Basically retreating. Fox news reporting. Rising threats, shrinking military. Heres bret baier. Iowa ji ma memorial reminds us of many things. The uncommon valor of the troops and it can be a dangerous world out there and our military never knows when it will be called upon to travel overseas and accomplish a mission. And it can remind us, as well, that as much as we may desire peace, theres no replacement for a military that is strong and ready. Let us pray. Eternal father, strong to save, as we bid fair winds and following seas to the fighting 56 september 2015 were witnessing a military funeral. Not of a person but a navy friday inaugurate, the uss simpson is decommissioning. Theres a feeling of sadness to say goodbye to a ship as important to the profession as all the rest that have gone before her. The simpson was the last u. S. Warship to engage in ship to ship combat in 1988 during operation preying man tis. Three vessels and at least two small boats sunk or very severely damaged. They must know that well protect our ships and if they threaten us, theyll pay a price. Not that long ago, navy had many of this class of frigate. Now theyre all decommissioned. Its not just the navy thats saying goodbye to all friends. In march 2014, the army bid farewell to the warrior helicopter, a work horse of their air cavalry in iraq and afghanistan. All the pilots will be gonement all the aircraft will be gone. Its only going to be in the history books that people are even know the role it played. In the air force, the president has capped the number of f22 stealth fighters. Far short of the number originally envisioned. Our budget is a zero sum game and if more money goes to f22s it is our troops and citizen who is lose. These actions reflect a trend. Numerous military programs have been scrapped, including the combat search and rescue helicopter, the armys future combat vehicle program, the navys next generation cruiser and several Missile Defense systems such as the third site Missile Defense plan for poland and the czech republic. Along with this down sizing, is a major reduction in the troops themselves. For instance, the armys active force is expected to drop to the smallest since before world war ii. 450,000 soldiers. We have cut the military to its lowest levels, yet we are facing a world that is the most complex environment we have faced since at least the end of world war ii. Retired three star general Michael Flynn ran the Defense Department in the Obama Administration. Frankly, the United States of america is in a less strong position today because of the readiness and the size of our armed forces. I spoke to robert gates, secretary of defense in the last years of the Bush Administration and the early years of the Obama Administration. He told me president obama promised him there wouldnt be any significant changes in the military budget for a while. Overall, did he keep to his word . Well, i think that began to fray, fray may be too gentle a word. Before too long, gates found himself cutting hundreds of billions from the defense budget. And that was only the start. Gates was informed the president wanted to announce even more cuts. Over the last two years, secretary bob gates has taken on wasteful spending, saving 400 billion in current and future spending. I believe we can do that again. What was your reaction . Well, i guess id have to say i felt double crossed. After all those years in washington, i was naive. To many, the cuts werent about economic efficiency so much as a strategic change in the role of the military. You told president Obama Staffers that the defense cuts send a big strategic message abroad. The United States is going home, cut a deal with iran and china while you can. I think overall it has had that impact. Youre sending the message to the rest of the world that youre basically retreating. Later you meet with president obama and you tell him the way to compensate for force cuts in the next with aer is with blood, more American Kids will die because of our decisions. What was his response to that . I think he acknowledged it. What i was pitching at a minimum was the world doesnt seem to be getting better. Before you head down a path of deep cuts in defense, why dont you take it kind of slow . It was one of those things where i lost the argument. I think that he sees the military actually as something that is more dangerous to the world and i think that he looks at us i actually do. I think he looks at the United States military and sees it as a threatening application around the world than actually as a useful tool. How much more dangerous do you think the world is now than it was seven, eight years ago . I think more dangerous. Far more doing rus. The Obama Administration has been tightening the belt of the military. Is this being done to match a slimmed down version of American Foreign policy . Well look at that when we re our diminished military didnt come about simply due to cost cutting measures. Some see it part and parcel of this administrations particular view of americas place in the world. The next first family of the United States of america. On the night he was elected, barack obama promised a different sort of Foreign Policy. The new dawn of American Leadership is at hand. It didnt take long to see this new leadership in action. On march 6th, 2009, secretary of state Hillary Clinton pressed a reset button with russia. Promising new era of better relations. And on june 4th, 2009, president