to deal with. jon: current assessment from generals in the current administration are that it s at least two years away now and, again, you re saying that if the u.s. had left more troops in iraq it would have prevented the rise of the cancer? i think there s a good case to make. a lot of people will talk to foreign policy, generals will say that. we could have easily prevented the rise of isis, you know, taking over a city like mosul, that definitely would have been stopped if we had u.s. forces there. now it s been a long bloody campaign to reverse the gains and we have not yet defeated. that s what we are seeing from the administration and their undermining of israel, the fact that they ve been willing to cuddle russia and iran, we see enemies strengthen and allies weaken. jon: there s the famous moment on foreign policy between mitt romney and president obama, mitt
there s a lot of surprise obviously, as there was throughout. i think there s a lot of concern amongst the syrian activists and rebel population, because they are worried about trump s potential relationship with putin and whether he will basically ally with putin, and completely give up on them. and that will lead eventually to their complete and total obliteration. tough talk, though, about destroying isis. bombing the hell out of them. in a city like mosul but does that play well in iraq? in the sense that, you know, they want a tough leader to a certain degree, they want they like the republicans because they saw bush as being a decisive individual, even though the invasion threw iraq into total and complete and utter shambl shambles. but they believe maybe a republican, even trump in his own entity, might be a harsher hand. but they re also very realistic
this is what s happening. they re charming often. they re charismatic. they have a sense of humor. they don t carry themselves with the same stiffness, with the rigorous enslavement of the idea of protocol and what is diplomatically feasible, and what you can say. they cut through the bull and they talk the language that people are desperate ri wanting to hear. certainly donald trump is the greatest example of that. the thing is, in this rise of nationalism you re seeing, you re seeing a rise in rejection of people that some individuals don t consider to be like them. britain today is very diverse. countries are very diverse. you can t say, nationalism is going to be on the rise. but i m going to reject this entire segment of society, because their roots are different than what mine are. you obviously spent a lot of time in the middle east. you were just in iraq, incredible reporting from mosul in the heat of the battle. what s the reaction been to the people you talked to, to
element of surprise before last night s debates and does he have a legitimate point at all? he has a legitimate point at large but not in this particular case. that s one of the principles of war. you don t want to go somewhere and telegraph you re going because you ll be in big trouble, especially if you re attacking and he s defending except in a built-up area like mosul. if you can possibly recall what happened in stalingrad, for example, where the advantages to the defense, you get chewed up if you try to go in. our objective is to telegraph it as long as we possibly can. time to get out so they will leave, go to syria, and they won t be neighbor left. no isis left there. it s easier to take them and easier to hold. i don t think the allies want to fight isis in the middle of
the civilian population. some of the villages on the outskirts of the city deserted. some not. one little boy burst into tears when he saw the iraqi soldiers because he associated that with the gun battle that happened that sent bullets flying into the wall of his house. no one was hurt, earlier that morning. of course, the great concern is the closer these forces get to mosul and actually reach the city itself, a lot of the tactics there relying on now, the tampgs, the artillery and air strikes, they won t be able to use that in a city like mosul with a population potentially upwards of 1 million people. so we re still very much in the initial stages of what promises to be a long and complex battle, one arguably the biggest challenge for iraq, one that will define its future and quite potentially the future of the region, wolf. arwa damon on the scene for us. be careful, arwa. we ll stay in close touch. coming up, back to the race for the white house.