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President xi jinping and kim jong un was confirmed. this high level face-to-face is the first known foreign trip for the north korean dictator since he took power in 2011. china says it will uphold friendship with neighbor while confirming pyongyang's commitment to denuclearization. president trump reacting on twitter earlier for years and through many administrations everyone said the piece and denuclearization of the korean peninsula was not even a possibility. now there is a good chance that kim jong un will do what is right for his people and for humanity. look forward to our meeting. join...

States and allies to bring pressure and presence in the region. this is not what china wants. china does not want a long standing increased u.s. presence and increased pressure from its competitors in the region. when you just reflect on china's self-interest in this pro-process. it's understandable they want to play an active role and get to end state that serves their needs. one of the pedestrianments is the nuclear program that north korea has. >> jon: certainly some promising outlook there. let's hope it all comes to fruition. retired air force general don alston, thank you very much, sir....

He will use this as influence in the region at large at the same time the u.s. is diminished in the region because we're disengaging in the region and all of our allied friends are looking for other countries to gain leverage against iran. that is really what is happening. martha: we've seen a brutal crackdown by assad in syria. we've seen brutality at work in crimea and ukraine as well, led, many people believe by vladmir putin. we heard president obama say that if the red line was crossed with that kind of brutality, that we wouldn't just stand by. as we all know we absolutely did stand by. ...

Discussed with general mckeon, that's a false issue. maliki brought that up when he knew the proposal on the table by the administration was not a serious proposal in terribles of troops. the outgoing on-scene commander general alston recommended 23,000 troops. the envoy for the president of the united states put 10,000 on the table and was willing to negotiate even less than that. maliki knew he didn't have a serious proposal. he wanted cover. he threw that out there to provide cover. huge mistake in not providing the forces. >> what do you think, general, the implications of doing nothing ar...

That recommendation was a minimal force of -- force of 40,000. the president provided 35% less. that has protracted the war and run up the kansas use and contributed to an evaporation of support from the american people for if the war. the second recommendation in 2012, general petraeus made a recommendation on the size of the reduction of the surge force by 2012. he made a modest recommendation in terms of force sides reduction. the president's decision was to remove all of the surge forces or 33,000 by the end of 2012. and that is ongoing right now. and puts the mission in the east at risk a...