obama gave a speech in cairo promising a new beginning with the muslim world. Tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many muslims. He had a confidence coming in as president 2009 that he could alter fundamentally our relationship with the muslim world. Joe lieberman was chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security from 2007 to 2013. Unfortunately, i think the message he sent was that the United States was no longer going to exercise its leadership of the world which incidentally through democratic and republican president ial administrations from the end of the war right up until this time had been the great guarantor of security and prosperity and freedom in the world. Jeffrey goldberg, National Correspondent for the atlantic who interviewed barack obama on his Foreign Policy tried to explain the president s approach. He refers to the Washington Play book, the Washington Playbook is something happens in country x and therefore we have to send 50 cruise missiles to deal with that problem and what he wants to do, he says, is break washington of the habit every problem overseas comes with a potential military solution. It was clear he had a new take. But the question remained, what would president obama actually do . He was against the war in iraq. But his military people warned against a hasty withdrawal. It was really important that we try to maintain a military presence there in order to make sure that the gains that had been achieved with a lot of blood by the United States, as well as iraqis, that those gains could be maintained. Leon panetta was president obamas secretary of defense from 2011 until 2013. Thats why the pentagon supported maintaining a presence there. The key to preserving an American Military presence in iraq was to negotiate a stay behind force. The president would have to take the lead. The only chance we would have had for an agreement would have been his intensive involvement, personally, and that didnt happen. And so, on december 18th, 2011 convoy of u. S. Troops pulled out of iraq. While all that was happening, the arab spring was spreading throughout the arab world. Demonstrations and riots and civil wars of people challenging their leaders. On january 25th, 2011, egyptians gathered in cairo to protest the policies of egyptian president hoz any mubarak. The u. S. Ally. Ive always considered egypt to be critical to our ability to provide stability in the middle east. When it became apparent mubarak had to go, the military urged caution. But the president pushed for his immediate removal. Literally, the entire National Security team recommended unanimously handling mubarak differently than we did. And the president took the advice of three junior back benchers in terms of how to treat mubarak. One of them saying, mr. President , you got to be on the right side of history. And i would be sitting there at the table and i say, yeah, if we could just figure that out we would be a long way ahead. I dont think he believes that generals should be trying to influence policy making. On february 11th, mubarak resigned. The wheel of history turned at a blinding pace. The happiest day in the white house as it relates to the middle east probably the day that mubarak left. In june 2012, egypt elected a new president , Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood. In february of 2011, egypts next door neighbor libya also went up in flames. The countrys dictator Moammar Gadhafi was cooperating with the u. S. Since the invasion of iraq in 2003. Many voices around the world were demanding he be removed from power. Once again, the president s top military advisers counseled caution. When he sided with those that urged him to support the overthrow of gadhafi his secretary of defense resorted to extraordinary measures. Did you actually tell your subordinates to limit the amount of information they gave to the white house on military options available in libya . All i said was, i dont want any military plans or options going to the white house i havent seen. I mean, you write it more bluntly. You say dont give the white house staff too much information on the military options. They dont understand it. Pretty much. A little more blunt. You had concern about that. Absolutely. About running military operations out of the white house. Yeah, yeah. The experience that we had had with that in vietnam didnt work so well. On march 19th, 2011, president obama citing humanitarian concerns ordered the American Military to lead a coalition to confront gadhafi. October 20th, 2011, the lynn i cant be leader was captured and killed by a mob. Eliciting this response from the secretary state. We came, we saw, he died. Then theres syria. On august 20th, 2012, after the Syrian Regime led by Bashar Al Assad threatened to use chemical weapons against its enemies in the countrys civil war, president obama put him on notice. A red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. The president ordered the military to prepare to strike if assad did, indeed, cross that red line. On august 21st, 2013, the assad regime used the chemical weapons to kill hundreds of men, women and children. How would america respond . President obama ordered his military to stand down. They used chemical weapons against their own people and we did nothing. We demonstrated weakness instead of strength. Well have more on the results of president obamas Foreign Policy later. But when we return, we look at how hes transforming