the assad regime for years and in reality they were not that is the whole truth the assad regime may not be perfect but would turn into if it's terrible and then return it if it is the slimmest the so-called islamic state and. you know all the needed in groups such as. strained others not are they real i think or the surprising that the kurds but that's that comparison are made and i hear you so i will just it won't take i want i want time before i absolutely don't take a long time so even if you read the thank you really of the western press you will see that stajan from two thousand and thirteen the western press started to acknowledge that the main enemy is over mr ross that were actually they saw him it's very cruel dangerous people and all the truth is that the united states european union has been hiding is that. your forces are feared by the kurds in the north of syria they are despised by the syrian government forces and by a lot of sunni arabs so it's not surprising that when the kurds were food before the option. all very well known also the governments or mr erdogan they h

was misread when it comes to his position he's he's put his or his position on assad is that if assad is elected in a fair free election and and all of the parts passion is very inclusive and in an ideal case if you selected or struck it will respect the decision. of all the syrians and trick you will not ever see in that however i mean such case is very unrealistic at the moment given the fact that thousands and thousands of people were killed by the assad regime and also millions have been displaced of course at the end of the day it is syrians as a whole without exclusion of any group if they decide it is not totally safe place or anyone's place to criticize their decision ok to me we're with. just one a what will come back we'll come back i want to bring an end to metering of this because he talked a lot about russian i met in dmitri as in moscow so who taught you talk touched on this a bit earlier but what role does russia play and making sure that this doesn't escalate and become more complicated as the met said you know it's a possibility but he doesn't think is likely what rol

the political distance between mr of the on president assad is very far. i think that now the russian mediation after the. united states were out from all north and syria will be sensitive and very important and crucial in. making the. phased north and syria very small and safe for all the constituents of the region there's a great point so many how how about that how significant how much is at stake based on how turkey and syria work this out between themselves. well i think turkey has a few points that it has been arguing from the from this from the very beginning first of all it does not want any terrorist group. stablish ing some sort of defacto autonomy along its border particularly the y.p. g. given the fact that there isn't a very close thing between p.k. k. terrorist organization and the y p g and also any sort of other extremist groups along its border because these are these locus judas' like the previous speaker said national security threats to its citizens other than that turkey wants to establish. you know some sort of stability turkey wants

and ultimately through these two backers of the assad regime alternately they need to have. some sort of linkage with the assad regime as well so if these are established turkey like you know for example praise the no nonsense in fighting turkey does not have any interest to stay in syria for longer than it needs to are we shouldn't forget that it's the it is also a very harsh economic burden that turkey has been sorry if anything with regards to the military and also be a military aspect of took his involvement in syria dimitri what does this mean what's happening and non-base now what does this mean for asada eventually being able to reclaim all of syria talk about the significance of monbiot. well i think that mon bishops crucial because i think it was a test it was a test to all of. loyalty of whom do people actually fear i mean people in syria. are sunni muslims are. alawite christians. talk amongst whom do they fear most it turns out that they don't fear most and they don't distrust bolster the syrian government or russia or even turkey they distrust and fear the islam

well i think they're trying to perhaps whoop assad away from his alliance with iran. the number one priority for the assad regime today after crushing all opposition to his rule is economic reconstruction the west is not going to invest in that economic reconstruction but there are very wealthy arab states that do have the resources the financial resources and so i suspect part of the agenda here is to see whether they that whether you know bashar al assad can be influenced financially. with reconstruction aid in exchange for weakening his alliance with iran you know if it wasn't for the wrongs. participation in the horrific war in syria over the last you know seven years bashar al assad would not be alive today he said he would be in power so you are on has a huge amount of influence i don't think at the end of the day that bashar assad will break his alliance with iran and switch sides but i think what's i think much more fundamental and i think what's uniting bashar al assad with other. arab states in the region is that bashar al assad and other leaders of the arab

the syrian people do not deserve the treatment they are getting from besar al-assad. this resolution is aimed directly at stopping it. thank you. >> mister president. >> senator from connecticut. >> thank you very much, mister president. mister president, i come to the floor to speak briefly about the president's announcement that he will be withdrawing 2000 american troops from syria. let me be clear. i thought this was a bad idea from the start primarily because our presence in syria is not authorized by congress. we have had that debate, but i believe this congress has never authorized the united states military to engage in hostilities against isis. it is

