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Power on the ground. these are the cities that the u.s. wants to be able to say isis has been booted out of. pamela? >> and what's interesting, just in the wake of what you're saying, barbara, he basically said, look the u.s. is doing our part. we're escalating the attacks against isis. now other countries they'd to do the same. and he singled out countries, peter. he said, you know, russia, saudi arabia, turkey. they need to step up to the plate. what do you make of that? >> you know, but what he's calling for is the reintroduction of arab air forces into the fight. again, that's reinforcing ...

Forward politically today. we don't want to commit military forces and risk lives and the treasure of the nation if we don't know what the end state is. the problem in iraq was we didn't have an end state. we hadn't done our political thinking to get it through. this is the time to put this together. so it's easy to focus on the military but it's not the right answer at this point. the question is what's the political shape and that's what the jousting is going on in vienna, that's the jousting going on between turkey and russia with the shoot-down. the question is, will bashar al assad stay a...

Export the front lines? >> there's no doubt that isis leadership in syria and iraq is both trying to consolidate territory and trying to both export and inspire attacks abroad. it's an all of the above approach. they have moved into a phase where they are able to do more beyond the borders of their so-called caliphate but it's always been their goal to pursue both of these strategies. the u.s. and allies can increase the pressure on the isis strongholds and we're seeing evidence of that now. there's a recognition amongst all western capitals that there is no way to defeat the islamic state sim...

The problem is, what the sustainable end state in syria that doesn't lead to the destruction of the country further and for syria's population to be fur her displaced. half of syria's 22 million population is now outside of their homes, either in neighboring countries for fleeing to europe. we have to find a stable end state. i don't think the assad regime, the iranians and russians can blast their way out of this one if think it will take a political settlement that is not in the cards. >> a settlement that would leave assad standing? because the united states said it's against that. >> i thi...

Long game. number two -- >> hold on, before you go to number two. so if president obama is no longer there of course because his time is going to run out and someone else is going to be elected, do you not think the next president will not get engaged with putin? it's the same problem. >> i think by the time the president -- this president is no longer president that you'll probably have some sort of russian-american negotiation. a deal, i'm not sure. but there will be an effort to negotiate some sort of end state. that's one of the reasons putin has played his hand, because he wants to streng...