the position of what is a joint investigative mechanism, the u.n. body or the u.n. mandate that allows for proper investigation for the europe of chemical weapons. the russians vetoed that last october. thirdly, the vacuum at the heart of this conflict has been politics. there is no active u.n. peace process at the moment. the russians, the iranians and the turks have their own process. until the united states and its allies act both in concert and with clear strategy rather than just reactions to events, we re not going to be able to shape the situation on the ground to the benefit of, as you described, millions of syrians who, for a whole generation, are having their lives destroyed. david, could you just tell us for a moment, for those who say there s no chemical attacks happening, this is being overstated, there s a lot of people here in the united states who don t understand how massive this situation is and all the lives lost and the children. can you just speak to that for a
preserve those norms. i think it is worthwhile, attempting to do that. but, i guess, one of my concerns is that the use of force, the military toolbox, can be useful if it is harnessed to some kind of broader vision, some kind of broader strategy. it seems to me that president obama was willing to use the diplomatic toolbox without the military toolbox to back it up. it didn t work. i fear president trump is willing to use the military toolbox without the diplomatic tools to back it up, in ways that will impress his the folks at fox and friends, but won t make a difference for syrians on the ground. in the end, a diplomatic solution or political solution that is not just military with syria involves includes distasteful characters at table. not only the assad regime, but there are remnants of isis-ish and al qaeda-ish groups in syria. even if you get rid of them
the misery continues. that s on the local level. geopoli geopolitically, the russians and the iranians helped bashar win back territory and consolidate the gains. we ve seen the direct intervention of turkish forces against u.s.-backed kurdish forces that were instrumental in helping to push out islamic state from the so-called caliphate. a complicated war is just as complicated, if not more complicated a year after the u.s. strikes. is there any scenario that you see in which russia does come on board more to try to get assad out of power? reporter: very unlikely at this stage. i mean, just a few days ago, there was a meeting of the russian president and his iranian and turkish counterparts. they were meant to try and decide the future of syria. there were no syrians at the meeting. it s clear that russia has stuck by its ally, president bashar al
syria has not banned chemical weapons. it is a striking reversal from where he was a few years ago. those missile strikes by the u.s. were supposed to punish syria. here s the thing, the headline coming out of syria this morning is just as grim as the one a year ago, if not worse. innocent syrians are being killed, moms, dads, kids, babies, young, old, doesn t matter. we re not talking dozens or hundreds. nearly 500,000 people killed since the civil war there started seven years ago according to the syrian observatory of human rights. 10,000 have been killed in fighting. bashar al assad is still in power. russia is still propping him up. you heard the back and forth this week from the white house. president trump repeating calls for troops to leave syria but, for now, keeping them there. we go to beirut. on set, we have a journalist who covered the middle east for a
decade, including being based in syria during the start of the civil war. why doesn t the threat of u.s. intervention deter the regime? well, because it s sort of like screaming wolf for so many years. i think bashar al assad learned very early on in the conflict that the u.s. is not going to do anything to deter what he s doing. that nobody really cares at the end of the day, except for the strategic placement of syria, nobody cares for the syrian people. that iran and russia comes to the rescue. what is it like on the ground there? when you re covering it, when you re there, when you talk with people who are still there, give us a sense of being in the folks shoes. reporter: syrians are still dying a year after the strike. they re dying by more conventional means. the air strikes. the punishing russian and syrian regime air strikes that have emptied towns and villages. people are still being besieged, starved into submission and being forcibly displaced from their homes.