you know to escalate the tensions as far as took his position on assad turkey i mean. i think was misread when it comes to his position he's he's put his or his position on assad is that if assad is elected in a fair free elections and all the parts question is very inclusive and in an ideal case if he is elected of course tokyo will respect the decision of all the syrians and trick you will not ever see in that however i mean such case is very unrealistic at the moment given the fact that thousands and thousands of people were killed by the assad regime and also millions have been displaced of course at the end of the it is the syrians as a whole without exclusion of any group if they decide it is not turkey's place or anyone's place to criticize their decision ok to me we're with that look just like just want to welcome back welcome back i want to bring an end to metering in this because he talked a lot about russia i met a dmitri as in moscow so who are talking you talk touched on this a bit earlier but what role does russia play and making sure that this doesn't es

the assad regime for years and in reality they were not that is the whole truth the assad regime may not be perfect but they would turn it if it's terrible and then return it if it is the slimmest the so-called islamic state and. you know all the militant groups such as . strained others not are they real i think are they surprising that kurds but that's that comparison are made and i hear you so i will just it won't take i want i want time before i absolutely don't take a long time so even if you read the thank you really of the western press you will see that stajan from two thousand and thirteen the western press started to acknowledge that the main enemy is over mr asada are actually they saw him it's very cruel dangerous people and all the truth is that the united states european union has been hiding is that. your forces are feared by the kurds in the north of syria they are despised by the syrian government forces by a lot of sunni arabs so it's not surprising that when the kurds were food before the option. all very well known governments or mr erdogan they have chosen the go

whether you know bashar al assad can be influenced financially. with reconstruction aid in exchange for weakening his alliance with iran how much influence does iran still have over him. huge you know if it wasn't for the wrongs. participation in the horrific war in syria over the last you know seven years bashar al assad would not be alive today he said he would be in power so you are on has a huge amount of influence i don't think at the end of the day that bashar assad will break his alliance with iran and switch sides but i think what i think much more fundamental and i think what's uniting bashar al assad with other. arab states in the region is that bashar al assad and other leaders of the arab states in the middle east share a common national security concern and that national security concern is fear of their own populations fear of democracy fear of political change so in that sense they have a very common sort of set of concerns that they that they're trying to fight and push back against so where then there's this leave the rebels that'

regime, what will the assad regime do? how will they win back the other half of the population? certainly assad is no advertisement for coming home. how will they regain territory, and most importantly how will they rebuild devastated infrastructure and cities? that is a question we don't pose to the assad regime, because we don't talk to them, but we posted the russians all the time. we are still waiting for an answer. i will stop there, and will be happy to take questions. [applause] i will call on four or five or so questions and then the ambassador will unfortunately have to leave. let me start in the back first. back corner. with "the wall street journal." i came in a little late, i don't know if you touched on this, but there's tensions at this point with turkey. president trump and president erdogan spoke on friday. that has a potential to blow up in our faces. can you give us an update on where things stand on the efforts to prevent turkey from launching a new offensive? ambassador jeffrey: sure. there has been a c

regime, what is the assad regime going to do? how will it win back the other hard -- the other half of its population? assad is no advertisement for coming home. how is it going to gain its territory? how is it going to rebuild its devastated infrastructure and cities? that is the question we pose not to the assad regime because we do not talk to them but we posed to the russians all the time. we are still waiting for an answer. i will stop that. i will be happy to take questions. [applause] william: why don't you take a seat? five orall on four or so questions and then the ambassador will fortune -- unfortunately have to leave. let me start in the back first. back corner. >> i came in a little late. i don't know if you touched on this but there are tensions with turkey at this point. president trump and president erdogan spoke on friday. that has the potential to blow up in the faces. can you give us some update on where things stand on the efforts to prevent turkey from launching a new offense of -- offensive? mr. jeffrey: ther

