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Transcripts for CNN Fareed Zakaria GPS 20151227 18:33:30 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Of syria, working with the kurds forces there primarily to improve the air strikes targeting of isis targets there in syria, but to better coordinate u.s. efforts with those on the ground in syria and the 50 special operations forces that the president also authorized to go into iraq not only to provide aid and assistance to ground forces there, but to conduct raids against high value targets in iraq and syria, isis targets, in an effort to gather more intelligence. but we don t have any idea that those forces have arrived. i have to tell you, this argument about whether more ground forces, substantial u.s. ground force could go into iraq, well, quite frankly, as we are told, that s not a u.s. decision. iraq doesn t want that to happen but more importantly, we are told, that iranian elements, particularly the quds forces and ....
Street, that might be exponentially larger than anything we have seen out of syria so far. that has raised increased concerns at the pentagon. jim, thanks. back to andrea mitchell we go. andrea, we are looking at that picture on the stage, four generals, 16 stars among them, yet that s only part of the equation. as jim points out, especially in the middle east, among the broken countries, among the countries where there is trouble, where there is a vacuum, that s the troubled spot. the u.s., to use the term of art at the pentagon, doesn t have eyes on all of that real estate. not at all. in fact, the iraqi partners have been woefully lacking. that s still a work in progress. we didn t get the regional force, the local force that we still are trying to put up in syria, for all the money that ....
Incapable of self-rule. and i still believe the only answer to radical islam is to modernize. such societies from indonesia to india to bosnia seem far less susceptible to the pull of jihad. now, i did urge a very different approach to iraq. many more troops to maintain order. i urged a u.n. mandate to provide greater legitimacy and avoid american occupation of a middle eastern country. i warned that iraq s secretary divisions would pull the country apart. but it doesn t change the fact that i did support the decision to topple saddam hussein s regime. some good came of it. saddam was a gruesome dictator who killed hundreds of thousands and plunged his country into wars. kurdistan is a real success story, an o way sis of stablity, ....
They struggled with how to go on ground combat. the iraq army banned positions. the same that famously run from battle when confronted by isis. the iraqi army out numbered isis 20, 30-1 in isil, the second largest city and basically surrounded it without a fight. perhaps the most important question is, does it make sense to go to war again in a country that may not even be a country anymore? listen to the people who know iraq well. iraq doesn t exist except lines on a map. most iraqis no longer see themselves as iraqis. they seem themselves as shia or they seem themselves as sunni or ....