government funding bill that provides the over $5 billion president trump asked for a border wall with mexico. the senate will take that measure up today after they gavel in at noon eastern. you can watch the house on c-span as the votes are conducted and see the senate on c-span 2. while we wait for this hearing to resume, a discussion on the trump administration's decision to leave syria. this discussion from this morning. >> welcome back mark who served as a u.s. ambassador to morocco, former senior adviser to president carter and senior diplomatic provider with the counter extremism project. >> it's a non-profit based in new york that advocates the removal of extremist content from social media and provides up pretty sophisticated software to intelligence agencies and other entities around the world to expedite the removal of terrorist and extremist content. >> let's get to the headline from the "new york times,"

mattis resigns after a president announces a syria withdraw and i want to share part of the letter he wrote to the president after that oval office meeting. he wrote, dear mr. president, while the u.s. remains the indispensable nation and the free world we cannot protect our interest or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. like you, i have said from the beginning that the armed forces of the united states should not be the policeman of the world, instead we must use all tools of american power to provide to the common defense including providing effective leadership to our alliances. nato's 29 democracies demonstrated that strength and their commitment to fighting alongside us following the 9/11 attacks on america. what is he saying? >> it really seems to me that he is deeply disappointed ot the breakdown of the transatlantic alliance and the inability of the united states to show adequate leadership against the challenges that the pentagon in

its national defense assessment determined is both china and russia not necessarily in that order. more importantly, i think what secretary mattis is saying is that these alliances, because of the lack of respect that the president is demonstrating towards our allies, they are unwilling to join the united states in what essentially are these major challenges in an effective way, even though i'm sure that secretary mattis agrees with the president that having our allies provide us sufficient mandatory contribution to nato is essential. just money is never the deal really here. it's always about in the end what are they doing for us to combat al qaeda in the middle east? what are they doing in afghanistan? what are we doing to join forces against china? what are we doing to help stem the tide of putin's constant imperialism in ukraine and other places around the world? >> there is this headline from

"the washington post," a morning of alarm. mattis' departure sends shockwaves abroad. here's part of the reporting from "the washington post." european leaders did not mince words. a warning of alarm in europe is how carl built on foreign relations from sweden describing the actions of the defense secretary's exit. mattis, he wrote, is the remaining strong bond across the atlantic in the trump administration. all the other are fragile at best or broken at worst and that the french minister saying that isis had been reduced but not eliminated and the french government does not at all share the american interpretation that sees the fight in syria as over and as for the kremlin's official response, spokesman peskov asked about mattis as a restraining influence on trump, he had this dry rejoiner, in our times guessing who restrained president trump from doing what is the work of political scientists and a rather

thankless task. >> it's quite amazing. it's quite amazing to listen to the breach of diplomat you can decorum by our allies about this president. the fact that the american people, whether you're republican, democratic, or independent, have got to make a decision whether or not in the end the united states stands for global leadership and whether or not in the end we can have our cake and eat it to, to do what is necessary to galvanize our allies without engaging as the policeman around the world and it takes a really dexters you dance on the part of a well respected president, to balance the desires of the american people, but maintaining america's interests abroad. this president seems to be failing on both accounts. >> the other headline this morning, there had been talk yesterday first by cnn of the u.s. troop withdraw from afghanistan, reuters this morning reporting that that could be more than 5,000 u.s. troops being pulled out of afghanistan.

