but the big difference between libya and syria is that in syria this time we have firm international commitment from all the backers of a future syrian government around the table at the vienna talks. the commitment is clear, to preserve and develop the state in syria, and allow a new representative government to govern for all its people. mr. speaker, i have attempted to answer the main questions, why? why now? why us? is it legal? what are the ground forces? is there a strategy? what is the endpoint, and what is the plan for reconstruction? i know that this is a highly complex situation, and i know members on all sides will have complex questions which i look forward to trying to answer this morning. when will be a confusing situation in syria with regard to russia's intervention. mr. speaker, let me reassure the house that the american-led combined air operations centre has a memorandum of understanding with the russians. that enables daily contact and pragmatic military planning to ensure the safety of all coalition forces, and this would include our brave raf pilots. another que

in syria, it is more complex. as a report in publishing to date shows, we believe around 70,000 syrian opposition fighters, principally the free syrian army who do not belong to extremist groups, and with whom we can coordinate attacks on isil. in addition, there are the kurdish armed groups who also show themselves capable of taking territory, holding territory, and relieving the suffering that the civilian population had entered under isil control. the syrian kurds have successfully defended kurdish areas in northern syria and retaken territory around the city of kabani. they have proved capable of defending territory and they stopped isil's attempts to capture the border with turkey and seeping into the province. the southern front of the free syrian army has consolidated its control over significant areas and has worked to prevent terrorist from operating. these people that i have talked about, they are ground troops. they need our help. when they get it, they succeed. in my view, we should do more to help the

through turkey into syria and a place where the refugees flee from syria into turkey. let me show you why this is such an important nexus point between here and the u.s. i.s.i.l. fighters go through turkey, sometimes going into istanbul, going down to southern turkey and make their way into syria and iraq. millions of refugees flee through those same borders through turkey, some of them stay here, some go on to europe. president obama is in turkey today. he spoke in the turkish coastal city of antalia. having one of their regular meetings, the president today defended the coalition strategy of air strikes. here's some of what president obama said. >> even as we grief with our french friends, however, we can't lose sight that there has been progress being made. on the military front, or coalition is intensifying our air strikes, more than 8,000 to date. we're taking out i.s.i.l. leaders. commanders. their killers. we have seen that when we have an effective partner on the ground, i.s.i.l. can, and is, pushed back. >> but the progress that president obama talks about is

he has been a barbaric leader of syria. his use of barrel bombs against the civilian population, and he has driven at least 5 million people out of the country in the last five years, and he doesn't deserve to stay in power. he may be secure now, but if there's an agreement, i think that the collective way of the sunni arab world and the united states, he has to go. >> nicholas burns, a professor of practice and international relations at harvard's kennedy school of government. thank you for joining us. are peace talks like the ones convened over syria, even as fighting rages on in the country, a necessary chapter to figure out what happens there? and all of the parties, what they can live with and what they can't, and tehran, what they have to say about syria's future. the road to damascus, the "inside story." >> you're watching "inside story," i'm ray suarez. the u.s. is in, the russians are in, a coalition of sunni majority countries around the middle east working with the united states, to it strike the islamic state an

russia agreed to extract the chemical weapons from syria, syria, and syria is now bound medic weapons convention. what kind of use of chemical weapons have we seen, specifically with regard to chlorine gas? >> we believe that we have seen chlorine gas. >> have we determined it is the assad regime using chemical actors? >> are strong judgment is it is the assad regime. >> thank you. i yield back the chairman. >> thank you. you. now we go to mr. mo brooks. >> is your opinion is russia's use of military force in syria good or bad, productive or counterproductive? >> we have been clear that we do not think russia's military intervention is leading to a settlement of the syrian conflict and instead is getting assad confidence that he can stay in power. >> using words such as immoral to describe how bad russia's conduct in syria is is that fair? >> assistant sec. patterson confirmed that word, and i have no problem with it. >> what thought has been giving to using a diverse strategy whereby we force the russian military to be engaged in different parts of the globe thereby weakening our abi

