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Deal with isis and syria if it really does resurge. he thinks it s defeated. that may be very tough. russian troops, syrian regime troops, iranian troops, isis, they are all present there in syria. and if the u.s. pulls out as it has planned and expected, it may be very difficult for them to get the intelligence to be able to go back in. dana? so fascinating. a lot to unpack. barbara, thank you so much. if you get anything more, obviously, we ll come back to you. we have a great team here of national security experts. and admiral kirby, i want to start with you. just on the notion that the president said that instead of u.s. troops being in syria, which, of course, has been a very controversial decision that he made, to pull troops out of syria, that he would use iraq, the right now there are about 5,200 troops in iraq, u.s. troops in iraq, as kind of a staging area. yeah. ....
President visited and how this trip might play into, a., the morale, and b., more information about the policy changes? well, look. this was a feel-good holiday visit. and there is nothing wrong with that. he s the commander-in-chief. the troops want to see the boss. so this is what happened today, and it s good news for the troops and military families. it brings their sacrifice to the forefront of the american debate, if you will. we don t often see them these days, and today we did. so all of this is very good news for the troops, very good news for military families. by all accounts, the president, any president of the united states, gets a respectful and a very happy reception from troops. that is what they do. but make no mistake, there are problems everywhere to be sorted out about the president s decision to withdraw troops from syria. now, he said something very important today. he said that he might use iraq as a staging base to try and ....
Defense, james mattis, resigning over that decision, but president trump saying, no, i m sticking with it. and we re going to use iraq as a place to operate out of, that we could do that. why did he choose to go to iraq? we got a little more information about that, as well. the president saying that it was a place he s talked about for a very long time, even when he was still a civilian. he said he really just wanted to get there to pay his respects to the troops who were serving there, especially at this time of year, the christmas holiday, of course, just yesterday. it s about 100 troops who serve in special operation combat missions in iraq and syria. that s who he was talking to today. he spent about three hours with them. the president was also scheduled to meet with the prime minister of iraq, but that meeting, dana, was ultimately cancelled. jessica, thank you so much for that reporting. let s get to the pentagon. cnn s barbara starr is live there. barbara, what more can you t ....
This shutdown, which is in day, what? four now jessica? reporter: that s right, dana. we have been monitoring everything back here at home as president trump has been on his surprise trip to iraq. but as he s been overseas meeting with troops, there has been a lot of play back here at home. president trump made his first visit to troops in a surprise trip to iraq, just one day after he scolded his opponents from the oval office. it s a disgrace, what s happening in our country. but other than that, i wish everybody a very merry christmas. reporter: the president blaming democrats for the government shutdown, but also declaring he doesn t want it to come to an end until he gets what he wants. i can t tell you whether the government is going to be open. i can tell you, it s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they would like to call it. i ll call it whatever they want. but it s all the same thing. it s a barrier from people pouring into our company, into ....
You can hit indiscriminately targets in syria, but for taking out the continued presence of the islamic state, it just won t work. and it s frankly, one of the dumbest things i ve ever seen. because this is the most successful counter insurgency program we have run in decades. and why you would take these troops out that are doing so well at this time when the islamic state is still a threat, i don t understand. well, you mentioned the kurds. admiral kirby, one the reasons why general mattis, secretary mattis, said i m out is because he feels like he s breaking a promise. america is breaking a promise. absolutely. to the kurds who have been helping america and all the coalition forces in this region to fight isis. they have been an incredibly effective force on the ground for going after isis. and we have also been, to some degree, a restraining influence on their otherin stinks, which is to go after turkey. and so i think, you know, for erdogan, he might be crowing right now ....