the focus of the trip will be on building commercial ties, china, and the uk are expected to sign a number of multimillion dollar deals. now, a u.s. official says american military pilots are being warned not to react to any russian jets flying aggressively over syria. russian jets flew close to u.s. warplanes on two recent occasions but they say there was no indication of hostile intent. u.s. hopes to complete an agreement with russia on now both air forces should respond while flying in the skies over syria. meantime, the battle rages on for control of the northern city of aleppo. we have a reports that been a surge in regime and iranian troops on the ground with russian jets providing air strike support. reporter: syrian army units backed by iranian ground troops and russian jets in full assault
the middle east does it not seem that we are playing into isis hands, allowing them to stir the greatest fears among sunnis not only in iraq but also across the middle east? it would have and did a week ago. but a week ago we did something interesting in iraq is that we refused to provide air strike support for the shia militias who are instruments of iran who were trying to take tikrit big sunni city north of baghdad. we said we re not going to play that unless you evolve control away from iran-backed element of the government of iraq. we sat on our hands for a few days. the control passed from the iranians to others. so that s a good thing. a lot more still to get to here on morning joe. we re going to go live to indiana where lawmakers are scrambling to fix that controversial religious freedom law. plus from suicidal thoughts to
rebalancing our defense expenditures so we can put the necessary investments where the greatest need is likely to be. so just to understand where this is going, when we sort of thought of libya, as an example here. i know you were against u.s. intervention there. that was a case in which there were no u.s. boots on the ground but we certainly provided air strike support. general, is that a model for how war will resemble under this plan? well, i think it s clear that we ve got lots of capabilities. we can intervene again if we have to to support others the way we did in libya. we can do much more if necessary. the air force, the navy, the army still will have substantial capabilities and we can act in more than one place at once. the truth is we re out of iraq right now. we ve got a withdrawal schedule for afghanistan. so these troops that are coming out, these two major land wars, that s where we were. we need to look to where we need to be and where we need to be is to face diffe
barack obama. i think it will be very hard for him to win the general election because i think it just blurs everything. i think a real conservative who stands for solid values, essentially for new hampshire values the former massachusetts governor holds what looks like an insurmountable lead in new hampshire so he is moving on to south carolina. that state s primary is january 21st. it has been a deadly day in iraq. at least 60 people were killed in attacks in baghdad and other cities across the country. most of the victims were shiites raising fears of renewed sectarian violence. the deadly attack was a suicide bombing targeting shiite pilgrims west of the city of nasiriyah. at least 36 people were killed. dozens wounded. the iraqi military blames the attacks on terrorist groups. president obama says a fighting force that costs less can still be the best in the world and it will be. in an unusual visit to the pentagon, the commander in chief unveiled a rewrite of co