our military from the ground up. Great time for a shiny floor wax, no . Not if you just put the finishing touches on your latest masterpiece. Timings important. Comcast business knows that. Thats why you can schedule an installation at a time that works for you. Even late at night, or on the weekend, if thats what you need. Because you have enough to worry about. I did not see that coming. Dont deal with disruptions. Get Better Internet installed on your schedule. Comcast business. Built for business. If our military is going through a transformation in how it relates to the rest of the world, its going through a revolution in how it deals with itself. When youre standing side by side in life or death situations next to other warriors, you have to know from the bottom of your soul that those warriors are going to stand with you. Mike waltz a special add vidser to Vice President cheney is referring to what is sometimes called the warrior culture. Watch each others back. You have to have that bond. Anything that interferes with that bond needs to be treated very, very, very carefully. Which is why some critics of barack obama oppose and fear the way the president utilizes the armed forces. They feel hes more comfortable with social change than military command. This president has imposed a political agenda on the military. Elaine don nolly is president for the center of military readiness. Redining the military as a Civil Rights Institution rather than the institution that defends this country. You wrote that president obama showed real passion on one issue of the military. His determination to overturn dont ask, dont tell. What did you mean by that . This was one area where i saw him become angry when things werent moving as quickly as he wanted them to move. I didnt see that anger at the lack of progress on really any other issue that i dealt with, certainly. Ending dont ask, dont tell was one of the first social changes on the military by the Obama Administration. It was hardly the last. Recently at fort gordon, georgia, hundreds of soldiers summoned to a Powerpoint Presentation about white male hetero sexual privilege and the need to discuss oppression and the pay tri ar i can and then an exercise required of some rotc cadets just last year. We have heard some interesting things. The fact that male rotc cadet s were pressured by the military to walk around in high heels to show the disapproval of the rape culture. I found that incident kind of bizarre. When i was a rotc cadet, i was doing pushups and running until i threw up if my boots werent shined to the level they needed to be. Even more controversially on december 3rd, 2015, the Obama Administration removed all restrictions on women serving in Ground Combat units. Will be able to serve as rangers and berets, s. E. A. L. S, infantry, air force parajumpers and Everything Else previously open only to men. By opening that door youre simply saying if thats something youre interested in doing, heres the standards. Congresswoman gab bert, a member of the Hawaii Army National guard served two tours in iraq. If you meet those standards, then you should be allowed to serve there, whether a man or a woman. Critics say its not that simple. The men and women interchangeable, especially at a much higher level of the combat arms, utterly absurd. The Sergeant Eaton served with the Second Marine Expeditionary force in fallujah. The standards lowered formally or informally. The sexes are not neutral. Congresswoman contends that by lifting the combat restriction, the military is simply recognizing reality. Women serving incredibly in our military for a very long time. Weve seen over a decade ago a woman whos actually in the National Guard was awarded the silver star for her bravery in close quarters combat. A lot of the advocates for women in combat say women have been fighting in combat for decades and just not true. I was out there with the infantry on the outskirts of fallujah and we would frisk women for explosives. We were in danger all day every day we were doing that. Thats not the same as hunting the enemy where he lives, house to house. Cave to cave. Mostly on foot. Critics also point out that under the new law women will be ordered into combat. Whether they want to be or not. Im sorry but America Needs to think about their daughter in a hand to hand fight in a cage no rules against an isis figter. The results came back from a formal survey 92. 5 of the army women surveyed wanted nothing to do with combat assignments. What concerns me with this administration in dealing with this warrior culture, so critical to the success of our military, they dont understand it and oftentimes they mistrust it. If you turn the military into kind of a social experiment rather than a fighting force that has to meet certain standards and have a certain level of readiness to defend this nation, thats incredibly dangerous for the United States and frankly as the leader of the free world its dangerous for the world. Some fear social changes required of the military may cause trouble some day. Others fear they already have. Thats next. So far, we have seen how the Obama Administration at least according to its critics views the military in a different way. And those critics maintain this new attitude has already cost us. One thing we know the Obama Administration has changed about the u. S. Military the words they use to describe certain activities. What did you make of the fact under the administration