in the last 24 hours have invited assad to send troops to damascus. and barry brought up israel, what you have is this completeness. i don't think there is any clarity because iran is strengthened all the way to the mediterranean by assad consolidating power. israel has had elections. an election there is not someone waiting to replace netanyahu, he will cobble together and coalition in the couple of years which will do the same thing. but russia we haven't mentioned and russia has now replaced the united states as the main outside shaper of events and i wonder what the game is between urging and and, recipe again and putin. and what putin wants because i think erdogan will be played here admit and they will protect the turks and what happens next, i don't know. first, the kurds are the biggest victim of the americans pulling out from syria. again, they were stabbed in the back. the americans use them to fight isis and they did a fantasticjob and were , kicked out them from the capital, they said thank you very much, go and sort out your problem is wi

will be gone. confidently predicted basher al-assad will be gone. the same way as hosni mubarak and gaddafi will be gone and they are still there. —— he is still therefore will now confidently predict that i don't think donald trump will be president at the end of 2019. i'm with you there. the variety of reasons for fa ct there. the variety of reasons for fact saying this. when he goes, this whole thing is that columnists and journalist who spent no time in the countries that they actually write about, this whole thing about strongmen and autocrats, that will die with them. for a strongman, donald is actually really bad at it erdogan it is good at it, putin is good at it, we will see if bolsonaro is good at it but trust me, donald trump is not good at it. this is one of the reasons i don't think you will survive. is it the mother investigation? there are three things. we will put bolsonaro last. there are enough red lights in the economy flashing. —— robert four. he doesn't think beyond tomorrow. he doesn't think beyond tomorrow. he doesn't

government at least for the transitional period but i seriously doubt that they will give money to assad they will wait until there is a new government if there is any new government in syria and other countries especially the europeans will act likewise the only potential in the. the only potential donors for syria at the current stage are the iranians because they don't fear the sanctions the have are already under the sanctions and they will get the major share while others will well known to have to follow richard the reaction to these latest tweets from donald trump in washington d.c. must be one of absolute bafflement right. it hasn't received a lot of attention i mean the the u.s. has been focused more on the wall issue closure of the government and so on i think that america can really add to their i thought was very good analysis of society resources saudi motivations but i think what what is clear is that president trump does not want to pay for the reconstruction of syria and so whether it's saudi arabia the europeans or some other group but he doesn't want the u.s. to do that

solid and the arab nations, the arab governments, are restoring their relations with assad. the united arab emirates has reopened its embassy, bahrain is doing the same, bashir from sudan, his isolation is broken. could we see him welcomed back publicly formally into the family of arab nations? yes. there are a lot of preparations for that, the reopening of embassies first, second. there is an arab summit in march next year. already, algeria, tunisia and other countries are working to break the isolation of syria and invite assad to the coming arab summit. so it will be different because he was kicked out in november 2011. so it could be a turning point here. what i find interesting is that a lot of speculation is from western commentators, is that because assad was propped up in the bad days by iran and now you have all these arab nations, what does this mean? the turks immediately after trump said he was pulling out, did not consult with his secretary of defense which is why he resigned. the kurds, who did the heavy lifting turning back isis, are suddenly now threatened by

overthrow assad. let's keep in mind that the christians from iraq when we went in and did our duty in there, moved to syria so they could live under assad. assad let them live peacefully. >> thank you for the call. we have an open invitation for senator rand paul to join us on the program and take calls any time. we always welcome members of the house and senate to be with us. this is a tweet from senator paul yesterday who did support what the president was doing in syria. i'm happy to see a president who can declare a victory and bring our troops out of a war. it's been a long time since that happened. >> mission accomplished. let me try to push back on this. right now, you know, for all the politics that everyone is engaged in about the syria withdraw, here's the situation on the ground. there are 20 to 30,000 isis fighters that are still lurking around iraq and syria. in the area that the united states and our allies have still been unable to conquer in the former caliphate, there are 3,000 die-ha

i think that can compel assad and russia to the table to a solution. i understand that may not be on the table. i'm not sure the internal discussions, but i think that would actually be the fastest way to compel the russians and the iranians and the syrians to the table. let me just ask you very quickly, mr. ambassador, has the administration taken a position on the caesar act? the cesar civilian protection act? >> i do not think we have taken a specific position on that particular piece of legislation. you know it's complicate for us to do that on a particular piece of legislation. more generally, we believe that the more sanctions we can impose on that regime particularly in key strategic areas that serve their military, that serve the regime directly, all the better for our entire policy and if this house can help in one way or the other without endorsing specific legislation. >> i would like to ping-pong that back to you. we've passed the syrian protection act here and it is in the senate. as you know, it's been hotlined but there is at least one s