>> this is precisely, again, what the american people have to make a decision on, whether the president is conducting national security policy adequately or just waking up in the middle of the night and deciding that he's going to do this, despite the advice and counsel of his military advisors. look, steve, the situation in afghanistan has been our longest war, 15 years going on since 9/11. the fact of the matter is, is that the taliban have been resurgent and they provide what essentially is protection for some of the most important lethal terrorist organizations that are directing their efforts against the united states. we cannot seem to be able to win a conflict with just u.s. military troops alone. the afghani military is under duress. our allies have contributed, the canadians and europeans have been in afghanistan, but the fact of the matter is, is that a -- there are important peace negotiations that the trump administration itself had launched. when the taliban wake up as they

did this morning and saw that the president has decided to withdraw troops before, before he is even able to prove that peace negotiations can bear fruit, how do you imagine their military commanders will react to that? >> the president was very critical of president obama when he telegraphed military operations, but yet didn't the president do the same thing? >> listen, this president always says that his predecessors have done everything wrong that he's now repeating. >> i want to get your reaction to the syria part of the story. this is from the russian president vladimir putin. his year-end news conference which lasted for hours and we have it on our website. you will hear the question and answer through a translator. >> yesterday, president donald trump announced the withdraw of american troops from syria. what is your position? he also announced that in his opinion the united states defeated isis. what is your position with respect to his statements both

on the withdraw of american troops in syria and also with hit statement regarding the defeat of isis by the united states? secondly, do you have concern that the american troops will remain in some form? there's been much discussion, for example, around the president's potentially of contractors and other jurisdictions where the united states is either actors militarily or might want to be active militarily, but in a more discreet way. thank you very much. >> translator: as for defeating isis, i do generally agree with the president of the united states. we've achieved some major advances when it comes to defeating the terrorists and we have struck major blows on terrorists in syria. there is a danger that those terrorist groups might now infiltrate the neighboring

regions, for example, afghanistan and other countries, and also to other countries, for example, their countries of origin and this poses a great risk for all of us, including russia and the u.s. and europe, for asian countries and the central asian countries. we're aware of that and we know about that. yes, donald trump is right about that. as for the withdraw of american forces, i'm not sure about what that is. the american forces have been present in afghanistan for, what, some 17 years and every year they talk about withdrawing their forces from afghanistan. they're still present there. that's my second point. my third point, we do not see any signs of the american withdraw from syria, but we see that it is possible. we are now on the track of

political settlement and now we want to form a constitutional committee in syria. >> those by vladimir putin. mark, this is the headline from "the washington post," the syria decision leaves putin with a winning hand. does it? >> the president is making assad great again. well, look, syria has always been a russian puppet regime and the russians have an absolute desire to keep bashar al assad if power. the issue has always been what exactly is the role of the american military in syria. i've always advocated we should not have boots on the ground unless it is for one reason and one reason only, that is to combat and completes the job against isis. the president's declaration to withdraw troops from syria in my judgment is totally premature and that's why i'm sure that my views are shared by most of the people on the ground in syria as

well as in the pentagon. the fact of the matter is, is that it's funny to watch putin discuss this role against isis and terrorism. it was his cronies that launched a military offensive against u.s. troops in syria, instead of fighting terrorism, they're supporting the number one terrorist in syria and that's bashar al assad. >> let's get to your phone calls. fred is first up. good morning from st. paul, minnesota. go ahead, please. fred, are you with us? we'll go on to joe in east point, michigan. good morning. >> caller: good morning. cut right to the chase, i think that the least of trump's worries about august of next year will be pulling troops. i think that he will be out of office, having cut a deal, a plea, to keep his kids out of jail, to keep himself out of jail. this man is rotten to the core.

i'm 83 years old. i remember a lot of bad things and many good things in this country. trump is the worst thing that could have ever have happened. he's ignorant and knows nothing of history. he cares nothing of history. he is going to be gone. when the democrats get in and begin to open investigations into his mafia regime. i will be very happy when they do. it's too bad the founding fathers didn't make it easier to rid ourselves of a cancer in the white house. thank you. >> from michigan, thank you. >> well, i don't want to get into the domestic politics here as you know, steve, my area is foreign policy. i want to say something that would surprise people. the president, when he came into office, was going -- was essentially unshackled the military to do what is necessary in syria against isis, which i commended him on. the fact -- as soon as the battle begun being won, he prevented, for example, what

