and jose, the reason for all this is not very complicated. it s pretty simple. after more than a year of nearly 8,000 air strikes, there had been advances against isil but they re a long way. and senior military officials just don t see the opportunity to destroy and defeat isil which is, in fact, president obama s goal in all of this. they re training and equipment, training and equipping friendly syrian forces, but even they are not in the position to overwhelm the isis enemy forces in iraq and syria. so they re look forg a game changer and hoping that providing more support including special operations forces working, fighting side by side with some of the allies in iraq and syria, primarily kurds for the time being, but they hope that that can be the kind of game changer. and they re looking to instill some confidence on the part of
Happening because of the stepped up diplomacy. there is a twin track effort, you might say, by the united states to try and do more militarily at the same time that at the negotiating table with all the key players involved, the united states, syria, russians, of course, and now the iranians and the saudis as well because all those actors, the key actors are in one room hopefully, presumably in vienna, that s the other reason that military steps are happening. and here it s a very, very sensitive issue w he hope to hear more today and also from secretary kerry in vee yaen later thlat vienna. jim, semantics aside, this is a shift. there are now going to be americans closer to possibly being in harm s way.
Are huge, too, and when will it end? the fight iing in syria is only intensifying, so this is a tragedy without end. jose? what a horrible situation. bi bill, you said 3,000 a day are getting to the island, and that is in lesbos? well, as i said from the immigration report 6,600 tuesday, and 6,600 wens kaye, and it is astonishing, because it shows no signs of easing up. most of them, if not all of them are syrian do you know? 4 of 5 are syrian, and the rest are either iraqi or afghan, and a few pakistanis in there who would not be classed as refugees fleeing fighting, and indeed, a question about some of the afghans, and germany for
Forces would actually be based in syria. they will probably be based outside that area and brought in for specific operations alongside the kurds. there maybe an adviser here and adviser there, but in terms of those combat operations, those would be on a per call basis. and richard engel, let s talk about the and you mentioned this in our chat just a few minutes ago, about how this could be perceived among american allies in iraq and in other countries in the middle east that are having to deal with this crisis not only in syria but in iraq. are these numbers enough to convince others that the united states is now very serious about staying and dealing with the issue of ice sis head on? well, it s very delicate situation, frankly. because one of the reasons i think the white house is going to be sensitive saying that these troops are based in syria is because that sounds like when you translate it and translate
There is such a large population of sunni arab there s, if we move there, the trouble then shou do we keep control of that area when there will be a local population of perhaps don t like having us there? what a complicated situation f you wou . if you would, i want to go to robert ford. he joins bus by phone. ambassador, thank you for being with me. you re hearing the news that the united states is surely going to announce stepping up air strikes in syria but also some boots on the ground. now being based in syria but going and mobilizing in the northern area of syria. how complicated is this jigsaw puzzle of syria, assad, the groups that are opposed to him, the kurds, the others. it s very complicated, isn t it? it is complicated. it s especially important in this context to remember that the syrian kurds with whom i m