so this is an effort, a last-ditch effort, to really escalate in the hopes of saving the regime. and the consequence, i think, is going to be that the conflict is merely prolonged. because as long as assad is in power this civil war is going to churn on. and as my colleague, chairman royce is saying, it s a humanitarian disaster, the likes of which we haven t seen probably since world war ii. anything that s going to prolong it is just an agony. i have deep concerns about it. i ll make one other point, wolf. i think the last time we talked it was about the turks and how they were joining the coalition but bombing the kurds. i think we re seeing the same thing. the turks will say we ll join the coalition against isil but using that as a pretext to go after the kurds. i think the russians are doing the same thing, saying we re joining the coalition against isil but we re really going after the moderate opposition, the only real threat to the regime of assad. mr. chairman, let me pick u
thank you, chairman royce for joining us. thank you, jim. let s talk first about ramadi. this is a classic test case of whether, or if and when iraqi security forces are beginning to be able to take back any significant ground from isis. it s not looking good in ramadi. john kerry after ramadi fell said it was going to be days by the time that iraqi forces could take it back. it s weeks. and now they re digging in. what does that say about the u.s. strategy? it s partly the u.s. strategy in terms of deference to the shia-led government in baghdad here. as you know, the kurtish forces as well as the sunni tribes on the ground that both seek to be armed in order todish forces as well as the sunni tribes on the ground that both seek to be armed in order to fight against isis cannot get the approval to have the weaponry they need, the mortars, the artillery and so forth. so as a consequence, what you see instead is baghdad sending in shia militia. you can see how that goes on
out of washington, d.c. and not micromanaged well on any level. chairman royce, stay with me. i have more questions for you out of the next break. u.s., f-16, flying out of turkey. bombing isis targets. we ll be discussing that in just a moment. that s that new gear feeling. this week, filler paper and folders just one cent. office depot officemax. gear up for school. gear up for great.
because this individual, sulamani is responsible for the death of approximately 500 americans. he is responsible for leading attacks by hezbollah into israel. he is also responsible for foqu forces operations and in syria and iraq. what i am telling you is he is the chief commander for iranian foreign forces outside of iran who carry out their assassinations and carry out their attacks. and the fact that he would violate the sanctions prior to it being lifted upon him by jumping the gun. this gives us an opportunity to call the russians to account and the iranians into account for already violating this agreement. we should do so. chairman ed royce. thank you for talking with us. we really appreciate it. thank you very much, brianna. we have more breaking news
we re back now with house foreign affairs committee chairman ed royce. the u.s. beginning launching manned air strikes against isis from an air base in turkey. these are f-16s, congressman, that are operating out of incirlik air base. do you suspect as they target syria, isis and syria, that we are going to see isis retaliate against the west in response? you know, i don t think there is anything that we could do one way or another in terms of striking isis that would deter their efforts to attack the west. that is something they have done on a full-time basis. and in fact if we were to degradedef defeat isis,