policy for solving syria. while we wait for that to happen, russia is taking the initiative and proposing its own diplomatic solution. barnaby phillips last this report. >> reporter: on state television in syria president assad's soldiers were celebrating. they've apparently regained control of a vital route into the city of aleppo. pushing back i.s.i.l. fighters, that captured it last month. meanwhile, in moscow, more clarity on where russia, president assad's most important ally would like the diplomacy to go from here. >> translator: we need to agree on two lists. the first list of the terrorist organizations which will not be covered by a ceasefire which we hope will be agreed upon at some point and the second list is the opposition group that will negotiate with the government under the auspices of the u.n. >> in london i complete the leader of the syrian national coalition, which is backed by the west, several arab countries and turkey. he said he knew flog about a meeting in mostly cloudy -- knew knowin

aides say syria was the main subject. german chancellor angela merkel says the refugees fleeing the conflict in syria must not be blamed for what has happened in paris. plenty of things still to be dealt with as we try to understand what happens next in terms of the manhunt we've been talking about and the economic implications and security implications and political implications, all of which will be dominated by what has happened in the city. let's find out how the markets have been reacting in asia. let's go to zeb eckert. good morning. we are seeing a selloff across the asia-pacific, a six-week low on the msci benchmark index come and this reflects the new uncertainty, the new geopolitical risk that has been introduced. you will see red across the screen. while the markets in the asia-pacific trading lower. we see the hang seng, down 1.7%. the shanghai composite off its lows, some buying lifting that market, but elsewhere across the eastn, southwest -- south asia is down. check out the philippines, 2.5% down as leader

has a presence in syria is leverage on europe because europeans, syria became -- refugees. the two major problems of the european -- [inaudible] europe cannot anymore spot this competition, the price is too high. we will see next january the european commission knew of economic sanctions on russia. the price of assad also became too expensive in europe and in france but many people -- the anti-assad strategy, especially in 2004. european countries -- they are afraid about -- [inaudible] but they cannot officially support him so -- the anti-assad coalition -- like in paris or beirut. so if russia could prevent this, european countries should reconsider the sanctions. at least russia thinks that the nationalism is the major process in the middle east. [inaudible] and would be grateful. western support only a step unlimited is pure nationalism because of costs against turkey. we can see on this map, but 19 million killed in turkey in the southeast, and it's principal -- for turkey. but if the western countries do not support -- in fact this problem doesn't have this problem. a

in syria. of course, we know about iraq and afghanistan. your response? >> i think the way you posed the question, you're really putting your finger on the main issue. and it is an issue that gets largely ignored by the media and certainly ignored by those aspiring to be the next president. we have been in gauged militarily -- engaged militarily in an enterprise that by my telling, has now gone on for 35 years, beginning with the promulgation of the carter doctrine back in 1980. a project that assumes that somehow or other the a joint use of american military power -- adroit use of american military power can somehow fix large parts of the islamic world that are increasingly and valid in turmoil. -- and valid in turmoil. when we look at u.s. military actions across this entire span of time, what we see is however great u.s. military power may be, it does not suffice to achieve those objectives that our leaders claim they seek to achieve. i think the present moment in the obama administration is

six spent time in syria. they carried out attacks in syria broken into three groups. three suicide bombers attacked, a belgium said to be 19 or 20 years old. one came from syria posing as a refugee traveling on a fake or doctor passport. at the bataclan concert hall, a 29-year-old french national spent years in a city and sammy, a 28-year-old born in a paris suburb. [ gunshots ]. >> reporter: police say mostefai had a criminal record and radicalized but never been accused of terrorism. one had been placed under sup supervision after attempting to travel to yemen. the seventh suspect detonated his suicide bomb at a cafe. the paris prosecutor's office identified the attacker as a 31-year-old french citizen but hasn't disclosed his name. sources tell cnn it was 31-year-old abdeslam. he used a car found abandon in a paris suburb with three kalashnikov rifles inside. after being questioned by police in belgium, one of abdesla m's brothers spoke to bf mtv. [speaking foreign language]. >> translator: you also need to understand in spite of the tragedy, my parents are in shoc

