for five years u.s. has been at the head of an international coalition to beat isis. they had a bunch of partners including the governments. many belief the kurds have done more than nominations roll back isis. the kurdish forces control a big swath of land on the turkish border. here s the problem, there is almost nothing in the world that the president of turk, recep erdogan, is more worried about than prospect of kurdish independence. erdogan doesn t want them to have it. he and his government have been the lending as soon as the this isis fight is over, they re going to roll through and clean out those kurdish forces. for five years across two different administrations, u.s. policy has been, like, no, those are our allies. until last night. out of nowhere, surprising everyone, the white house
isis if released. so he can fight and kill americans, he says, because they are killing us and we will kill them. and on the other side of the border, in iraq, we fly back to baghdad and we witness what the u.s. military already knows. that this is a fight far from over. and many of these military leaders have been to iraq before. came back again for the isis fight. brigadier general william sealy among them. i m curious. six tours later, did you think we d be heading out to anbar to get the enemy again? it is it is surreal that we re going back out to al anbar. that s where they are. but that s where they ll die. and you saw that prison there. there are at least 10,000 isis fighters in custody of u.s.-backed forces in syria right now. about 2,000 of them from countries all over the world, including the u.s. tonight we ve learned, so far, at least eight american adults and 13 children have been brought back to the u.s. and tonight on nightline, our exclusive reporting con
which did not knock down the world trade center? we had a place that was not conducive to terrorists. the terrorists were killed instantly in iraq. now it s a tough situation. so i think we should not have been in the middle east. with that being said, we ve done a great job. i took over the isis fight. we knocked out 100% of the caliphate. that doesn t mean they ll blow up a store. they re totally crazy. we knocked out 100% of the calipha caliphate. president obama lost control of the military, lost control of the fighting and our military was depleted and in bad shape. these folks know it better than anybody. they were in bad shape. we ll soon have the strongest military we ve ever long-term damage by far. nobody will mess with us. will you have a trade deal
supporting him, who are saying, yes, it is on the democrats, you own this. but the president said he owns it. but fred, he has walked everything back at one point or another, since he s been there. since day one. when they showed his picture and said that the inaugural crowd was the largest ever. they create the facts. and then they want us to report them. it is a long cry from where it was, when reagan, larry said, speak, don t tell us how to stage the news and we won t tell you how to report the news. this administration wants to stage it and change how it is reporting. this is not news. this is how trump operates. we will leave it there for now. merry christmas. brian, lynn, good to see you both. appreciate it. good to see you. all right, still ahead, a new resignation. over president trump s surprise withdrawal of the u.s. troops from syria. the top u.s. envoy in the isis fight quitting a day after secretary of defense jim mattis turned in his resignation. so what does, w
resistance to the russian influence in the region and preventing iran from shipping weapons from iran and iraq straight through syria to lebanon where they can be used to threaten a key u.s. ally to israel. that was a very important geopolitical role there. secondly or so, they were kind of acting in a way to calm turkish concerns to the north. turkey is another u.s. ally that thinks some of the forces the americans have been working along side are terrorists. the fact the americans were there kind of calmed that down to some degree. i think in the hearts they knew as long as the americans were around things wouldn t get out of control. there is the isis fight. you can t possibly suggest it is over. they are massively diminished. you might argue that from now on they are basically chasing demons in the dust. there is no major geographical hub they can point fire power at. they are resurging to some