essentially is the components against fighting terrorism, steve, you're not just fighting a battlefield fight. you also have to make sure that you can hold the territory and prevent these insurgents and terrorists from returning. the president then did the worst possible thing. he prevented the pentagon's request for additional funding for stabilization, that is to provide civilian protection against the terrorists that remain to help them rebuild their lives and prevent isis from returning. in effect, the price that the u.s. military is paying in syria is being undermined by the very policies that the president himself declared over general mattis' objections and that has eradicated a $200 million stabilization fund in syria. >> this is from michael, the russian president in syria made assad safe from any internal opponent, which what is you said. with us leaving syria that creates what? >> gives iran free rein to build

what essentially is its land bridge to provide weaponry and missile technology without having to fly it in all the way from tehran to beirut to in effect provide the offensive weapons at hezbollah and iran want to array against israel. number one, number two, it basically gives bashar al assad a lease on life. number three, and most importantly and i think this is what bothered general mattis the most, the fight on the ground against isis has been fought largely by syrian and kurdish forces that have been our most important ally in the battle against isis. when we withdraw our troops, the turkish military is going to move in and try to bang wish those troops because they consider them to be supporters the outlaw terrorist organization, the pkk. president erdogan of turkey is preventing the enclave to considered to be a kurdish

enclave in syria. >> our guest is ambassador mark kinsburg. our phone lines are open. u.s. troop withdraw from syria and now reports as many as 5,000 troops from afghanistan, do you support or oppose the idea? if you support it. if you oppose it. from rochester, new york, ruth, good morning. >> caller: yes, thank you. i would like to say this, in a way i do and in a way i don't. i support them in this fact. the united states is the only country that fought in world war ii that has been at war consecutively, first it was 1945 we ended the war in world war ii. 1950 the korean war trying to stop north korea from invading south korea. then the vietnam war trying to -- and didn't -- they didn't -- we didn't succeed. then the vietnam war keeping the north vietnamese from invading south. we lost ta war completely. look at -- and then iraq.

then afghanistan. and then libya. now syria. we're the only country -- we're losing all our good men in the wars. fathers, husbands, sons. we're spending all this money. congress, all the women, how many women have won in the congress because we're losing our good -- not all men want to be in politics. they want to go into business and do other things. we're losing all our good men. and that's what i support. we can't be in all these wars. iraq was a complete feeco and we're getting involve in syria and losing our good men. we've got to stop going to war for other people. that's america first. i supported -- i understand why people don't like what's happened. we can't continue to lose our men. >> ruth, you're absolutely right. there are plenty of people and i disagreed with my former friend who passed away, senator mccain,

who wanted tens of thousands of troops if syria. i believe our goal is to protect the american people. unfortunately, in this age of terrorism, we cannot let isis and al qaeda regroup, for example, in yemen or syria. they're plotting and planning, okay, continuing to instigate and incite attacks in the united states. fortunately, those attacks have been far and few between. to the credit of president obama and president trump, there hasn't been a 9/11 style attack in the united states. in order to prevent these terrorist organizations from being able to regroup and plot these attacks, unfortunately we have got to have special forces operations tracking down their operations and trying to prevent them from regrouping. that's the price unfortunately that we have to pay as americans to keep our country safe. >> clearly, there's a division

within the republican party. i'm going to share with you in a moment what senator lindsey graham told reporters yesterday. first the president in response to that criticism, again lindsey graham, one of the president's closest allies on capitol hill, says saying, quote, so hard to believe lindsey graham would be against saving soldiers' lives and billions of dollars. why are we fighting for our enemy syria by staying and killing isis for them? russia, iran and other locals. question mark. time to focus on our country and bring our youth back home where they belong. here's more with senator graham. >> to the decision by the president, i don't know where it came from, but it needs to be reconsidered. ambassador jeffries, our special envoy to syria, a good man who was ambassador in iraq, two days ago announced a commitment to stay until we got this right. i don't know how this decision was made. it literally came out of left field. it has rattled the world.