has done the bulk of the bombing in syria, 2800 airstrikes in syria since the beginning of this campaign. only 150 or so were done by other countries, only a handful by france. by comparison yesterday, the united states a10's and an a1031 gun shop, destroying 117 fuel trucks, a much bigger strike that that the ones in raqqa. sources at the pentagon say that the french airplanes take to the skies again tonight, delivering another round of airstrikes similar to last night and perhaps the next night, as well. the united states of course is happy to have france more involved in the coalition and we are told that in the coming days and weeks, the u.s. will be providing more intelligence to france, so it can carry out strikes against isil in syria. >> i want to bring in mike lyons now, retired army major, al jazeera said national security contributor. mike, goose to see you, the strikes on raqqa including a strike on a terrorist camp came from u.s. in tell, but why are they being hit just now? >> that's a great question and i think that the pilots are probably frustrated, because they know the

isis is in syria and iraq. you really have to approach it in one way, more or less, which is not to further the american posture. second, why are you approaching it? in a rack why would you say that we have to find a political transition and we found it by working with local tribesmen -- why don't we apply exactly the same argument in syria, where the case is more compelling? you will have to tackle this issue at some point. but what are the obstacles? indigenous, you say in english? it fills the gap. i think the cup -- the problems are threefold. the first problems are russia. we are not sure that they are on that part of the agenda. this is where i agree with you, i think that the possibility of holding a grand coalition with russia is fragile because of that. so, we have to call the bluff of russia, which is not a strong challenge to russia. saying to them -- we have not only signed together, but coproduced and cosponsored the geneva to platform and began a prop -- platform two weeks ago, in which we said we

ordering a french aircraft carrier closer to iraq and syria. a dozen french war planes hit isis overnight bombing its stronghold of syria in the biggest french raid so far. in paris today, not the noise of war, but silence for the city's victims. millions remembering, those they can't forget, praying, too, for the critically ill. dozens of victims remain critically ill, clinging to life at this and other paris hospitals, shot multiple times and say doctors, utterly traumatized. i never received 50 patients together. >> one surgeon who served in afghanistan has never seen anything like it. >> worse than afghanistan? >> yes. >> must have looked like war here friday. >> it was a shooting of war, you know? >> france's muslim leaders condemned the killings. they honored the dead today and sent a message to isis. >> whatever you do, no matter how long it takes, we will beat you. >> reporter: and it's not just french police investigating this, but it's police in germany, spain, and belgium, intelligence agencies in britain, the u.s., and israel, isis

i don't think we're there in syria now. diplomacy is not going to success until the assad government and many of the fighting groups decide it is in their interest to be at the table. >> syria is not a tiny country, but it is not huge either. having that many armed forces deployed, doesn't each additional fighting force add a level of chance that something is going to go wrong, going to go really badly? >> it certainly does. when you only had the syrian government and the u.s.-lead coalition, say most of the last year and a half, sharing that strategic air space, then of course it was possible -- it was possible to keep fighters out of harm's way, but when the russian federation entered, when russia began flying air operations, it was quickly apparent that they weren't sharing their flight plans with the united states. they had transgressed turkey's border before. there had been repeated warnings, public and private to the russians to stop that behavior, and they didn't. so it's a small space, you have several different fac

they're in syria, let's go bomb syria. who's "we" and who's going to do it and everybody has competing interest in what's going on in an ever expanding picture of threat. that's the geopolitical nature of it and what the war against isis is. you have the investigation into what happened here. and the investigation is expa expanding from france to belgium, maybe logistical, maybe tactical as to what happened in paris, what do we know? >> reporter: we've got a lot more detail for you, chris, about the operations. they continued overnight. this was the site of the first arrest. one man was arrested in public. clearly, they knew who they were looking for, didn't need to go to his house. a very surprised crowd that moved further up the street behind me with the support of the bomb disposal unit to target a vehicle parked outside another house where police also entered and made another arrest. we still haven't confirmed with police if that vehicle is indeed that black or dark gray. >>> witnesses haven't been able to verify that

