Wasnt Combat News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

So -- a ground combat operation in syria. so i'm trying to figure out how can we measure that? what are soldiers in combat doing that these train, advise and assist soldiers aren't doing? it looks and smells and sounds like a combat mission. and soldiers are dying. the pentagon has described some of this -- >> let me say, what i'm trying to do is to be as specific as possible with you about the specific responsibilities that these special operations personnel have. this is not in any way an attempt to diminish the risk that they will face or the bravery that they will need to summon to carry o...

Away from them. we have three layers of potential combat operations inside syria that we did not have when they were moving in and out. the placement of them in syria for any length of time implies these other levels of protection which are all combat, correct? >> again, i think what you primarily described are air combat operations that these are military pilots taking military strikes against enemy targets. they have been under way for more than a year. so i'm not sure that this represents a dramatic change in terms of our military air presence. you can check with the department of defense t...

Week saying we are in combat. so i'm just, it would be great if we can just have a moment of clarity here and you can acknowledge that yes, this mission is changing, it is not what it was said waits going to be at the onset of this. i just -- >> to say that, jim, would only confuse the situation. the fact of the matter is, the mission that the commander in chief has given our military personnel in iraq and now in syria, is a train, advise and assist mission. we have gone to great lengths to make clear that that is in no way dmiminishing the amount of risk or men and women in uniform will be fa...

>> a very boisterous hearing today, some aggressive questioning, but we expected that with this news, first reported for us by our chief foreign correspondent richard engel, who has been listening from istanbul, turkey, to this briefing and we will start, richard, with you. what did you not hear asked and what answer differed with the information as you understand it? >> reporter: well, as i have been listening to the white house trying incredibly hard to explain how this is not a combat role, but describing it with all of the attributes that go along with combat, these special operations forc...

At that time, white house officials were saying it wasn't combat. secretary of defense carter was the first one in the administration to say from the podium here in the pentagon it's combat, it's complicated. subsequently, other military officials have said of course it's combat. if you're on the ground, if you're getting shot at and returning fire, it's combat. and i understand what josh earnest is going through. he's trying to protect more or less a political policy rather than a military mission here. and if there are u.s. military forces on the ground for a sustained period of time inside ...