you know, first, let s say what we must, which is, god bless the troops whose lives were lost, those who were injured, and their families who serve right alongside the men and women who were on the battlefield. that must be said. it s a stark reminder. yes. and one you know better than i ever will, because of the experience you ve had in serving this country. and it s why i thank you for your service every time i see you. thank you. now, out of respect for them, let s deal with the politics here. because you have very different messages. this bombing is proof that you need to get out. you don t belong there. the bombing is proof that you have to stay, because it s not over. isis isn t done. how do you see it? i think the bombing is proof you have to stay. so when we know more about whoever this evil person was that did the bombing, they may not even be syrian. they may be there because they just want to kill people that think differently than them. undoubtedly, they targete
let s start with actual leaving of syria and why we need to go there in the first place. we went there because of isis. they were beheading american journalists on television, and there was a real demand from the american people to do something about this. they were obviously slaughtering thousands of innocent people in that country, and making entrance into iraq. a country that we had spent a lot of blood and treasure trying to fix. so president obama sent special operations forces. it s just an international coalition with dozens of countries around the world to defeat isis. we have largely done that. isis isn t entirely gone, unlike what president trump says. there is still about 30,000 fighters. they have a lot less territory but they are still there. also, syria has now become sort of this spanish civil war situation where everyone is getting involved. you have the russians in there, the iranians are in there, israel occasionally harris: it s kind of been that way from the b
reaction inside the administration, beyond mattis stepping down? we know the president was chafed by what the president sort of the interpretation of mattis resignation letter was. he accelerated mattis departure. and then we have lindsay i can t remember lindsey graham. lindsey graham comes out and says, actually, the president understands that fight against isis isn t entirely finished. finally, we have that trip by president trump to iraq. and it was at that point that he said, look, troops are going to stay in iraq so they can hit isis from iraq and he seems to be saying a little bit that they would have some sort of presence in the counterisis fight in syria, as well. what was interesting to me about the iraq trip is that s the first time that he said, okay, we haven t totally won the fight
fighting isis remnants. isis isn t mostly destroyed. a report released by the organization four months ago indicated 20,000 to 30,000 isis fighters are operating on the ground in iraq and syria. eric: a lot of concern about the impact on a possible withdrawal for the kurdish fighters in syria, of course. yes, as american troops prepare to leave syria, the effects of the u.s. withdrawal are already being felt across the region. on friday we did see russian-backed syrian forces entering the northeastern city at the invitation of kurdish fighters. previously these two groups have fought battles in syria the kurds feel a massive turkish military operation when the u.s. leaves the country. residents face either an invasion by the turks or takeover of syrian government forces, both of which could lead to more violence in northern syria. eric: certainly complicated. trey, thank you. heather: back at home the
to have the french and british also be reassured. we ve seen this with lindsey graham in the past. he can be critical of the president. then comes out and tries to play interpreter to the president. at least from lindsey graham s perspective the president on that trip came away and said it was a learning experience. the president s trip to iraq was eye-opening. the commanders there told him isis was in a world of hurt. not completely destroyed but well on their way. i think operations to completely destroy and decimate isis are going to be ongoing and are going to be accelerated. reporter: two points on that. number one commanders have been talking about how isis isn t defeated. that talked about that really for the last 16, 18 months. also in term of what we re hearing from lindsay graham, this is just lindsey graham s perspective. we still need to hear from the