seems to be drifting from their position towards assad. we have seen that kind of uniformity from their perspective toward the legitimacy of assad, speaking about kind of normalization of atrocities in syria. honestly speaking, after a 15-day trip between europe, lebanon, i came back recently, and i can say there is literally a lack of strategy in the eyes of the e.u., and they probably the result or solution for all this chaos in the region. the, would that leave united states as the only voice against assad? thank you. >> you know, i think one of the things that comes through in that i think is evident from a real look at what the united states is doing on stabilization now, the current approach on the ground in eastern syriai is a tacit acceptance that the united states' goal of a meaningful political transition is never going to happen, and that the u.s. is essentially acquiescing eventuals reacquisition of control over these territories, and thereby if not creating a self of filling prophecy, at least sort of enabling one. whereou kno

they chant god syria bashar bashar al assad's government is now in charge of the city and. this footage was obtained under the supervision of governmental authorities two years since the battle for aleppo the memories remain vivid. it was raining bombs on the buildings and on to the streets you couldn't move around here you had to stay at home there were some friends around and sometimes we'd be together but once a bomb fell close by and i got hit on the arm. the twelve year old lost his father in the conflict he his family and his home were collateral damage in syria's vicious war. it's a common story among the children my returning to school. like that many have lost several loved ones not just a parent or a brother but several family members there were a lot of casualties the deaths in this area. remind us of the trauma are everywhere this teacher did not want to show his face afraid that islamist fighters may still be lurking. but he points out the ruins of the neighboring school and says that jihadi he's imprisoned their opponents their. ideological divides have shatte

they basically said, here's a pro assad systemic opposition, they're okay. here's a large slice of this pie and these people are all terrorists, whether they be moderate syria opposition, isis, they clear for themselves a large targeted list of essentially almost everybody fighting in syria and dealt with them in this matter. on the issue of hospitals and restriking hospitals this was a cynical aspect of policy. there are people, obviously, who have a strong point. there's also the use of cluster munitions, anti-tank, anti-personnel cluster munitions. bombs they used that -- we don't use although we don't mind supporting people inside who do use. i will push back a little and yes, we're in terms of how the ethical way we conduct war and the nature of our countries, our systems, are very different. all right. that reflects itself in how we conduct ourselves in military operations. that's a very valid point. it's not clean cut. i'll be frank, right. it's important -- it's important to have some degree of introspection and remember how long it took to arrive to

well i think they're trying to perhaps woohoo assad away from his alliance with iran. the number one priority for the assad regime today after crushing all opposition to his rule is economic reconstruction the west is not going to invest in that economic reconstruction but there are very wealthy arab states that do have the resources the financial resources and so i suspect part of the agenda here is to see whether they that whether you know bashar al assad can be influenced financially. with reconstruction aid in exchange for weakening his alliance with iran you know if it wasn't for the wrongs. participation in the horrific war in syria over the last you know seven years bashar al assad would not be alive today he certainly would be in power so you ron has a huge amount of influence i don't think at the end of the day that bashar assad will break his alliance with iran and switch sides but i think what's i think much more fundamental and i think what's uniting bashar al assad with other. arab states in the region is that bashar al assad and other leaders of the arab

they stood up against assad. he chose, rather than reconcile with them. he chose to mow them down and slaughter tens of thousands of innocent, peaceful protesters. that's how the revolution began. >> tucker: i'm not defending assad's character. i'm saying. >> good, you shouldn't. >> tucker: i'm not syrian. i don't work for assad. i'm american. i want to know what's best for us. if you are worried about the chaos and the huge refugee problems caused by this civil war, and by the emergence of isis, again, abetted by the civil war. then, why wouldn't you long for the days where christians could live unmolested in syria under this authoritarian assad? i'm totally missing it. what am i missing? >> this is actually going to cause more refugees. okay? northeastern syria right now is secure. the reason it's secure is because of the great work by our u.s. special forces working with the fdf. the local syrian and moderate sunni forces on the ground. they secured it less refugees coming from that area. people can say there peacefully not getting bombed by assad and

