are so extensive that if fully met the american military might be keeping its involvement in syria instead of reducing it before leaving. president erdogan woke up and maybe thought it wasn t such a good idea to ask us to leave. just last week alone we took 400 strikes against the islamic state, turkey doesn t have the capabilities we have, the logistics, the air capability. our counterinsurgency tactics and strategy the turkey doesn t have and then you ve got iran and russia mounting chemical weapons attacks against innocent civilians. turkey has been hit with a lot of terrorist attacks and they won t enjoy a productive relationship with the kurds. the united states through the kurds leveraging our kurdish allies have taken the fight to isis and that makes turkey nervous. officials are set to have negotiations through the next week, john bolton, general dunford.
twofold, one to eliminate isis geographic space and destroy them and then secondly to eventually to induce iran to remove their military capability from syria, that s a very difficult long-term challenge but one that the israelis would appreciate. are 2,000 troops coupled with air capability, they have been able to provide train and assist, assistance to kurds, i think we have done a lot obviously to combat isis, certainly the russians and the syrians and the iranians aren t doing it. as far as getting iran out of syria, that s a taller difficult order, i think it would take more commitment on our part. i m not sure the president wants to commit that but i would just add the president has been tough on iran than any by tearing up the jcpoa and massive sanctions. eric: tehran has continued to
trump says he s going to pay a big price. if he doesn t pay a big price, then he looks weak in the eyes of our allies. so this is the most consequential decision he ll make. he said assad is going to pay a big price. that big price has to include the destruction of his air capability and putting him on the target list. anything less i don t think is a big price. barbara starr is live in the pentagon. barbara, we re about to hear from the white house, but until then, what options are on the table? it starts with getting those coalition leaders on board, the president talking to the british leader and french leader macron. he definitely wants them to be part of any military action. the big question, what targets does the u.s. hit inside syria? if they re going inside the airfield like they did last time, this latest attack was by
we re going to hold the territory without some american involvement. and if you don t understand that syria is crucial to regional stability in our national security, you re making a huge mistake. at this moment, we don t know how the president is going to respond. if he doesn t respond with military action, if he doesn t do that, if he says let s go to the u.n. and discuss, what does that mean to you? would be the biggest mistake of his presidency. good luck getting north korea to change their behavior because she drew a red line, where you should or shouldn t, you did. so trump, says he s going to pay a big price. if he doesn t, he s like obama, weak in the eyes of our enemies and unreliable in the eyes of our allies. so this is the most consequential decision he ll make. he said assad will pay a big price. that big price has to include the destruction of the air capability and putting him on the target less. anything less is not a very big price. you called this a defining
so at the end of the day, you got to have a military response that destroys assad s capability to do it yet again. barbara was laying out, it is tough to decide what option to hit. what is a good option? you would be forced to take out the air force, but doesn t sound like taking out the air force would have stopped if the chemical attacks come out of a helicopter. well, if their bases can t used for fighter jets, that s a step in the right direction. i would go after all the infrastructure around the air capability. i would hit his intelligence services xla s complicit in war crimes. what i would do is let kim jong-un and the ayatollah know that when trump sets a red line, he means it. this is not an all-out assault on assad s capability to deliver chemical weapons. if it is not an effort to degrade hisfailure.