not in syria, in iraq. the only way the sunni tribes fight is if they believe that once they fight and get rid of i.s.i.s., they will have a say in the iraqi government. >> rose: so somebody hos has to promise them they will have a say. >> yes. >> rose: is abadi ready to make the promise? >> he doesn't have the political clout to deliver on anything. he is extremely weak. >> rose: would the iranians allow him to make that promise? >> i think it's in iran's interest to maintain the territorial integrity of iraq. i think it's in iran's interest for i.s.i.s. to be defeated by the sunni tribes, right, i think it's in iran's interest, and we probably need to have that conversation with them, right? we're not. but i think that's the way iran views it. what has to happen, i think the political solution in iraq, charlie, is a good dose of federalism. so a decentralization of power. >> rose: less power in baghdad, more in the province, to kurds and shia. >> right, and the only way if that works is there is a flow of

a syrian taketed graveyard in central syria. there is now such a concerning effort that a lot of these guys are being pushed back. arefact is, these guys fighting well, keeping track of their weapons, not selling them to al qaeda or isis -- why? d'etre of theison rebels was being met. we do not understand -- we talk isis, theout messianic components, the religious fundamentalism -- there is a political situation here, an anthropological situation. who is your number one enemy? you talk to analysts and they will say, excuse me, history did not start when basel was abated was014 -- when mosul invaded in 2013. 4. you want to talk about why the sunni population radicalized or allowed groups like all nusra and isis to come in? it is because of this. roger is right. the consequences that we said would be of intervention happened as a direct result of nonintervention. french fighter just -- french fried or jets into damascus, and and kerry calls hollande says we have to do a patent was doing. and the sunnis look at the united states an

syria, russia, 2300 sorties. perhaps they are as john bolton said to us stepping into the vacuum we have not been able to fill. >> no, they certainly are. the president has walked away. to hear him yesterday that he believes, american leadership is quote a slogan, something that he quote doesn't have time for that particular sound bite from that press conference among many that were so troubling to many people on all sides of the political spectrum, was stunning. when you have got dianne feinstein, ranking democrat on the senate intelligence committee, saying she has never been more concerned, our strategy is not working. you have a president insisting that our enemy is contained, you got a real problem. and i think, martha, part of this too, has to do with his concern about offending the iranians. he doesn't want to get actively and aggressively engaged for a number of reasons, including that the iranians don't want sunnis emboldened and fighting. we have to get sunnis emboldened and fighting if we will defeat i

until then, our correspondent is in syria. earlier in the day he spoke to an opposition fighter who was in the area where the pilots parachuted down. >> translator: until now we don't know the fate of the second pilot. he may have been killed. for more we'll talk to this man. >> translator: the russian aircraft violated the air space and it was brought down in an area. the pilot was shot by the opposition fighters, he was shot while trying to land and he was killed. >> translator: where did it happen exactly? >> translator: it was on the right of the area, near an area called the northern big river. >> translator: what about the second pilot? >> translator: the second pilot dropped in the kurd mountain area. i have heard through my contacts that he may have been killed, but we don't know for sure about the second pie -- pilot. >> reporter: the russian foreign minister has canceled his trip to turkey. he was due to meet his turkish counter to part on wednesday. instead he is warning russians to avoid travel to turkey all togeth

so it is not just in iraq and syria. on the military we're continue to go accelerate what we do as we find additional partners on the ground that are effective, we work with them more closely. i have authorized additional forces on the ground who are going to be able to improve that coordination. on the counter terrorism front keep in mind that since i came into office we have been worried about these kinds of attacks. the vigilance that the united states government maintains and the cooperation that we're consistently expanding with your european and other partners in going after every terrorist network is robust and constant. and every few weeks i meet with my security team and we go over every threat presented. where we have relevant information we share it immediately with counterparts around the world, including our european partners. on the aviation security we have been working so that at various airport sites not just in the united states but overseas we're strengthening our mechanisms to screen and discover pass

the root problems are in syria. i mean these refugees are mostly comes from the syrian/turkish border and soon enough with other borders with syria because there is isis in syria. so the effort should be instead of struggling with the consequences and the effect of that crisis by making sure that isis is defeated. and because the administration unfortunately and to a certain degree the european union did not did enough to end the problem in syria, now we'll have to deal with the refugee problem that is not the normal one. a normal one would be economic migrants and so, no, this is a mass of people leaving because of the crisis. >> let's me jump in here. associated press is reporting essentially what german media is now reporting. and let me just quote the urgent bulletin. german media reporting an arrest in bovaria. it's tied to the paris attacks. police are not saying that it's tied to the terrorist attacks. we have no independent confirmation of that. but it does underscore that there may be others who were involv

