Counterterrorism Platform News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Even if they wanted to play by the rules, they don't have drones, they do not have an intelligence apparatus like we do. they would be very dangerous for us to give up the counterterrorism platform and capabilities. we have afghanistan to monitor al qaeda and isis. they will not do a peace deal, so when it comes to trusting the tele- ban to take care of america, the only people i trusted take care of america is american soldiers and american intelligence communities. another 9/11 would eventually come about if we pulled the plug on afghanistan. >> martha: senator graham, always good to see you...

Troops in afghanistan. we have to protect our embassy, we have a counterterrorism platform that's useful in pakistan. et cetera. so obama didn't go down that road. and, in fact, trump is -- you know, if the reports are correct, we're going down to 7,000, that's not a particularly large force, obviously, but enough to protect the embassy. enough to carry out some kind of terrorism operations. and it is his purgative as commander in chief to do this. >> you're a former intelligence official, operative, whatever you want to call it. it's probably fair to say that even if u.s. troops will not be i...

Do you think he's going to say that the united states is getting out like he has said all along during the campaign? >> well, no, i don't or at least i certainly hope he doesn't say we're getting out. apart from the tremendous blood and treasure we have invested in afghanistan is its great importance as a counterterrorism platform not only for afghanistan but for the region. if that's part of the strategy, which i think it has to be, that then requires that we be positioned in several locations in afghanistan to optimize intelligence collection. a lot of this has to do with warning for our dip...

Maximize what we can do to support moderate opposition that not only can counteract the brutality of assad but also can make sure that in the kinds of sunnis, they don't think their only alternative is mr. assad or extremist groups like isil or al nasra. >> -- as the secretary of state alluded to? >> i think the key to both syria and iraq is going to be a combination of what happens inside the country, working with moderate syrian opposition, working with an iraqi government that is inclusive, and us laying down a more effective counterterrorism platform that gets all the countries in the regi...

Iraq, we had already tried to maximize what we can do to support a moderate opposition that not only can counteract the brutality of assad, but also can make sure that in the minds of sunnis, they don't think that their only alternative is either mr. assad or extremist groups like isil. >> and can you speak to what you might be doing as the secretary of state alluded to? >> i think that the key to both syria and iraq is going to be a combination of what happens inside the country, working with moderate syrian opposition, working with an iraqi government that is inclusive, and us laying down a ...