the amount of activity. that hasn't happened this year. that's what's driving these taliban operations. they are retaliating against the president, against the united states for this increased operations tempo. >> making some very deadly statements. so i want to shift now to syria, a place where you spent a great deal of time. right now u.s. forces are in syria and supporting kurdish forces which has upset turkey. here's an exchange that cnn had with the head of u.s. central command. >> we're hearing from the turkish government continuously saying they are asking the united states to withdraw. is that something you're looking to do. is that a scenario you see happening. >> right now it's not something we're looking into. >> so might this escalate to more u.s. troops being put on the ground in syria? >> at some point we're going to come to a showdown with the