was adamant the isis fight is not done. we have made significant progress recently in the campaign, but the job is not yet done. reporter: an official dod estimate says there may be up to 30,000 isis fighters in iraq and syria. just days ago the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the u.s. was not close to finishing its task of training local forces to fight isis. we estimate, for example, about 35,000 to 40,000 local forces have to be trained and equipped in order to provide stability. we re probably somewhere along the line of 20% through the training of those forces, but with regard to stabilization we still have a long way to go. so i would be reluctant to affix a time. the planned pull-out comes a day after the u.s. announced it was selling turkey a patriot missile defense system, something turkey wanted. now it is raising questions whether trump s decision paves
that had been devastated by the isis fight. the last part of this is what does it mean on the ground? the thousands of fighters backed by the u.s. in syria, local fighters, will they be abandoned now? what will russian backed militias do? they are in syria and will be left with the sole influence on the ground along with the syrian regime. the u.s. may find itself very rapidly shut out of this very vital corner of the middle east. nick, i want to bring you in on this because the president is claiming victory saying isis has been defeated. that is at odds with what senior administration officialvise said. even just yesterday the state department said the job of defeating isis is not done yet. what are the facts here about the president s claim? it depends what you mean by defeated. they have lost their major
isis is defeated, and ordered the surprise with dradrawal of 2,000 u.s. ground troops where isis still controls territory. leaving the pentagon, which does not believe isis has been completely defeated, scrambling to did evise a way to get them of harm s way. this clearly sends a message to moscow and tehran that syria and, frankly, bigger parts of the middle east, are yours. there is confusion on all fronts. several allies caught unaware. on tuesday, the state department was adamant, the isis fight is not done. we ve made significant progress. recently in the campaign. and but the job is not yet done. an official dod estimate says there may be up to 30,000 isis fighters in iraq and syria. just days ago, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said
ability to sarin and mustard agent? i believe so because of the specific storage. admiral kirby, what should the u.s. do now? i don t think from the military perspective you will see a change, alisyn. you saw secretary mattis say they defined the military issue. a counter isis fight. they are willing to take action with respect to the use of chemical weapons. beyond that, i don t see much appetite in the pentagon or the white house to change the military mission. what needs to happen next, alisyn, i think the country needs to have an honest debate of the degree to which a stable syria is in our national security interest. you could go down either way. you have half a million killed by their own government. you have millions flung into refugee status. i think we need to have that discussion. then from the answers from that
i don t think any appetite here in the united states and internationally for that kind of action. all these are very high risk. keeping with my sewing theme, a friendship quilt. you could do an expanded set of missions for your troops that you already have on the ground. we have 2,000 special operators there mostly advise and assist missions. their job is to counter isis and to get the syrian democratic forces to do better against isis. allow them to include regime targets or maybe go after them, you could do that. all the support we ve given to syrian democratic forces and forces on the ground has all been, again, against the isis fight. what if we did more arming for opposition and rebel groups and, of course, we could enlist the aid of regional allies. when the president said the other day let other people take care of it now we think he was talking about some of our arab