mast pointed out in his resolution than assad. who is the one responsible for he massacre of his own people? assad. he brutalized people who demanded change. aunleashed terrorists from the prisons into iraq in 2003, helping to create the precursor to isis and did so again during the syrian protests of 2011 leading to the founding and growth of isis. d assad, with his brutal tactics is responsible for the hundreds of thousands of murders, for war crimes, for crimes against humanity. he continues to be responsible for the daily terror occurring in syria to this day. assad is the one responsible. and this is not a man who can lead a country. we must use every tool at our disposal to put pressure on assad and his backers and pressure on iran and pressure on russia. they are the ones backing him. we've got to pass both of my good friend mr. engel's bill, the civilian protection act and the bills that he puts forth with mr. royce. these are important bills and they are still pending in the senate, as all good bills go, ending in the sen

the legitimacy of assad and a normalization in syria. speaking, but when it europe and lebanon and i came recently -- i came from a trip recently and i can see lack of strategy in the eyes of the eu. solution for all of the region. that would leave the united states as of the only voice against assad. i needed just a few highlights. thank you. think one ofnow, i the things that comes through in a steve's report that is evident and what the united states is doing on stabilization now is at the current approach on the ground in syria isn't tacit acceptance that the united states' goal of a meaningful transaction is never going -- transition is never going to happen. in the u.s. is acquiescing assad's reacquisition of control over the territories. fulfillingy, if not a self filling prophecy, enabling one. where theis that is future,tates is in the it's policy does not match is on assessment. assessment. either it has another assessment in which it should share that were it should have a policy that is in line with its own realistic assessme

assad have been at the table and putin will be at the table t guess who won't be at the table? the united states of america. and so vladimir putin, of course he is celebrating this decision, because america basically walked away, gave up its seat at the table. we have no presence there any longer and we have just turned over this country and its future and its meaning in the region to vladimir putin and iran and assad. another reason why putin is a big winner is because you can just imagine those meetings now. when putin goes to the middle east and meets with the egyptians and the saudis and jordanians, frankly even the israelis, us know what he's going to say? i don't know why you are counting on america. i don't know why you are relying on america. they are unreliable. vladimir putin is going to say, look at me. i stood by assad, even after the whole world came after him. i stood by him. i didn't retreat. look at america. they abandoned these kurds to be slaughtered by the turks and maybe by the regime, and you are going to put the future and security of your country in the h

terms,t get that on our we are to have to get on assad's terms. the resources we devote to this conflict compared to the resources we devote to trying to contain russia and deal with china. even trying to do with the situation in afghanistan are very limited. mainly in the area of taking care of refugees. this is something that is certainly sustainable for us. >> we really appreciate the time. thank you. [applause] do you >> tonight at eight eastern, former federal reserve chair fed janeteral reserve yellen -- here are some of her remarks. >> i think things have improved, but there are gigantic holes in the system. -- take leverage lending, which i talked about. i don't think the banking agencies have sufficient tools. we can deal that with a safety -- soundness program soundness problem. if it's a question of selling risky things to the market that can undermine financial stability, we don't have a set of tools to deal with that. to some extent, eight years of writing thousands of pages of regulation. it should be around the margins, particularly

fanciful in mumbai just not a foregone conclusion us yet it's russia assad strongest ally that holds the key to what happens from here. also today a high level delegation from turkey will travel to moscow for talks with the russian officials on the way forward mohamed atta well just doesn't. have any kofu the middle east expert said to russian international affairs council welcome to the program what's your assessment of where we're at first was a very confusing picture is your sense that the syrian troops are in member which well there are contradictions reports coming from both syrian side and kurds as we know yesterday syrian state television declared announced basically that a syrian army entered man beach but after that kurds on the broad beach they reported that the syrian troops just amassed south borders of the city so it's still unclear whether the troops are in the city or around the city but anyways it's kind of some sort of things are in the works arbitrations or on hold because today. there is a important meeting between affording and defense ministries of russia and tur

