there are great rewards, but primarily as moving into the open space left for him as there has been a change in the strategic assessment of the united states over where its interests lie. this is russia saying, no, this is ours, the middle east is ours. it s a new dynamic for sure. molly, that part, i think you re alluding to the part in this excerpt from the interview where he alludes to iran, russia, and the terrorist group hezbollah, having the sole, if you will, right to intervene in the syrian civil war after this current situation or current time frame. absolutely. this is something i ve written about a lot as have others, this idea that we can work with russia against terrorism anywhere, but specifically in syria, is completely nuts. i mean, the russian ground forces in their war in syria, for the most part it s iranian medical-ish shahs, hezbollah, hamas, other recruited terrorist
precision fires and combat advice. we ll continue to do that, and we ll go where the fighting moves to next. i remember three years ago when those isis terrorist forces moved into mosul. the iraqi military including a lot of u.s. equipment sophisticated armored personnel carriers, they ran away and left all that equipment behind. no how do you know, general, that the iraqi military won t do that again? well, the future is kind of hard to know, but i d say this. this is a different iraqi security force than three years ago, significantly different. you re right. three years ago the isis took mosul in a matter of days, three years ago the iraqi security forces were fighting to hold their capital of baghdad, and today they just concluded a major victory. 40 kilometers in their capital.
what do you think the next generation of generals will be learning from these wars that are the longest in our history. that s a good and important question. i think the frustration of vietnam with all the lives lost and money spent and division within the united states, look at what s happening in afghanistan today. i voted for that war. we were going after the people responsible for the terrible tragedy of 9/11. yet you look back on it now and say where are we today in terms of stability and future of afghanistan. we still can t field an army in afghanistan to execute basic peacekeeping and stop the advance of the taliban and other terrorist forces. so i would say there s still a level of frustration. the greatest military power in the world has its limits and people have to understand when we say we re a great nuclear power, doesn t mean much when you re dealing with roadside bombs. all right. thank you so much. greatly appreciate you being with us. thank you. dick durbin, t
our recovery is steadily picking up. the private sector is creating more jobs. we ve got opportunities, both here at home and around the would if we would come together to make our country stronger and make our country a better leader in the world. if we just go at each other with partisan division, from the very moment the next president is inaugurated, i m not optimistic we ll do what we re asked to do by the american people. senator cons, thank you for joining us. just ahead, melania makes her first speech since the republican convention. did her speech win over any new voters? plus, a message believed to be from the isis lead tore his terrorist forces. is it a sign he s afraid he s losing control? just look at those two. happy. in love. and saving so much money on their car insurance by switching to geico.
local tribal leaders and telling cnn as much as one quarter of the city is controlled by terrorist forces. back now with the ranking member of 0 the house armed services kitty, democratic congressman, adam smith of washington. congressman, we are hearing in is, iraqi forces have recaptured most of ramadi, key word being most. do you think this is a victory that will be long lasting, that will hold? i think it will hold. the question is where does it go next. are they, first of all, able to clear the city entirely, clear the surrounding areas? have they able to build on this progress? and one of the big questions there is, still got to get some details on this, how many sunnis were involved in this assault? how bought into the iraqi military and government is the sunni population? is that reflected in this victory in ramadi? will it build and grow? that s the key. moving up into heavily sunni areas. if the sunnis still think that