suicides, homicides, the roof is crushing into somebody's chest. >> what is the number one cause of death for police officers? >> suicide. "on target" tonight, solving syria. i'm looking at the real reason america is putting 50 special forces trooms on th troops on t. how the styles of george w. bush an barack obama led to infringements on your civil liberties. >> syria's war lays

bare, a small contingent of u.s. special special forces to back democrat forces on the ground fighting i.s.i.l. defense secretary ash carter says it's to take raqqa. if you ask what can 50 force he do to turn an already messy conflict, the answer is nothing. but the real reason for u.s. announcement, the answer is debatable. a lot has changed in just one month and the violence is growing. russia is now bombing the rebels. the u.s. is still bombing i.s.i.l. and turkey is bombing the kurds. the kurds have gained ground against i.s.i.l. i.s.i.l. has gan gauged ground against syrian government forces. into this mess the u.s. is sending special forces to assist

a select group of rebels. u.s. insists these forces will help the rebels against i.s.i.l, if you need proof that syria's civil war has already turned into a proxy war you need only look at the list of countries participating in last week's syrian peace talks in vienna. representatives from the united states, russia, turkey, saudi arabia and the big news iran for first time ever all got together to debate syria's future in vienna. but the bigger influences nobody cared the highlight the fact that the syrians themselves were not invited to their own peace talks. meanwhile, president obama still subscribes the twin pillar, defeat i.s.i.l. and continue to underpipeline bashar al-assad. but russian military is revealing how contradictory obama's policy is.

either way, america is involved in syria's war and the president needs to come up with a more realistic 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 knowinnothing about a meeting in moscow. >> in order to relaunch a political process with russia or other sides they have to end their occupation with syria, stop killing the innocent people in syria and commit to geneva communique. >> there's no dialogue no contact between you and the russians? >> after the intervention the only communication with the russians is fighting in order to liberate our country. >> the vienna talks have brought together the most important powers involved in the syrian

conflict. so is the syrians confident that support its demand that president assad should step down immediately? >> all of our allies have the same position. they did not change their position. >> you sure about that? >> i'm sure about that. we are talking with with our our allies. i'm here with turkey, france, u.k, united states, their position is very clear that assad has to step down. and he has no role in the future of syria. >> reporter: back in syria more bloodshed. this was duma, attacked by national forces, local forces say at least 12 people killed dozens injured. wig diplomati big diplomatic issues remain, barnaby phillips

>> tough that the country gave up on me. >> look at the trauma... every day is torture. >> this is our home. >> nobody should have to live like this. >> we made a promise to these heroes... this is one promise americans need to keep.

>> president obama has ordered up to 50 u.s. special forces into northern syria to advise i.s.i.l. more than four years in syria's war has become so complex that we need to take a second to review all the parties fighting there as well as who from the region and the world is backing them. well the syrian government led by president bashar al-assad has

been fighting to hold onto power since 2011 when popular demonstrations broke out calling him to step down. assad's government has received strong military back from iran and now the russian air force, the government is fighting syrian rebels up to 100 factions at last count and depending on which parks we're ge talking about, the are getting direct support from iran, russia, united states, nusra has made itself a target of u.s. air strikes from time to time. i.s.i.l. on the other hand is opposed by all the parties i've just mentioned including nusra. in 2013, i.s.i.l. fighters crossed into syria from iraq and declared an islamic state which now extends into both countries. since 2014 the u.s. has led air

strikes against i.s.i.l. targets in the region and finally we have the syrian kurds fighting for autonomy, but at all times they are taking the fight to i.s.i.l. making syria's kurds a national ally for the united states. and complicating that is the hostility that the kurds receive from turkey also a u.s. ally. that's because some kurds fighting the government from turkey have crossed intro syria to fight i.s.i.l. if you are confused you're not alone. with so much at stake in terms of regional stability in the middle east should the u.s. be doing more in syria? emma ashford says absolutely not. she's a research foal i