and end the syria war. even president obama said that this really won't be finished, we cannot reclaim territory from isis in syria until the war is over. the question is, how do you do that? president obama says the strategy is working. most strategists say, no, it's not. president obama says, isis is contained. most strategists say, well, actually, how can you say that? because you have isis now against russia in the aircraft. you have isis in sharm el sheikh in the sinai, isis in europe. isis again in a taped message threatening washington, d.c. by name, and all other members of the coalition. so, many analysts are saying, now with russia, you have to divide and conquer in syria. you know, take different areas of the country, smother with air strikes and go into those specific areas and eradicate isis from raqqa and other places where they are. that's the only way it's going to happen. >> you said you talked to analysts who say the strategy is not working. for some, that's charitable. some analysts say,

we took them out of syria after proper vetting and we train them and infiltrated them back into syria. this is a program that we have discontinued. isil iso-lost these towns and the ability to use them. i want to show you this video. as we talked about the isil weapon of choice. on november 18, we struck a bridge and ramadi which had been the primary route used by isil to send attacks against forces. as you'll see here in a moment isil can no longer use this , road. roll the video please. col. warren: that is an amazing depiction of the accuracy we are capable of here, and also terrain denial. sometimes you will see in our press releases where it says terrain denial. this is an example of terrain denial. isil longer be able to use that bridge to send vbieds against our forces. the second is from operation title wave strike against the illicit oil system of isil. early sunday morning november , 22, we conducted a larger strike near two areas in syria. that strike destroyed 283 oil tanker trucks. as we did on the first strike against tanker trucks, we conducted a leaflet drop ahead of t

and end the war in syria and u.s. promised to help secure the border but as mary snow reports turkey has to juggle domestic priorities with international obligations. >> it's the only muslim majority country a member of nato and border of syria has become a pathway in the war-torn country. >> 30,000 fighters from 90 different countries, the greatest majority of them came through turkey. >> reporter: analysts say turkey has worked to since seal the borders and what led to the situation is complex. turkey was once an ally of syria's president bashar al-assad and those ties were broken after syria's assault on citizen protesters in 2011. as syria spiralled into a civil war a nato commander says i.s.i.l. served a purpose and encountered iran's influence. >> not saying they created i.s.i.s., they didn't, they were one of a number of countries that fed weapons into the region and sought to mobilize extremist fires to go against iranian influence and it was a frankenstein. >> and it haunts it and suffered the worst terror at

on syria. which demanded that all parties immediately cease and desist from all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses. this call has not been heeded. a brutal and lawless cjjj$ @r(tc human rights violations and abuses can lead to and fuel conflict. they underpin many of the conflicts which come before this council and this is especially evident in syria. a common feature conflict is the disproportional impact it has on the most vulnerable. this is true in syria for women and for children. as we have heard today, 2.7 million syrian children have been deprived of the right to education. some for four years or more. the fact that more than half of all attacks on schools worldwide took place in syria says it all. as you heard from other colleagues, children continue to be recruited and indoctrinated by isil and other groups. women and girls insider is ya and those who have fled are subjected to sexual exploitation and harassment. the desperate economic situation of fa

there's also the question of syria. we have not had a serious strategy for the past four years since the uprisings began. we have to address this issue which is sort of mirror image of isis in some ways. it's remarkable to me our devoid of strategy we are. i hope this is wake up call. >> the one thing we have to be careful of and i fully support of the french invoking article five and we should be engaged in this with our nato allies and others in the defense and destruction of isis. however, revenge keeps coming up in those conversations. this needs to be a strategy. if this is only about a revenge attack, we'll make a serious mistake. we're going to be very interested in throwing everything at them early. part of the reasons they come back with bombs nonlt because the targets are moving is also because intelligence is not as good as it should be. that will happen with more engagement and directly targeting control. they'll have an immediate impact. revenge is no way to plan a defeat. >> we thank you so much. appreciat