we said assad can't say. well, trained for is likely to stay for a fair amount of time. secondly, we've set in fact we have strategic interests they are and that we can allow russia and iran to dictate the strategic interests. we leave russia and iran with our strategic interest and russia build a major foothold to aspire to, that in fact it hasn't had it now a habit. it has a basis there that it didn't happen it will have a significant foothold. number three, iran is ultimately going to have another place of attack against israel, which will not be deterred by russia. forcefully, we send a global message, fight with us, but when we're finished with you, we use you, we throw you away. anyplace else in the world do we want someone to fight with us so that our soldiers, our sons and numbers are not in harms way, they look at this and say wow, we fight with them until they don't need us anymore and never get discarded on the battlefield and we die. all of those results are horrible results. absolute failures. you can avoid that by stating in the midst. >> on the subject of

the syrian revolution began in march twenty seventh the government of president bashar assad responded by a fierce war against all opposition with far reaching consequences. it represents a major challenge facing the international community and twenty sixteen. the situation in syria was exacerbated by the intervention of both russia and iran and their support for the assad government against the rebels. who are dealing with as many i mean about of the. iranian people and you have to do muslims sure you have the serial killer you. were mad at the fact the strategy man said let the far north. korea you know where i mean death for analysis and no he in your. new fools. that then buttons pushed the one of them can come to you of them or is another in the holocaust and that would a doctor lead the mill that in god an associate will be in class and me accordingly i imagine is that east would have me out by the single now and there are some one m.b. how good it is to what i'm being known as a citizen without a care in a joke when he just doing a can in what will be able to record e.g. all tha

ththe al-a-assad regime, with is russian and iranian allies are going to try to push forward against the pyd. will make a p pyd deal with h them post of the situation isn't going to b be better. i am fully against any presence of the u.s. soldiers, just like i'm fufully against the presence of the russisian soldiers. i like h p putin talks about a legitimate governmenent determining the p presence,e, bi don'tt think al-assad is lelegitimate. if we follow along that line, well, eses thimemean the saudis should remain in yemen? i don't think so. there is a lot thahat is going o be happeningng. we have to be cacareful. all of t this, what is driving s not aboutt a mission a coalititn or caring abouout what is happenining in syriaia. this couould be e related to multiple scandals ththat are brewining, multiple pressusuresn trtrump. it could be relalated toto so my otother things. but i don't think the u.s. is ever going to leave. lilike i said, it is an std in many ways. adjusted,ouour process do you think it is likely that u.s. might escalate airstrikes once and if thehe troops are with

for mum but just not a foregone conclusion us yet it's russia assad strongest ally that holds the key to what happens from here on in also today a high level delegation from turkey will travel to moscow for talks with the russian officials on the way forward mohamed atta well just doesn't. u.s. republican senator marco rubio says he wants a gradual rather than a sudden withdrawal of u.s. troops rubio sits on the senate foreign relations committee he says it's important of respects u.s. israeli and kurdish interests in the region rather than jordan has more from washington d.c. the us republican senator marco rubio says that there's a slight change of plans when it comes to the us his decision to withdraw its two thousand troops from syria here's the senator speaking in florida on friday we have been able to sort of get the pace of the tree or withdraw slowed which is important i think of persepolis withdrawal would have been catastrophic. for various reasons we can outline the moment. the a lot of attention has been paid to northeast syria and our presence alongside the turks aside th

with regards to syria have shifted that it no longer sees unseating president bashar al assad or regime change in syria as a goal we're not asking for regime change we're not asking for the russians to leave we're asking for is a compromise settlement there's a strong. readiness on the part of western nations not to money for that disaster unless we have some kind of idea that their government is ready to compromise and that's not create yet another horror in the years ahead nevertheless the situation in syria remains volatile especially now with turkey threatening to intervene to invade northern syria out of security concerns as they see the white e.g. syrian kurds that control much of northern syria as a terrorist organization and they have threatened to act we're also seeing sporadic fighting in with the jihad ists joined by rebels there and the syrian arab clashing from time to time so there is certainly motivation to get things done. yes a lot to be discussed let's try to go through some of it no a political. stuff. is live on the program always welcome washington has said it will

