bouncing back a little bit, struggling to keep some momentum. this time i want to talk about syria and it started with the presidential tweet. trump said we have defeated isis in syria. my only reason for being there during the trump presidency. the department of defense did not agree with that. they released a statement after that saying the coalition has liberated the isis-held territory, but the mission with sooi isis is not over. joining me is kristin welker, the policy announcement seems to come out of nowhere, and it seems like they were caught off guard. that s right, let me read you what white house is saying officially at this hour, ali, about this intention by the
i want to gring in gale let me start with you, isis is not gone. we made this mistake in the past before when we think something is over, there is a measure flished, not to say there is the territorial holdingings of this group and the group itself. yeah their nearly gone, down their down 1%, but in terms of fighters, according to three reports done, the group now has between 20,000 and 30,000 fighters which is more than the cia estimated they had at their 2008. yeah, and don t forget they
support, and to hold the territory they have taken back. so it is going to weaken those allies, there is russia, iran, and turkey vying for the same space that is also a wrinkle here. one of the things in the president s tweet, that s not entirely true, the problem in syria has not been isis. the just is working very hard to keep the focus on the policy, on isis, and encountering isis, i think that is why there is so much concern about the policy discussion right now. they are fighting every day to keep isis at bay.
president to withdraw a number of troops from syria. now the united states defeated the territorial califate. these do not signal theer words carefully there as she deals with the reality of what so many have said that isis is still a problem. and the militants that are there and give new rise to isis. that is the concern among a number of allies. that this is something that president trump has been signaling. he talked about it as a candid on the campaign trail. this is part of his american first foreign policy, but it is
i was interviewing school teachers last week and they say we want to thank the internation gn al community for being here, it is a necessity. there are moms and dads fighting extremism every day. and you know if isis has been defeated i don t think anyone has yet told them. president obama, i will give donald trump this, it is not hard to figure out, it is not easy to figure out what the right thing to do in syria is. that is true, but i think history provides a number of lessons. the last time we declared mission accomplished against this group, they had less than 1,000 fighter website if today the inspector general of our own military, of the pentagon, is saying they have between 20,000