russia is in syria, iran is in syria, neither of them share u.s. goals in syria. the u.s. stated goal is regime change, getting the bashar al-assad regime out. it may be ill-informed. what are you negotiating with when you have people at the table that do not want the end goal that you can't in syria. >> everyone on the table has a different goal. even allies. every regional country has a group they support. syria became not only a regional war, it is an international proxy war. boifl now there's an agreement that no one can win militarily, and there's an agreement that we'll have a political solution. you cannot start it by saying a political solution, but bashar al-assad must go. now people are discussing about will there be a transition period. how long is it. will there be election, constitutional changes preventing bashar al-assad from running again. positions. >> here you are looking to iran at the table, like russia, to say we know you support the bashar al-assad regime. you can influence them to try to make a decision. >> people on the tables are frenemies. and sau

2139 on syria. which demanded that all parties immediately cease and desist from all violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses. this call has not been heeded. a brutal and lawless conflict continues. human rights violations and abuses can lead to and fuel conflict. they underpin many of the conflicts which come before this council and this is especially evident in syria. a common feature conflict is the disproportional impact it has on the most vulnerable. this is true in syria for women and for children. as we have heard today, 2.7 million syrian children have been deprived of the right to education. some for four years or more. the fact that more than half of all attacks on schools worldwide took place in syria says it all. as you heard from other colleagues, children continue to be recruited and indoctrinated by isil and other groups. women and girls insider is ya and those who have fled are subjected to sexual exploitation and harassment. the desperate economic situati

syria has had some of its. syria fleiss these planes from russia and has had one shot down by turkey. turkey has in turn had one of its planes, an f4 shot down by syrian jets two years ago with that israel has also shot that down a syrian jet. this is an area people know are very tense borders and you can't fly into other people's air space, especially the air space of a nato ally. turkey is concerned because they believe the russian jets that were bombing in this area of northern sir were not targeting isil targets, but targeting these turkman village, turkman are the syrians of turkish who live in the area near that border with turkey, so were already upset about the air cover for syria in that area. you mentioned turkey being a nato ally, has the full support of the alliance behind it, and the idea that a nato ally could shoot down a russian plane obviously makes it a serious situation. >> to be clear, the fighter jet, the russian jet did go down over the turkman mountains, so you wonder if that is part of t

this is a russian jet over syria. just over the border from turkey. it is coming to us by reuters, amateur video. we see that coming down from the sky. clearly that jet coming down there. then it hits the ground. as you say, ian, we believe the pilots ejected before it crashed. >> reporter: that's right. that's what we are hearing from the russians. the russian military is saying the pilots were able to eject. now the turkish immediamilitary they shot down the plane at 9:20. they are not specifying. they said this plane violated their air space ten times within five minutes. during the ten times, they sent out a warning to the plane. you will have to see if the plane violated the air space. russia is saying no. turkey is saying yes. what evidence will they present that this air space was violated? really the question is the fate of the pilots if they were able to eject and safely eject and get to the ground. were they captured? what is their fate right now? that is something the russians say they are currently looking into, max. >> ian, back with you

continue to bomb in northern syria. turkmen and those fighting the assad regime more fee row shusly. and there's no doubt today's incident will complicate president obama's efforts to form a new coalition that would take on isis more effectively. >> let's discuss. you wanted to put today's shooting down of the plane is in some context, and that was use. . bigger context. let's go further. the relationship between turkey and russia has actually been very good. turkey gets half of its natural gas from russia. foreign minister lavrov from russia was going to visit turkey on december 25th -- or november 25th, tomorrow. he was -- he's decided not to do that. what about turkish/russian relations and what this does to it? >> well, this is a very good question. turkey and russia had a good decade of strong relations. 58% of turkish natural gas is imported from russia. 4 million tourists come annually to turkey. the trade relationship is improve, but this is an important milestone. president putin's statement today has been very

airstrikes on islamic state targets in syria. he says the u.k. is already at its highest terror threat from jihadist. the french president continues his push for a joint force against the islamic state group after talks with leaders of germany and italy. he sets his sights on a key mating and moscow. its --set to employ after turkey downs one of its planes in disputed circumstances. also coming up this hour, one of brazil's richest men and a senator have been arrested over the corruption scandal at the oil company petrobras. happy thanksgiving to our american viewers. introducingyou -- you to the brand-new totus. this is live from paris. we start in the united kingdom, where the prime minister has been presenting its arguments for why britain should join the international coalition and carry out airstrikes against the islamic state in syria. let's hear what the prime minister had to say. >> action now is that the success in iraq and squeezing the so-called caliphate is put at risk by our failure to act in syria. seriously hamper our efforts if we