the pentagon required to refer to military actions against islamic terrorism as overseas c Contingency Operations . Yeah. And that the actual acts of islamic terrorism were to be referred to as man caused disasters. It exemplifies the approach of this administration that were not even going to call the enemies what they are. Which are islamic terrorists. Critics say the language is part of the Political Correctness this administration requires of the military. Some think its harmless. Others wonder. At ft. Hood in texas, on a clear day in 2009, major nadal hassan, a doctor in the u. S. Military, stood up on a table, shouted allah akhbar and then began to fire. He killed 13 and wounded many other. It was a shocking event. Staff Sergeant Alonzo lunsford one of the 32 injured that day. I blinked. He discharged the weapon. The first round went in right here. Above my left eye and spun me around. And i hit the floor. He came up on me and shot me again. As the sergeant lay still in a pool of his own blood, he watched major hassan train the weapon on 21y private francesca valence. He said, im pregnant, im pregnant. He fired anyway and her last words was oh my baby, my baby, my baby. The private and her baby died that day. A horrific event and some believe a preventable one. Hassan, the ft. Hood terrorist killer, was communicating with anwar allah i can, the cleric then in yemen. In one of the 18 emails exchanged, hassan told him, i cant wait to join you in the afterlife. Lieberman, who led the Senate Investigation into the ft. Hood massacre, suspects the blame may reside in the environment prevailing in obamas military. Political correctness cant lead you to close your eyes to a clear and present danger to the u. S. And to your colleagues in the u. S. Army. That air of Political Correctness only thickened as the Obama Administration insisted that what happened at ft. Hood was not an act of islamic terrorism, but rather, an example of, quote, Workplace Violence. How could you say a terrorist murdering 13 americans was Workplace Violence . Thats just ridiculous. As for sergeant lunsford, hes still hurt by the governments lack of frankness. What hurts more than the wound itself is a sense of betrayal because a sense of betrayal is when you wake up, its there. When you sleep, its there. Its something that never leaves me. It never leaves me. The divide between the Obama Administration and many in the military only widened over the handling of the case of army private bo bergdahl. A man the administration labeled a p. O. W. Was released in exchange for five of their top leaders. The ceremony announcing his release was supposed to be a celebration. This morning, i called bob and januaryny bergdahl and told them after nearly five years in captivity their son bo is coming home. What was your reaction when president obama hosted bergdahls parents at the rose garden ceremony . I was pissed, absolutely. In my view, bergdahl should have never labeled a p. O. W. Did the men you served with consider him a soldier who had been captured or a man who had desserted his platoon . We knew immediately that day the circumstances of the disappearance. He desserted the post. We were mad as hell about it but we didnt diminish the efforts to get him back. Waltz ordered to lead special forces teams to search for bergdahl. It was the number one priority in the entire theater of afghanistan. And the taliban immediately knew it and they began feeding false information into our Informant Networks to try to bait us into ambushes a. Special forces team went into an afghan compound and thought bergdahl might be and the entire thing rigged with explosives. By the grace of god it didnt explode but those are the situations we found ourselves in night after night after night for months. President obama responded to the controversy by dispatching one of his top aides to praise bergdahl. He served the United States with honor and distinction. When president obama sends out National Security adviser susan rice and she says that, in fact, bo bergdahl served the United States with honor and distinction well, i about threw my television out into the yard. Both me, his fellow platoon mates, my men, my fellow green berets that nearly died looking for him were outrage. It shows how tone deaf this white house can be to how military members think and feel. They take words like that, served with honor and distinction, very seriously. Frankly, the white house probably should have made no statement whatsoever. Leon panetta told us he was dismayed by how the white house handled the bergdahl case. I dont mind, obviously, the effort at negotiations, but you dont just walk in and say, oh yeah, well give you five bad guys. These are individuals who killed in many cases our own soldiers. What assurance do we have that theyre not going to wind up blowing up american innocents . Demoralizing . Encredibly demoralizing and to the men and women in uniform, as well. Out in harms way and a commander in chief releases the talibans top five draft picks, it sends a bad mess and to the troops and the afghan allies to be serving alongside and encouraging u how has the new vision of the u. S. Military playing out across the world . Thats next. Some cash back cards are, shall we say, unnecessarily complex. Limiting where you can earn bonus cash back. Then those places change every few months. Please. Its time you got the quicksilver card from capital one. Quicksilver earns you unlimited 1. 