the region. isis had taken over at that point about a third of iraq and syria. and the united states felt it had no other choice but to help its allies in the region contain the problem so that it doesn t spill over to other regions. that is something that mattis to this day has really been pushing, is that the region is still not ready to stand on its own two feet. it needs its allies like the united states, like european allies, this coalition that s been built over the last couple of years in order to contain that problem. and in pulling out and withdrawing so abruptly, as the president decided to do in the last couple of days, that really countered any of the advice a lot of his military advisers. this is something that countering everything they have been advising him to do. charlie, i want you to weigh in on all of this. the president had announced that mattis will be retiring in february. there has been a lot of back and forth, much of which of it being
i want people to understand what i saw her. when i came, i thought it was going to be chaotic in mcallen. i thought i would see a difficult relationship between immigration and migrants and that s not the case. i thought i d see a lot more. walk us through where we are. so if we have reynosa and juarez and tijuana, we have mcallen, el paso and san diego on the other. those are some of the safest cities in america, statistically, by president trump s own fbi and dea statistics. when she says violence is pouring across the border that is factually incorrect. his own dea says the violence in mexico doesn t spill over to the other side of the border. so, when we talk about this is a war zone, we re out here and there are gang banging mexican cartel organizations on the streets, literally, this is probably one of the safest probably safer than being in new york city.
there is so much energy being spent not setting off the volatile guy at the top. that is misspent and dysfunctional. i thought that mr. businessman trump was supposed to have the best team and be functional and efficient and america was going to win all the time. in the meantime, it s a revolving door at the white house. always tension, as there should be. people argue and publicly it doesn t spill over where the president of the united states is criticizing and be rating and undermining. you served how many years in the u.s. military? 30 years. 30. did you see when it was bill clinton or george w. bush or barack obama were they undermining their secretary of state? i have never seen anything like this. it was extraordinary that the president got asked what he thought of tillerson s comments saying he is not a moron and
for it now aren t we. asia is where the money is, where the people are. this is where the 21st century is going to be decided. we got to do just enough in the middle east so it doesn t spill over and cause major harm. we don t get so obsessed with it we can t ignore that part of the world that s much more likely to shape the world economy. richard, let me jump to iran and saudi arabia and we see their relationship torn apart further by the execution of the cleric there last week. just now, the story crossing the wire. iran bombing the iranian embassy inside yemen. it s approximately one way or another they push each other s buttons. this is not introduced between
some kind of gang. and all the gangs have shot-callers on the inside. so it s highly possible that the shot-caller ordered him to act as a lookout. he may not have had a choice. and these lookouts are common. and the assault it could have been related possibly to a gambling debt a drug payment, simple disrespect, or maybe homosexual sex. you never know what happens in one of these places. and it s best for a fight to take place inside of a cell because that way, the violence it doesn t spill over into the general population. then the whole institution can jump off. here s the question on the general population notion we weren t sure if he would be separated. and we find out he was spent to special management, particular area of the prison. what does that mean? special management unit is