between syria and turkey. we've worked very effectively with those partners to close hundreds of kilometers of that border. we've got about a hundred kilometers left to go. we're working more closely with turkey. we're putting more assets into the base in turkey that we're flying missions from there to apply pressure to raqqa, to apply more pressure and more lethal strikes against isil. so we're ramping up and intensifying this campaign against all those lines of effort. >> rose: and how will you measure success? >> we'll measure success by shrinking that safe haven and making it a place where isil can no longer plot attacks and perpetrate heinous acts of brutality in that space and elsewhere. >> rose: thank you so much, lisa monaco from the white house in taking time on what has to be as busy a day as you've had. thank you so much. >> thanks, charlie. >> rose: we'll be right back. stay with us. we continue our conversation now about the paris attack with robert gates. he was secretary of defense from 2006 to

french fighter jets launched their biggest raid in syria to date. their target, isil strong holds in raqqa. the u.s. and russia have also stepped up their campaigns. overnight, russian bombs hit oil fields controlled by isil. >> this is going to be another in many my view strategic mistake that the west is dealing with another -- a second war on terrorism, which is not going to be any different from the first war on terrorism that failed miserably, and replaced al-qaeda with daesh. >> reporter: russia began its air strikes in syria at the end of september. it has always said its main target is isil, but most of its bombs have hitterer to held by other groups opposed to its ally, president bashar al-assad. u.s. president barack obama says isil cannot be eliminated until there is a political settlement in syria, and that he says will be impossible as long as president assad remains in power. >> most of the russian strikes have been directed at propping up the assad regime. so they will have to make a fundamental shift, i believe, in policy. >> reporte

syria is his greatest weakness. since this started in 2011, there has been been an attempt to deal with it. his own ambassador resigned because he found lack of policy in the beginning. >> so in part, is this part of his own doing. >> now, we don't know bhald have happened if in 2011 and 2012 he had attempted to aggressively deal with it. but when a is clear is there has been a complete vacuum of se serious american effort to deal with that. what he has done has not worked. >> were we too quick to remove troops from that region? from the middle east? >> from iraq. i think at the end of the day, the real problem there was the iraqi government and the way it marginalized the sunnis. so i think they bear the main responsibility. >> let me give you a different answer. yes, it was a great mistake to leave the troops out and leave nothing but a tiny number in iraq so i think it is a duel faush. >> when president bush was in office, iraq did not want us there. i don't think that's a compelling argument. he think there's a

but in syria, there is no possibility of success. i think the analogy to bosnia is completely misleading. in bosnia, it was bosnia fighting. it was an internal conflict that you could solve by helping them from the outside. in syria, it is different. you have the syrians fighting against each other. apart from that, you have turkey, saudi arabia, iran, and they are at odds. saudi arabia does not want a government ran by shiites. iran wants to keep assad because he is an ally. the turkish are afraid the kurds may be too strong. those three powers are fighting for supremacy. the first thing you have to do is somehow reconcile these three powers. then perhaps you can start talking about syria. how it should be organized. but to start organizing syria internally without these three powers on board is just without a chance of success. as long as these three powers fight in syria, it would be plain crazy for germany to intervene. in the end, a fight against iran or something like that. alan: a couple minutes ago, we were saying that we nee

the solution to the refugee crisis is peace in syria, syria, not to cancel syria and move its population to europe we had a policy that many of us pushed here in congress to arm the reasonable elements in syria. that policy has basically failed. it has failed for a couple of reasons. first you did eight years after we started pushing for it. second it is still subject to the incredible and ridiculous condition that those we arm have to convince us that they do not intend to fight ashad. any reasonable patriotic syria intends to fight aside. no wonder we only find 50 people and we only have five on the battlefield. how do you find somebody who is reasonable doesn't hate ashad. i will point out that while isis has the bad taste to put its murders right there on television, it is the shiite alliance that pose the greater threat to the united states. it killed far more innocent people and has called killed far more americans. now turning to russia russia is not in a terribly strong position. they cannot waste resources on peripheral matters. the you crane is a vital national interest. if it

