mission accomplished, which the president got heat for even saying? mission accomplished, absolutely. those missiles hit their targets. think about what happened, martha. here we were able to carry out a precise strike, literally over the heads of the russian forces in that area. the syrian air defenses were too afraid to activate them and use the full electronic capacity. they took unguided missile shots. britain and france and the u.s. created precision rubble out of what used to be a chemical weapons site. so absolutely, mission accomplished. a narrow set of objectives and we accomplished them. martha: you said something interesting earlier. you said assad may stay in power in his corner, but this whole thing makes it looks like not such a great deal to be a russian ally. right. let s think about that map of syria. so we ve been doing the anti-isis mop-up operations in the northeast corner, part of
damascus this morning. good morning to you. reporter: hi, david. certainly those words from president trump sent is a clear signal. all the players here in syria, both international and national ones, that america wants out of here. that has done a lot to undermine america s credibility here on the ground. if you look at america s allies, isis, the kurds, they are quite ang angry. ground forces fighting isis ask and thought america would be in it for the long run. some of the forces are already talking to russia. president trump says he wants other countries to step up here in syria. three countries that certainly are stepping up, iran, turkey, and russia. i would say right now the russians are the strongest outside player here inside syria, especially where i am in the damascus area. the the three countries had a
war. this is not going to get done in six months. it might not get done in six years. this is sort of an ongoing fight against the forces of radicalism which, if you allow them to regroup, if you pull out and sort of let them hang out in the desert and reconstitute themselves, we ll be having this conversation again. the president said as a candidate we re going to defeat isis. we re not going to cut and run. he made a huge deal of that. at the same time, the tension piece is just what obama felt, where he felt he got rolled by the military. this is a perennial problem. how long do you stay in a region where the an seasons of u.s. leadership can create a vacuum? yeah. the entire reason we have a problem with isis in syria is because, in large part, there was a vacuum. he believes we need to get troops out.
anti isis. we are living with the government. russia, turkey, eye ran, you essentially decide the future of this country. let s pick up on that. we have seen this before. i think if we have learned one overarching lesson from 9/11 is that failed states result in safe havens, result in critical threats to our national security. so in syria, you both have that, which is how isis was able to form. but you also have this vacuum that iran and russia are eager to fill. what does that mean? if the u.s. pulls out of this idea to shape syria s future, what advantage is it specifically for russia? it shows russia is willing to act decisively so others will start aligning themselves with russia. even on the narrow counterterrorism. it means it s a question of when and not if.
we may have to go back. groups like isis, al qaeda, similar to that, one way or the other they will find a way to reconstitute themselves. the president needs to take on board the idea this is not a traditional war. this kind of war doesn t have a beginning, middle, end. it just continues as long as the terrorists want to apply their trade. we have to be there modestly, but we need to be there working with locals. in this case the syrian kurds. this haste for clarity, for completion is totally inconsistent with the nature of the enemy we re fighting. suspect the push back, look, obama felt he got rolled by the military by surging up in afghanistan. the forever war in afghanistan is still at some point going to result in the taliban being in the government. so is the only answer that the u.s. has to have some presence to keep terrorism from taking root? and that s a tough pill to swallow. i don t know why it is that tough a pill to swallow.