5 cash back on every purchase, everywhere. Doesnt get much simpler than that. Whats in your wallet . Earlier we saw the diplomatic overchurs the Obama Administration made when it took office. Today, we can see how those policies played out. The president had promised a diplomatic reset with russia. Even scraping a Missile Defense system in europe as a conciliatory gesture. After his reelection, he pulled americas main battle tanks out of germany, tanks that had been there since world war ii. All eyes were on Vladimir Putin to see how hed respond. And, in february 2014, putin sent in troops to seize ukraines crimean peninsula. In europe, we envisioned a different kind of relationship than what has actually emerged. We didnt anticipate that russia would illegally annex crimea. We didnt see that kind of destabilizing activity. Next, putins forces began menacing ukraine itself. The fundamental point of dealing with a bully like putin is not to allow them to get away when they wanted to do. But the president rejected calls for a muscular response, instead announcing limited sanctions. I believe theres a path to resolve the situation diplomatically in a way that addresses the issues of russia and the ukraine. I think the president should have taken some very strong steps to make very clear to putin that this was unacceptable. He should have provided arms to the ukrainians. But he didnt. And today, russia is emboldened, threatening to spread its sphere of influence even wider. Secretaries panetta and gates and others told us that you can let bullies get away with bullying or you pay a price. I was talking about ukraine. With the president. And he told me, very bluntly, that ukraine as a nonnato Country Living in the shadow of russia will also be subject to russian meddling and domination and what hes doing there is basically signaling this is not worth the United States investment. And then overchurs to the muslim world hoping to change the image of america. He had pulled american troops out of iraq without a stay behind force that had been recommended by his military advisers. But without a u. S. Presence, violence immediately returned across the country. Niall ferguson, a professor of history at harvard university, remembers talking to veterans of the war. They had turned it around. To be told the mission was being aborted must have been a shattering blow. The iraqis, of course, couldnt leave. Some found another cause. Many of them wound up eventually working with isis. To create the force that ultimately came back and invaded that part of iraq. That they held. And hold today. In egypt, president obama had supported the overthrow of america leaning who isny mubarak and his administration applauded when a new president was e leblgted. The Muslim Brotherhoods Mohammed Morsi. I have come to alexandria to reaffirm the strong support of the United States for the egyptian people and for your democratic future. Well, this was hilariously wrong in the egyptian case because the Muslim Brotherhood turned out to be the most extreme group capable of winning large numbers of votes. Once in office, morsi granted himself unlimited powers and imposed a constitution based on sharia law. Egypt, the administration seemed to welcome the ouster of mubarak. Yeah. And more sy. Egypt was a classic case of, you know, hope, hope and change not actually coming to fruition. Egypt december ended into chaos. Morsi, in turn, was overthrown in a coup. Libya had been the one nation where president obama was willing to take action. With an intervention supported by the u. N. Soon, dictator gadhafi was gone which only leads to the question of what happens next . What happened next was libya fell into chaos, a fact brought home trafficly by an attack that killed four americans including ambassador chris stevens. Soon, warring factions including isis and al qaeda were fighting for power. It was a complete mistake to go in to libya. I was in a key job in the administration and i cant sit here and tell you what was what were our goals for that operation. I have i really dont know. To eliminate gadhafi . That was a severely dumb decision. He said very bluntly to me about the libya intervention, quote, it didnt work. Wasnt he warned by people like secretary gates about libyas tribal history and did dangers of taking out gadhafi . There was a huge fight in the administration. Turns out the gates side was right but i think obama now is on the side of, you know what . I should not have let myself be pressured into this intervention and that influenced the way he dealt with syria the next couple of years. Syria, you will recall, where president obama drew a red line and then it was crossed. The president and his advisers agreed on an attack plan but he pulled back at the last moment. I use the term stunned because i was stunned by that. Chuck hagel served as president obamas secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015. It reversed a very comprehensive, complete decision that had just been made a few hours prior to that and the president had made the final decision and a few hours later were pulling that down. Were reversing that. Secretary hagel told us the president s decision damaged americas credibility. It was all over the world, and our a lies would ask me, how can we have confidence in whatever else he says . Its an old principle that the president should be very careful about drawing lines. But once he drew that line, then the United States is obligated to enforce that red