fellow at the cato institute. you say the u.s. made a big syria. what is your biggest concern? >> my biggest concern is this is the first iteration of continuing u.s. presence in syria. this is a classic example of mission creep. those troops even if they are successful in their limited mission, can only pave the way for more troops. that can be bad for all involved. >> the fact that it wasn't in the u.s. sphere of influence mattered less. a vacant government, an afghanistan like situation an iraq like situation in which there is no strong central government proves to be remarkable breeding ground for groups that want to launch terror attacks against the u.s. does the u.s. have to make syria -- does it have to bring syria into its sphere of influence considering it has a weak central government now? >> i think we have to try and

resolve the syrian conflict and i think even senior u.s. policy makers even john kerry is saying they don't want the assad regime to collapse. i think this is the flaw of the u.s. strategy for last several years, they've been saying assad wants to go, kind of want to get rid of assad but we are concerned with instability. you can't have both. >> the united states has never actually -- i think there are a few tiny little countries where the u.s. has succeeded in advocating for regime change and the then successfully seeing a government govern. you heard barnaby phillips story. what about assad must go? >> the alternative is assad must go eventually. we negotiate a position, to move assad personally to other

members of his regime. he himself is poisonous and can't stay but we could incorporate part of the baath party, if we manage to do that, there is a chance that would be more successful. >> all right so along those lines, the ultimate goal of putting the 50 u.s. troops on the ground is to test the waters in a way and attempt to build a multiethnic syrian coalition to coordinate with these kurdish fighters. it's not diplomatic but the military solution of what you just suggested. >> i don't want to sound like a broken record, the problem still remains that we haven't resolved the syrian civil war. there is u.s. conflict against i.s.i.s. in loins to a lot of other nation and then there's the syrian civil war. until we convince rebel groups

on the ground that they can't overthrow the assad regime we can't back them against i.s.i.s. as much as they would want to be. a diplomatic solution is the only answer, if we are going to approach the i.s.i.s. situation militarily. >> i know you know a lot about russia. a month ago russia began air attacks in the support of assad government. you received them to putin's syrian misadventure. do you still see it that way? >> yes i do. i firmly believe that syria -- russia's involvement in syria has as much to do with russian domestic politics than it has to do with any geopolitical chess game. putin's ratings at home were slipping, he's losing the war in ukraine and he has to do something that looks good at home. sending fighters to prop you the assad regime, showing russia coming to the aid of its friends

looks really good for the domestic audience. it's not great for the strategic russia. russia was previously involved under the soviet union in afghanistan. ended in them withdrawing in complete and utter disarray. i think that's why russia hasn't committed much in the waive ground troops this time. some artillery troops, but mostly air strikes and artillery. i think you're right it's the afghanistan effect. >> your point, let's take your point about a diplomatic solution. what do you think about the meeting in vienna nan nah and does it make sense not to have the belligerent parties attend a meeting where you're talking about syria's

future? >> it's strange optics. holding it at the hotel imperial too didn't help either. the largest problem is between these third party countries. between iran and saudi arabia, between russia and the u.s. those groups can't even agree on who within syria is a reputable pattern that they can talk to. other parties, like qatar, getting together ail the outside parties to decide who they think should be included in future peace talks might actually be a smart move. >> emma, good to talk to you. thank you so much for joining us. emma ashford is a visiting color at tha scholar at cato institute. >> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the sound bites. we're giving you a deeper dive

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suicides, homicides, the roof is crushing into somebody's chest. >> what is the number one cause of death for police officers? >> suicide. >> you're caught with a minor infraction, improper lane change, let's say >> reporter: and it's more than you can pay right now. and in two dozen states, you can be sent to jail for not paying up. raising the money to pay is tough behind bars, and if you make partial payments, the amount owed grows and grows. in some jurisdictions it's a 21st century bondage, chasing