Page 2 - Holding Raqqa News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> bret: we will continue the interview with vice president pence on a number of topics in a few minutes. they had of u.s. central command says he's going to need a lot more troops on the ground in the middle east and afghanistan to do with the commander-in-chief wants john. national security correspondent jennifer griffin's life from the pentagon with details. >> good evening. yesterday hundreds of u.s. marines arrived in syria to provide artillery cover in the fight for raqqa. now the general says more u.s. troops will be needed in afghanistan. >> do you agree we are in a stalemate in afghan...

>> this is not american troops out there to go and storm raqqa, destroy isis, and liberate the country. the the american troops betweene allies, the turks and kurds. we are acting as referees. this is a 6-cited conflict. unbelievably complicated. six years ago it wasn't. it was something that was understandable and we might've made a difference but at this point with the combatants, the rifle fire coming from all places, this is a very dangerous operation. without an obvious mission. >> bret: let's say they are successful and they quickly deal with isis in raqqa, what about holding raqqa and w...

Who president obama said had to leave many times but now currently doesn't. how do we hold it? >> it's not even clear we are going to be occupying it. charles krauthammer reminds me of the ill-fated mission to lebanon in the early 1980s where u.s. marines were put in there to keep other factions apart, and as we know, he did not work out well. i am hesitant to prejudge it. you have to remember that even president obama's former deputy secretary of state was calling for a more aggressive u.s. position in precisely this region. there is a lot of expert opinion that says we had to do something. i...

Before the american people and say i am putting ground troops into syria? apparently an open-ended commitment. i think there's a couple issues here, one is he's going to have to belly up to the question of legal authority at some point. we are still, as i understand it, out at the long end of the original 9/11 legal authority to have troops in the middle east. that is .1. i think is going to have to explain to people this is part of my strategy to crush isis. this is what i promised you. i think people would buy it and they will give him some latitude for that. ultimately it's going to be judg...

Who president obama said had to leave many times but now currently doesn't. how do we hold it? >> it's not even clear we are going to be occupying it. charles krauthammer reminds me of the ill-fated mission to lebanon in the early 1980s where u.s. marines were put in there to keep other factions apart, and as we know, he did not work out well. i am hesitant to prejudge it. you have to remember that even president obama's former deputy secretary of state was calling for a more aggressive u.s. position in precisely this region. there is a lot of expert opinion that says we had to do something. i...