absent were representatives from syria. no representatives from assad's government or the opposition but the diplomats who were there underscored the need to resolve the syria crisis and double down their efforts in light of what had happened in paris, but the fact remains, there are many different players involved in these talks with vastly different efforts. it increasingly looks like a sectarian battle. iran backed by russia supports the assad regime. iran wants any deal to be very tehran friendly so they can maintain their strategic importance in the region. syria is strategically very important to iran. it's the gateway to hezbollah. they don't want to lose the ground that they have made there over the years. so it is very important to them to have a tehran friendly government there, whereas, the saudis horsebacked by the u.s. want the removal of assad and have made it very clear that they're not very happy about iran's presence at these talks nor are they very happy about the 13reds of the wider influence since the nu

france has intensified strikes on isil inside syria and is now looking for greater support. it's just one of many meetings holland lined up with western powers in a bid to gather support to combat the group. he'll head to washington to meet barack obama. wednesday, he's meeting germany chance angela merkel to ask for her support. >> at the start of the week, the french president seeks commitment for support in his war against isil. it started with a solemn moment. the two men, a dismal scene of killing at a rock concert where 90 died. they both paid homage to the dead by laying a single rose. cameron promises more military support and hopes to get parliamentary approval for airstrikes against isil in syria. he hopes there won't be a repeat of two years ago when he failed to win a vote for bombing syria against assad forces. >> later this week, i will set out in parliament our comprehensive strategy for tackling isil. i firmly support the action that president hollande has taken to strike isil in syria and it's my firm conviction that britain should do so, too. >> we're convi

but the story of modern syria has been a grim one. in 1970, a baathist military leader, hafez al-assad, seized power, ushering in an era of limited modernization accompanied by unlimited repression. in the year 2000, assad was succeeded by his son, bashar, raising hopes for the possibility of greater political openness -- hopes that the new leader chose not to fulfill. it was little wonder, then, that when the sparks of arab spring began to ignite, demands for change were heard in syria. the protests were actually quite modest at first, and they were driven not by sectarian or religious differences, but by the lack of freedom and jobs. the violence only began when assad responded to peaceful demonstrations by sending in thugs to beat up young people. and when the parents of those young people objected -- they took to the streets themselves, the regime replied with bullets and then with bombs. having made peaceful change impossible, assad made war inevitable. and this war gave rise to daesh -- isil -- the gravest extremist threat faced

the root problems are in syria. i mean these refugees are mostly comes from the syrian/turkish border and soon enough with other borders with syria because there is isis in syria. so the effort should be instead of struggling with the consequences and the effect of that crisis by making sure that isis is defeated. and because the administration unfortunately and to a certain degree the european union did not did enough to end the problem in syria, now we'll have to deal with the refugee problem that is not the normal one. a normal one would be economic migrants and so, no, this is a mass of people leaving because of the crisis. >> let's me jump in here. associated press is reporting essentially what german media is now reporting. and let me just quote the urgent bulletin. german media reporting an arrest in bovaria. it's tied to the paris attacks. police are not saying that it's tied to the terrorist attacks. we have no independent confirmation of that. but it does underscore that there may be others who were involv

there are no databases in syria. we don't know who these people are. >> we are still planning to take in syrian refugees. we have very robust vetting procedures for those refugees. it involves our intelligence community, our national counter terrorism center, extensive interviews, vetting them against all the available information. >> with the french thinking of invoking the nato treaty, and attack on one is an attack on all, pressure is believe on the white house to go further than the airstrikes it's launched against isil for many months. >> we don't have until the next election to deal with isil. there's a 9/11 coming and it's coming from syria if we don't disrupt their operations inside syria. >> jason johnson is our political contributor here at aljazeera america and joins us from washington this morning. it used to be the battle cry was it's the economy, stupid, well the battle cry now of 2016 be it's the national security? >> probably only for the next week and a half. this is not to dim shush the tragedy of w