mark: the move will allow russia control inate its syria, bolstering the assad regime. hosting an annual end-of-year press conference, vladimir putin knows syria is going his way. pres. putin:is the presence of american forces necessary? i think not. let us not forget that their esence is not legitimate. if the u.s. decides to withdraw forces, that is correct. mark: while most of the trump administration and u.s. allies were not forewarned abrkt the plan, perhaps was. president erdogan pressuring donaldwe trump las. i.s. still has an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 fighters, and if you're is that aer premature an withdrawal on turkey's terms might allow jihadists to rear their head again. mark lowen, bbc news,stanbul. jane: former defense secretary william cohen is still with me. i'm reading genal mattis' resignation letter and he talks about alliances and partnerships. where does pulling out of syria leave the u.s.-led coalition? mr. cohen: i think it leaves it in a very damaged position. the united states has been the leader of putting those coalitions together. countries

at some point, president assad might have tried to move east, perhaps with russian help. last winter, a couple of hundred mercenaries moved towards a u.s. military base and with we had to attack them and a couple hundred russians died. not russians in uniform but russian citizens. that was scary. even though we won that firefight, there was no guarantee that russia would take it. so you can always worry about escalation dynamics, worry about a scenario like blackhawk down from somalia or beirut in 1983. being on the ground causes danger and we had not figured out how to turn that presence into a resolution of the war. i like the way it gave us some leverage and defeating isis, limiting iran's influence and protecting the kurds. >> shepard: headline in "the new york times," kurdish fighters talking about releasing superior is fighters and expecting a turkish attack. the syrian democratic forces are considering monitoring. how quickly could isis reconstitute using cell phones and instant messages to create a situation like paris was blowing up not that long ago? >> it took

has killed some four hundred thousand people and displaced millions more assad's government is now in control of nearly two thirds of syria after a string of victories one of those was in the scene of some of the most vicious fighting and humanitarian crisis reconstruction is now underway but the city's children bear the scars of war. that they chant god syria bashar bashar al assad's government is now in charge of the city and the school this footage was obtained under the supervision of governmental authorities two years since the battle for aleppo the memories remain to fit the fallacy. called love it was raining bombs on the buildings and onto the streets you couldn't move around here you had to stay at home there were some friends around and sometimes we'd be together but once a bomb fell close by and i got hit on the arm. the twelve year old lost his father in the conflict he his family and his home were collateral damage in syria's vicious war. it's a common story among the children my returning to school. like that many have lost several loved ones not just a parent or a broth

troops from syria mean that syrian president bashar al assad has won the civil war in his country. well that is absolutely right bashar assad has won the war in syria barring groups that are currently president which is a serious border with turkey and the presence of the kurdish forces in the north east now the presence of the kurdish forces that meant something meant to be in opposition with the american troops and with the american troops now leaving means that. facing no real opposition except for the groups in it so it would be correct to say that he has won this eighty a low war. yesterday's announcement has reshuffled the geo political deck in syria and increasingly the entire region there are losers there are winners from this decision here is what the kurdish military council leader in mom beach said about the turkish threat and kurdish reliance on u.s. troops take a listen to kidnap of the ship of course we have taking the turkish threat seriously the member military council forces have taken their precautions on the front line. there is an agreement with the internationa

as bashar al assad won in syria. nearly eight years and half a million deaths after the u.s. said he had to go. the outgoing un humanitarian adviser. >>> plus, a television legend who is often imitated but never matched. my conversation with the great tv host. >>> plus, going back to school, one woman who's working to help students accused of sexual misconduct get into u.s. colleges. uni world is a proud sponsor of amanpour and company. a river, specifically, multiple rivers that would be home to uniworld rivers. that dream sets sale in europe, asia, india, egypt and more. bookings available through your travel agent. for more information visit uniworld.com. additional support provided by bernard and irene schwartz. sue and edgar walken heim. judy and josh weston and by contributions of your pbs station. >>> welcome to the program, i'm christiane amanpour in london. in the midst of a week of extreme political chaos across the west from here in britain, where prime minister theresa may tangled with the revolt in her own party, to france where president emmanuel macron has face