find it in themselves to issue meaningful declarations. we ll have to see how it plays out. thank you so much. new article published today is titled this is how the next world war starts. it draws a sobering picture between the united states and russia and how the slightest mishap in routine surveillance operations could set off aggressions and lead to wash. joining me now is david wood, and from seattle, our military analyst and former gulf war division commander barry mccaffrey. i want to start with you, david. the article points out something very simple. you re not talking about big strategic reasons why war would star. you hone in on poland, a nato member.
he ll then head to bagram airfield and begin to make his way back to the u.s. at this point in time, there s no realti timeline for his retu. officials want to make sure he s in sound health before they bring him back to the u.s. we are being told he s in good condition. good news. kristen, thank you. i want to bring in msnbc military analyst general barry mccaffrey. he s a former gulf war division commander and former national security councilmember. general, first of all, in broad terms, your reaction to the news. well, it s good news. the armed forces have a continuing commitment to never leaving behind either the bodies of our fallen comrades or those who are mia or prisoners. so this is good. we re losing all our leverage in afghanistan as we withdraw. so i m glad the president got in there and was able to secure the soldier s release. what can we make of the five people who were released from guantanamo bay? too bad we can t be more
we ve seen it in every war. that s why those who have known wars hate it the most. all i can say is that we will continue to do everything we can to try to bring about as much care for those who suffered the wounds of war both visible and invisible. joining me now is nbc military analyst and former gulf war division commander general barry mccafferty. nice to see you that morning. we are learning new details daily about robert bales, exactly what his life was like, what he was going through overseas and at home. i want to let everybody know the background as we understand it is in no way an excuse of the alleged behavior that has been reported but he lost part of his foot, had a head injury. he suffered brain trauma as well. he s seen some of the most horrifying things that a soldier could see in combat over the last ten years, also put on top of that he was having family
a drone attack in northwest pakistan may have killed one of the al qaeda leaders, a known master mind of one of the recent suicide attacks there. the cia is drastically stepping up the drone bombing campaign in pakistan to stop terror plots against european targets. u.s. officials say 20 attacks have been lunched this month alone versus a previous peak of 12. u.s. commander general david petraeus says high level taliban leaders are reaching out to the afghan government to start discussions on reconciliation. retired u.s. army general is an msnbc military analyst and former gulf war division commander. he joins me live in washington. general, thank you for being with us. how do these attacks differ from previous drone attacks? the 20 attacks we re talking about? well, essentially the problem is, the network and to some extent the taliban are operating