Page 7 - John Alterman News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

At the taliban never agreed to meet with the government of afghanistan. that was always a bit of a stretch. it was always a bit of a stretch that this thing would work. i think when i've seen presidents hosting negotiations at camp david, there have been very narrow things that had to be bridged or you have made enough progress along the way, that you can see how the president could be closer here. it seems like the president was coming to negotiations that remain far apart, not between the u.s. and afghanistan, not between the u.s. and taliban, but between the two parties in afghanistan. and ...

Envoy said american troops would not be leaving any time soon. >> it's fair to say americans will remain on the ground after the physical defeat of the caliphate to make sure that that defeat is enduring. >> in a statement, the coalition is liberated but the process is not over. we started to bring home troops as we transition to the next phase of the campaign. i'm told the troops have not started leaving syria but will in the coming days. one of the reasons defense secretary mattis and john bolton wanted to keep the troops on the ground, to make sure isis doesn't return and keep an eye on ira...

Internal politics. i think a lot of this is going to have to play out there will be some sort of investigation and the u.s. and others will be judging how sincere the saudis are. how transparent and part of what we have to keep in mind, people haven't been paying that much attention to is whatever the saudis tell us we will have some way to judge whether some part of it is true. through intelligence interseptember. through things that the tuckers have given us, so as the saudis come clean about what they know and what happened, we will have a way to judge how honest they are being with us. >> ...

Allies. >> is the u.s. military ready for a strike? >> we stand ready to provide military options if appropriate as the president determines. thanks very much, ladies and gentlemen. thank you very much. >> russia is threatening to target u.s. warships or bases that fire on syria. remember, there's 2,000 u.s. troops in eastern syria. russia haas been jamming the gps of u.s. drones. a delegation of russian lawmakers are in damascus meeting president assad. it's not clear what their message will be. the russians are claiming the images from douma are fake. >> shepard: thanks, jennifer. let's go t...

Historical norms outs of bounds here? >> again, there's no question that we can strike things, we can destroy things. the real question is what is our purpose. how does it fit in. how does the strike fit in to a broader set of actions that get you where you want to go. i understand this is certain novelty in being able to launch the strike. you have to do it for a purpose. it has to be part of a series of actions. i don't think either the obama administration or the trump administration has been clear enough to itself let alone to the american public what the series of actions is and what the ...