some of these people have cut out the hearts of their enemy and eaten them on television. not moderate at all. in my personal opinion, the best thing would be for everyone to get out, and let the syrians deal with their own problems. but that s not going to happen. clearly, the u.s. is involved. russia is involved. and the best would be to get rid of isis. i think that s what s important. i do believe that s what president putin thinks. although i ve not had the opportunity to ask him that question. you have heard the reports there are at least 600 boots on the ground and to house thousands mores with facilities. there does seem there is going to be a land component and manpower there, it would be consistent with efforts to shore up the assad regime which is struggling against the rebel base which you know the u.s. and west support. how can russia work with the u.s. against isis, if at the same time, it is supporting the
down. that is not the intent here. so the u.s. also launching air strikes against isis at this time? yes, absolutely. we will continue to do that. certainly naulot in the same volume. russia has done 20 or 25. united states, to this date, don about six. there s a mismatch. so there s a mismatch. how do you see this playing out? well the real issue to me, we ve spent american treasure, we ve put ourselves at risk. we ve got ourselves politically at risk. and we re saying we want to train anti-regime forces but we want them to go against the regime. we need to let that loose and let them go against isis and regime. but we also have to build that up a little bit. the message that we re sending now, you re kind of on your own. just in the past hour, reuters has reported that u.s.
it comes to isis. they have more to feel afraid when it comes to isis than the u.s. does. they have big populations. they re closer in terms of access to land. so they would do that. in terms of assad, what s the mystery? we re backing up assad? russia s backing them up. they said, he s the only legitimate rurler there. and we re going to do it. if it s so out in the open, why does the u.s. seem so confused by the motivations and the way forward? well, i don t think we re confused by the motivation. i certainly think it s clear that putin isn t being honest about what his motivations are. they announced the military campaign is a way of going after isis. trying to defeat isis. then they went and attacked not isis but the modern acquisition. the turks announced a few months ago, you might recall, that they were joining in the campaign against isis. what did they do? they went in and bombed the
then. because he was not dishonorly discharged he was able to legally purchase guns. two of the victims have been laid to rest. there will be another funeral today, with several more over the next few days. this community, michaela, is going to be in mourning for quite sometime. dan, that s an important piece of insight into this man. everybody is wondering what was missed? what was the motivation, thank you for that. russia is stepping up its military campaign against syria by land, sea and air to shore up the assad regime, or not. overnight, russia s defense minister said cruise missiles fired for ships hit isis targets in syria. this comes after two u.s. aircraft had to be rerouted to avoid a close encounter in syria s airspace. let s bring in arwa damon. arwa, two points, the sense on
the ground and the impact of human desperation. reporter: well, on the ground speak to anyone but the russians and the assad regime. they will tell you that it s quite clear that russia s intent is not necessarily to simply destroy isis, but perhaps is more focused on ensuring that the syrian army is able to recapture key territory from a variety of different rebel forces. turkey, nato, the united states, all disputing russia s claims that it is in fact only targets isis or other terrorist organizations. turkey saying only a fraction of strikes, according to nato, 10%, actually hitting isis. i ve been watching a lot of youtube videos over the last few hour. it s heartbreaking, desperate attempts by syrian volunteers knowing the syrian civil defense or the white helmets scrambling trying to extract, according to these video, civilians from homes that have been reduced to