they want to go after our civilians. they want to kill not only our civilians all over the world and it s got to be stopped. it s going to be stopped. somebody criticized me the other day because they asked me what i do and i said i m going to bomb the [bleep] out of them. i don t care. i don t care. they ve got to be stopped. sean: very different politician. promises made a lot of promises kept. those insane rules of engagement from the obama era were lifted, president trump has unleashed american airpower, bombing isis over and over and over again. with the help of that air cover, the u.s. backed syrian forces just cleared what is the final strip of land once held by isis fighters, the one they took over originally. tens of thousands of radical jihadists have surrendered. many other thousands have been killed, the so-called caliphate is no more. the struggle against radical
Civilians. they want to kill not only our civilians, all over the world, and it s got to be stopped. it s going to be stopped. somebody criticized me the other day because they asked me what i d do and i said i m going to bomb the [bleep] out of them. it s true. i don t care. i don t care. they ve got to be stopped. sean: very different politician. promises made, and a lot of promises kept. those insane rules of engagement from the obama era were lifted. president trump has unleashed american airpower, bombing isisn over and over and over again. with the help of that air cover, the u.s.-backed syrian forces just cleared what is the final strip of land once held by isis fighters, the one they took over originally. tens of thousands of radical jihadists have surrendered. many other thousands have been killed, the so-called caliphate is no more. the struggle against radicalis extremism and those sympathetic
To bring in retired four-star general jack keane. he s also a fox news city near strategic analyst. great to see you today. i want to start with whom we are leaving behind and what kind of forces you do start benjamin hall sang the number could be as many as a thousand. that s a fact. we know the initial number was 2200, is what led to this defeat. by the way, hats off to our military and to our coalition partners. particularly the brits and the french. certainly the syrian democratic forces, some 60,000 strong, who really carried the fight. as the introduction suggested, without american airpower and americans assist income of the coronation we provided that actually come of the commitment of the president s national security team, to include him, made to accelerate this process and put more capacity on the ground wouldn t be where we are today. but we are going to leave something less than a thousand there, i suspect. somewhere north of 400. i don t think we know the exact numb
Either controls or dominates. was it a surprise? probably not, because the west of iraq has held by isis for about a year and a half. ramadi was effectively surrounded, so really it shouldn t come as a surprise that the city was taken but was it a disaster? yes. and not just for the iraqi forces. american airpower had poujded isis positions around ramadi for weeks, and yet city isis took the city which leaves huge question marks about the effectiveness of u.s. airpower. you simply cannot win this war from 30,000 feet but it doesn t look like this is a war that can be won by the iraqi army. there are estimates that it only has five combat effective brigades that s 15,000 plen against an isis fighters who are now on the attack, on the offensive, and now threatening baghdad. back to you guys.
A sunni muslim area. there was sectarian resentment that really allowed isis to exploit the situation there and move in. now you have these liberators many of them shiite militiamen backed by iran. they are afraid of reprisals. what s the expectation? do these militiamen and iraqi forces come in and everything is good? or is there a very real concern about reprisals from them with the sunni population? the concern is certainly there. there s no getting away from it. there have been examples in some other parts of iraq where shiite militias in the guise of being liberators have conducted brutal atrocities against sunni populations. the big question it s clear now from tikrit that the iraqi military cannot defeat isis without the help of these militias. also with the help of american airpower, iranian assistance on the ground. but these shiite militias are going to be a crucial part of