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of some american ground troops, heland. >> wear already at six months going on ramadi so it doesn't bode well. general, appreciate your insight, sir. coming up, in his own words. sergeant bo bergdahl faces charges of desertion and misbehavior. we're learning new details from the popular podcast "serial." is all the attention helping or hurting his case? plus, did an arsonist target bill clinton's former childhood home? >> there's just evidence and signs that we do believe that it was intentionally set. coming up, they're running neck and neck in iowa and fighting for the same conservative voters. so why are trump and cruz saying such nice things about each other? we're going to ask our political panel coming up. >> i really like ted cruz. a lot of people don't like ted
decision about sending in heavy u.s. forces to help them take that city. >> in terms of the fight, not only against isis and iraq, but the fight against isis overall, is it time to begin talking about committing u.s. troops into syria and into these kinds of places? i know you've written about this heavily. at some level, the pentagon brass seems scared to even offer that proposal. >> you know, there's an old soldier saying called ground truth. you can strip out the politics. you can strip out the hope and the well wishing. at the end of the day, conditions on the ground are going to dictate what the coalition does. my sense is that ramadi is a good sign. let me tell you, leland, mosul and raqqah and syria are huge, huge isis-fortified cities, with 20,000 to 30,000 fighters. completely different situation. i think in about 13 months in a new administration they're going to rethink this campaign and we're going to see the infusion
watched what happens in ramadi, and everyone seems to admit mosul is going to be a tougher battle, is it kind of at some level to forget this idea of an iraqi army and have the realization it's either going to be a united states-led force or perhaps some kind of saudi-led force that's going to actually begin to try and take the fight to isis? >> short answer, heland, is too soon to tell. there's some promising signs from what we've seen around ramadi but there's also been some negative signs. remember, ramadi had at most 200,000 people. mosul has over 1 million. mosul is an ancient medieval city that isis has been digging into for over a year and a half now. some would say that mosul and raqqah and syria are just two nuts that are just too big to crack by the iraqi army. i think what the administration is saying now is the campaign season starts in april. let the iraqis get their act together. figure out how to do this campaign against mosul, see how they do, and then make the
mexico, texas, okay lahoma, colorado and kansas. it will be next to impossible it not impossible to travel in these areas. so keep a close eye on your latest weather forecast and you can see the clash of the two air masses. very cold behind this. ahead of it, warm unstable air mass, almost like a springtime storm because of the temperatures. and that will continue monday into tuesday. so multifaceted storm. the risk for tornadoes this afternoon in towards the evening and then the blizzard behind it. certainly a lot to track and we'll keep you posted. back to you. all right. thank you so much, janice. leland. >> iraqi ground troops are pushing in to the final stronghold in ramadi as they try capture that city. ground troop advancement slowed as isis deployed bombs and booby trap, but pushes are pushing ahead despite all the says backs oig recapturing the city which
engagement. and the rules simply state that you're not to put in any civilians in danger. and the problem with ramadi is that the circle is so tight around the isis fighters that are left, is is that you can't get the minimum safe distance for heavier bombs inside the city. and also the hundred or so remaining isis fighters are using innocent civilians as human shields to prevent the air force, particularly, from dropping its heavier bombs, like 1,000 pounders and 2,000 pounders. and the result is that only a very few number of air strikes are authorized in close support of the iraqi forces inside of ramadi. >> you think about this fight for ramadi and just so we have a time line here. ramadi fell back in may 2015. iraqis allegedly started their assault to retake it in july of 2015. this is now teadecember. that doesn't seem to bode well for whoever is left of the iraqi army. >> remember, ramadi is two
things. first of all, it's a template for what the iraqi army does next. second, it's sort of a testing ground, if you will. the iraqi army has put several different commanders through that effort. they've rotated commando units back and forth through ramadi. they've tried out different tactics, techniques and procedure, you know, following sort of a siege tactic to close in on ramadi. if anything, ramadi has been a chance for the iraqi army to sort themselves out, go to school, find out who the good leaders are and also to improve the quality of liaison between the iraqi army and the american advisers. does it bode well for mosul? i don't think anybody knows. remember, mosul is a long, long way from baghdad and the iraqi army's biggest problem now is not close combat or air strikes but it's logistics. getting to mosul and taking that much larger city down, leland. >> at some lovell, as we've
of the population has returned. isil has been almost completely pushed back from beijing where iraqi aircraft flying u.s. supplied f-16s provide close ai ground and four columns of iraqi troops closing in on ramadi. jenna: also the assistant secretary for near eastern affairs and patterson also said they have been thwarted in their long-term efforts because of isis, because of russia. here she is. >> finally, i would be the first to read knit, mr. chairman, we have been absolutely absorbed by the crises in the region such as isil and syria and libya and we have been unable in many respects to implement successful these longer-term strategies and focus on underlying difficulties. >> reporter: army colonel steve warren, spokesperson for the joint combined staff in iraq and
small nuclear bomb. do they have the will? do they have the strategy? >> no, i suspect secretary cart hears committed the classic washington gaffe of telling the truth inadvertently. the reason the lack of a will to fight is so important is because the iraqi army realizes that it doesn't have the staying power the capability against the fanaticism of isis. they're scared of losing. they're scared of being captured. i don't think there is anything the united states is going to do in the near term to change that around. the attack that is now about to be mounted on ramadi may succeed because of overwhelming numbers, because of unleashing shia militia but i tell you as in earlier battles, with for example, tikrit recently the shia militias go in and commit atrocities almost guaranteed to do. you're simply reinforcing the strategic reality that iraq as a state has ceased to exist. i don't think the united states benefits at all by supporting the baghdad government.
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because if the trend is as we have seen it over the next few days isis is slowly making progress in anbar province. it did manage to take over another town that is to the east of ramadi and trying to attack yet another area closer to the habbaniya base where the iraqi government trying beef up its presence and seems unto this point unable to do so that would prevent isis from advancing. >> all of those women and children and other refugees are just sitting ducks there. thank you for that report. i appreciate it. the fall of ramadi is being blamed by some on the united states. some say the iraqi forces were ill equipped for the fight and others say u.s. commanders in baghdad made iraq's prime minister delay the deployment of iranian backed shiite militia fighters. joining me to discuss this is retired lieutenant kourple james reese, cnn global affairs analyst and delta force commander and here in washington phil mudd cnn's counter