i want to read you something that trump said to the financial times. i am not the united states of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the middle east. or they say, i used it in the speeches. we will be attack mosul in four months. a month later, we ll be attack in three months, in two months, inne month. why are they talking? he ran on this idea that he would be unpredictable. they parroted when it you interviewed them. does that bori does that work in the world stage? unpredictability with our adversaries like al qaeda and the islamic state, that s a good thing. not to telegraph our moves. with tallize, they count on it. with the germ ans, angela merkel was looking for solidity to
when, where or how the united states was coming. just listen to the president. i m not going to tell you anything about what response i do. i don t talk about military response. i don t say i m going into mosul in four months. we are going to attack mosul in four months. then three months later, we re going to attack mosul in one month. next week we are going to attack mosul. barbara starr is live at the pentagon. he said that throughout the campaign. criticized his political opponents for talking about strategy when it comes to defeating isis. why is central command coming out with pretty detailed information? no surprise. i m going to agree with my colleague ben wedeman, detailed information but not all that detailed and not that much of a surprise. the battle for mosul has been going on for months now. iraqi forces well known, well documented in east mosul, so they are now moving west. this statement is exactly what
donald trump s cabinet is saying, it is all very comforting to our allies. if donald trump could just get in line with his own policy and show a little bit of discipline i m dead serious! the rest of the world would be much better off this morning than it is. there you go. there is the key phrase right there. our allies. that clip we just played of president trump talking about he is not going to give up his secret plans, you know, to invite mo invade mosul. we are not invading moosshiple. the iraqi army is invading mosul and has to reliberate their country and iraqi army is part of our allies and we have numbers of american troops on the ground as advisers, but this is not our job. it s the iraqi army s job. i really do like the idea of the trump cabinet rising up and tell the world, pay no attention to the president of the united states. coming up, the vice president tries to reassure our allies while overseas that the u.s. will hold russia accountedable, but now reporting
mosul. in one week, one week we are going to attack mosul. mosul is very, very difficult. you know why? i don t talk about military and certain other things. so the commander in chief says never talk about the plans in advance and then, yesterday, u.s. central command announced the beginning of this long anticipated operation to retake mos mosul. the commander of the u.s. led attack said it will be a tough fight for any army in the world. you ll recall that during the campaign, president trump hammered former president obama for announcing operations against isis, including in mosul, before they got under way. what you do is you do a sneak attack or a surprise attack. right? right? we are too predictable. here is obama. we believe they are in mosul, so in three or four months, let s see. he goes, three or four months, we will be attacking mosul
could actually violate the geneva convention. a number of concerns have been raised with it. again, this comes at a critical moment in the fight against isis and, also, as u.s. iraqi troops try to reclaim mosul. defense secretary james mattis making that unannounced visit to baghdad and trying to reassure the u.s. allies there that this is not a tactic that americans are going to take, but, of course, the president has said over and over again, he is not going to signal and preview his strategy. so while the defense secretary is saying that this is something that is off the table, again, it s something that we have heard a number of times from the president. so undoubtedly something that will be a topic of debate here at the white house. back to you, guys. kristen welker, thank you. donald trump or james mattis, who you going to believe as we roll forward? general mattis is correct and nod into the sequence we just showed.