62%, no response. talk about not a tricky question. do we have any responsibility to think about going into war? on fox news this week, bill kristol, being the hawk he is, dismissed the importance of public opinion. that ll be interesting. he said the president had to do something in syria, no matter what the people think. let s watch. this is not a president who wants to start another war. that s the way he sees it. i think it s totally irresponsible for an american president to have that. no one wants to start wars, but you got to do what you got to do. doesn t matter if the public is at 39% or 16%. really? what s happening in syria is a very serious matter. the trouble with that thinking, i respect the fact he does think, i just disagree with him. the fact is, bill out there and others are saying it doesn t matter what the polls are. usually the polls are with the bugle callers. the polls usually say let s go to war. it s the end of the war after a couple years they say, wait a
decide decided to take military action. the problem is you ve got a lot of additional things to do. it s a big operation. war. it is a war. john mccain is calling for setting up a safe zone and the only way to do that is to put troops on the ground. it s a big country. they have a big military, the syrians are more organized than the libyans were. there s no way to sort of have what mccain has in mind without sending troops in. i think one of the things when you listen to him talk and the hawks talk, it s as if, you know, there s only one choice which is just to go in. they don t even sort of differentiate between the different types of military options to a great degree. i know they don t. we have to get in there. we have to get in there. and, you know, it s not clear it s going to be an easy win or there s even a great strategy how to get from here to there and while there are people to work with i still worry about, you know, we worked with the
mujahedin and there s chaos. if you don t get this transition through the u.n., the ideal solution, had any type of conflict, even if you re backing the right guys, doesn t mean there aren t other guys there who will take advantage and could lead to a civil war. right? it s very iffy. david is right. to make one final point, it s not in our interest for this to end suddenly tomorrow with assad going. the opposition really isn t strong. the moderate opposition isn t strong enough. creating an iraq-like vacuum. the jihadists are the strongest fighters. three or four months from now that will not be true. that you can do a no-fly zone ea easily, i m told by u.s. officials that s just not so. you have to move the batteries that are in turkey almost to the border. they would be vulnerable. you have to be prepared to defend american soldiers lives on that border. has any war ever been easier
and perhaps by a broader coion. i mean, and if the russians block u.n. action, the kind of mandate the obama administration would want will be impossible. let s go to the american situation. as i mentioned john mccain, often the hawk in these discussions, said it s obvious the president s red line on syria has been crossed. last night on fox he went further. let s watch senator mccain. this is a shameful chapter in american history and i hope that this new revelation of chemical weapons will move the president to do what he should have done two years ago. from the statement that s coming out 0 of the white house, i m not sure they will. there he is, shameful. what did we expect if the assad government falls in the next several months or within the year, say? who wins? one of the issues that the administration has been most focused on is this day after issue because assad will not continue to rule syria for much longer. the administration finally in the last week has in place
program to build a strong command and control within the opposition. i was told today we and our allies are prepared to spend $1 billion on this program going forward. and the idea is to train up, you know, hundreds of people every month, and flow them into syria so you can begin to have some framework. these are people we re working with. vetted? we are working with a moderate general. are you confident as an analyst you think we could actually win this war, have the right side? i think the best outcome here is a negotiated settlement. but that requires russia to get off its back side. if, failing that, i have talked a number of times to the general. i talk almost every day to his people, and they have a vision of future syria that americans would be comfortable with. they re not jihadists. they re not extreme. they want to keep the country together. so i think the administration feels it s finally found an