line. For a lot of people in washington, a bunch of other places around the world, this is a weak moment for the United States. A weak moment in his presidency. What he told me was not only was it not a weak moment, it was a, quote, proud moment for him because its the moment that he broke with the Washington Playbook. So he doesnt see it as weakness at all . He sees it as a moment of great prudent. He sees it as the application of smarts. He does not see it as weakness. He sees it as strength. But if it was a proud moment, others ask, what has it produ produced . In the end, what do you have . You have a middle east that will be devastated. More suffering. More killing. More distrust. More hatred. So the man who presented himself as the peace presided over much more violence in the muslim world than what happened under his predecessor. When we return, we talk to men in uniform and ask them if were prepared. Let me talk to you about retirement. A 401 k is the most sound way to go. Lets talk asset allocation. Sure. You seem knowledgeable, professional. Im actually a dj. [ dance music plays ] woman [laughs] no way that really is you . If theyre not a cfp pro, you just dont know. Cfp work with the highest standard. Aircraft we hadnt seen before as part of the numbers, in that formation. It was one of several such incidents. And the response . Was very much like the drill youre seeing now. At joint base in alaska. It becomes a vast distance here in alaska. This is fully armed and ready to go on a moments notice. Every second we can get closer in identify whatevering is out there. One thing it has seen out there, russian tu 95 bear bombers. These encounters have been common enough that at norad, the eyes of the north theyve gone back to placing rest plaques on the wall every time there is an intercept. There are plenty of experts who see russia as a stranger we cant ignore. Russia is the only country on earth that has the capability to destroy the United States of america. Were confronting a russia that entered a new chapter in the cold war. In september, china sent five warships toward alaskan waters. We began to posture ourselves for any event that may happen when theyre here. We moved forces to make sure were able to track them to know where they are. While the chinese were off shore, president obama visited and gave a speech. Proves this distant threat is in the present. Human activity is disrupting the climate. He was talking about Climate Change as russia builds new basis across the arctic and china, building upland and sea forces, the pentagon is reviewing a decision to cut back up to 71 of an airborne Paratrooper Brigade in alaska. Every senior governmental official knows this is a vital component of the army. Jeffrey crepo is part of the combat team. Were ready to go at any time. But its part of the military in the newer, less intrusive role. There is a lesson were starting to learn the hard way. The lesson is that when a great power withdraws, the conflict is likely to escalate. That is exactly what happened and the result is a sobering one. Amid threats, the army returned battle tanks to europe. The next president will face a world that is more complex, more challenging for american interests an any president of the eight i served. This is about whether or not we can promote a world that can ultimately share in the values of what the United States is all about. If the United States doesnt provide that leadership, nobody else will. I think its very fair to say president obama doesnt want america to overcommit military. If youre obama you argue the military is in better shape because i dont have 180,000 troops in iraq, and afghanistan fighting troops that are unwinnable and not that important. I have grave concerns in terms of the readiness of our army forces. To be able to deal with one of, or two of, four countries. China, russia, iran and north korea. Were going to see ourselves in a war that is greater than what we have experienced in the middle east. Given everything the United States has been told about the danger today, stop the bleeding that youre causing to our armed forces. The u. S. Has been involved in nonstop action abroad for a decade and a half. And americans are thought to be war weary. We know it is still a very dangerous world. Our first president warns our country against foreign entanglements and did Say Something else, one of the most effective means of attaining peace, he said, is to be prepared for war. That is our show. Thanks for watching. We needed 30 new hires for our call center. Im spending too much time hiring and not enough time in my kitchen. announcer need to hire fast . Go to ziprecruiter. Com and post your job to over 100 of the webs leading job boards with a single click. Then simply select the best candidates from one easy to review list. You put up one post and the next day you have all these candidates. Makes my job a lot easier. announcer over 400,000 businesses have already used ziprecruiter. And now you can use ziprecruiter for free. Go to ziprecruiter. Com offer800 is the pressure getting to the socalled democratic frontrunner . The Sanders Campaign is lying about this. A primary losing streak, poised to lose in wisconsin, and now the specter of fbi director jim comey and that pesky email investigation. Is Hillary Clinton in meltdown . Plus, can the donald turn around this past week of negative press and win wisconsin . Or has the trump train been slowed . Justice starts now. Hello