as we mentioned the bombing comes just a week after a deadly hotel siege in kabul. the taliban also claiming responsibility for that. but what might be behind a high profile attacks our colleague spoke earlier with cnn s military analyst lieutenant rick francona. much of it is retaliation for the increased coalition air strikes. that are being conducted throughout the country. normally in the winter, we see a lull in activity. because it s a very difficult ter train conduct military operati operation. so what s we re seeing this year is much higher operations tempo. the united states has just deployed a-10 aircraft to beef up that air-to-ground capability, and they re going to try to take the fight to the taliban. these aircraft were supposed to go to the middle east to fight isis, but given the success in iraq and syria, now they ve moved it there. this follows president trump s stated goals of increasing operations against the taliban.
the amount of activity. that hasn t happened this year. that s what s driving these taliban operations. they are retaliating against the president, against the united states for this increased operations tempo. making some very deadly statements. so i want to shift now to syria, a place where you spent a great deal of time. right now u.s. forces are in syria and supporting kurdish forces which has upset turkey. here s an exchange that cnn had with the head of u.s. central command. we re hearing from the turkish government continuously saying they are asking the united states to withdraw. is that something you re looking to do. is that a scenario you see happening. right now it s not something we re looking into. so might this escalate to more u.s. troops being put on the ground in syria? at some point we re going to come to a showdown with the
trump ordered an increase in the operations tempo. he changed the rules of engagement. i think it s clear that isis could have been defeated, the caliphate could have been defeated long before. it was barack obama who said his objective was to degrade and ultimately destroy isis. donald trump came in and said we re going to destroy it as soon as we can now, there are mistakes in this strategy that obama followed and trump continued. namely reliance on the forces of the baghdad government and she a militia which are largely controlled by iran. this is the next fight we re going to face. but, in terms of speeding up the defeat of the isis caliphate, i think there is no doubt trump bill: i saw a map today that showed isis in control of 3% oft iraq and 5% of syria. if that is the case on the ground that is remarkable the obama defenders will tell you this policy was put in motion two years ago. walls it?bl slow motion. that s the problem. that obama was content to take a
considerably. it s unarguable that donald trump ordered an increase in the operations tempo. he changed the rules of engagement. i think it s clear that isis could have been defeated, the caliphate could have been defeated long before. it was barack obama who said his objective was to degrade and ultimately destroy isis. donald trump came in and said we re going to destroy it as soon as we can now, there are mistakes in this strategy that obama followed and trump continued. namely reliance on the forces of the baghdad government and she a militia which are largely controlled by iran. this is the next fight we re going to face. but, in terms of speeding up the defeat of the isis caliphate, i think there is no doubt trump bill: i saw a map today that showed isis in control of 3% of iraq and 5% of syria. if that is the case on the ground that is remarkable the obama defenders will tell you this policy was put in motion two years ago. walls it? slow motion. that s the problem.
now taliban spring offensive. and president trump is true had his word over the last 90 days we have ramped up operations tempo calls a theater rest redistribution of the bombs we use in these kind of wars. so we have moved from pacific command to strand command, stockpiles keep up with the operations tempo that the commanders on the ground need to crush this enemy. meanwhile we have north korea rattling its sablers and the pacific command commanders saying i need some help here and because of the obama budget cuts it s put us in a lagging position where we need to catch up with the industrial base needs to catch up with this. ainsley: what do you remember? if the president is listening what does the president need to make sure we have enough in the stockpile to continue the fight. i m sure h.r. mcmaster and general mattis has told