that we need to conduct, we can do so relatively safely. there's still risks involved, but force protection, the ability of our embassies to operate effectively, those things all factor in. and so we've got to constantly review these approaches. the important th...

Kandahar, an area half the size of washington, d.c. >> this is a significant security development. these were two huge terrorist camps, within taliban territory. material to make ieds was found, anti-aircraft weapons, machine guns. this confirms recent report that there was a larger al qaeda presence in afghanistan and they're more spread out across the country than at any time since 2001. >> a press release from u.s. military headquarters in afghanistan spoke glowingly of the operation quote one of the largest joint ground assault operations we have ever conducted in afghanistan. a testament ...

Ground, based on the transitions i've talked about. i do believe we have do provide our senior leadership options different than the current plan we're going with. >> a senior pentagon official says they've recommended that the 3,000 to 5,000 troops remain after 2016. troops can quickly strike and assist the afghan military which general campbell admitted cannot stop the taliban, isis or al qaeda on their own. despite years of training and nearly $700 billion spent since the start of the war. >> they cannot handle t alone in this stage of their development. >> a stark contrast to what the pres...

Very imperfect if the russians indeed cooperate with us at all. and we're going to have to be circumspect about how much we're willing to share with them. >> is russia conducting military ground operations in syria right now? in other words, do they have boots on the ground? >> the russians do have boots on the ground. i don't know whether they have boots on the ground in a combat role yet. whether they're planning to obviously there have been public statements from moscow that they plan on sending volunteers. i think they invented a new definition of the word volunteer. but it's certainly pos...