you see north korea flexing their muscle now. why don't you leave south korea before you do a deal. i can promise you, that everything that happened in iraq is going to happen in syria unless we change course. i can promise the president if you will reevaluate this decision, unfortunateyou'll hav support across both sides of the aisle. >> isn't it horrible that the president appoints a special envoy for stabilization and help nous syria in jim jefferys, a great diplomat, who was appointed by secretary pompeo, and three days ago he's at a lunch where in effect jim jeffries says we will stay in syria until we finish the job against isis and it may be several more months but didn't put a timetable on it and the next morning, the very next morning, he wakes up and reads the paper and hears the president determine unilaterally we will withdraw troops. imagine how our top diplomats feel when undercut by their own

commander in chief. >> there was no consultation between the president and ambassador jeffreys? >> absolutely zero. i would hate to be a diplomat in this administration under those si circumstances. we know in the end the president had mattis and pompeo but didn't have the chairman of the joint chiefs when he announced that decision. imagine that, the president would not have the chairman of the joint chiefs in the meeting to determine the fate of american troops in syria. >> what is the president's foreign policy? how would you define it? >> he calls it america first. i mean that's his -- bring america's troops home, stop engaging abroad. it's an isolationist foreign policy. it's something that goes back to the '30s. look, the american people, he's playing off of a very small base of american people who believe that america's role in the world has been detrimental to american interests at home. there are many of us who would

argue to the contrary. we wouldn't have the economy that we had if america didn't stand up for the values and trade systems that are important for us and to stand up to countries like china and russia that are determined to undermine our allies abroad. without our canadian and european allies and our allies in the middle east, talking about israel, how are we supposed to be able to have the benefit of a great economy if in the end all we're doing, all we're doing is essentially looking inward instead of protecting our interests abroad. >> based on who you talk to among our closest allies, justin trudeau of canada, angela merkel, the german chancellor, theresa may, french president macron, how do they view this president? >> i read the papers like you do and all they do is wring their hands. they keep hoping in the end they can humor him, keep him under control. i mean, president macron of france tried to embrace him and invite him to a bastill day

military parade that seems to impress the president. he's had poor relations with canada. prime minister trudeau, how can the american people accept the fact that we have the president of the united states that insults our canadian allies. i was in canada several weeks ago, the canadians were beside themselves about how trump is treating them. that's unacceptable. americans should resent the fact. it's one thing that the american people can say the president was just being the president. look, canadians are our number one ally in the world. >> next for the ambassador, deb in houston, texas, do you oppose this move by the president, good morning. >> caller: good morning. please ask your guest, i would like to know, we've been building up to this since trump took in this unilateralism where he tweets out whatever happens and it's chaotic. i'm concerned that this paves

the way for him to privatize the war and bring in erik prince the way that the american people rejected that and take away any transparency that we have. this is just one aspect of the unilateralism that we're getting, all this from the maga to the make america and the wall and the isolation. it's like if you grow up playing battleship risk, it's little pieces and they're all -- you don't walk over and shove the board away and throw it in the closet. you have to build it up and take it down. i'm concerned the american people who say i would shut the government down, do war, there are people's lives and connections and our place in the world and i want to know about this privatization. trump seems to want to just -- he's merging the republican party into trump party and he seems to be just privatizing everything and he's a private

ey -- privateear. >> thank you. there's plenty of people in washington what essentially has become the swamp of washington that are marching into this white house and saying for a couple billion dollars i can put 10,000 former s.e.a.l.s and navy troops and military on the ground in afghanistan. this is this guy prince you're talking about. i can tell you there's at least five or six stories, steve, that i have heard of people who have been major donors to the trump campaign who have marched into the white house and said, you know what, i think i have -- we can help you put together a private army. it will only cost the united states and our allies a couple billion dollars. of course, the person who is putting this together is probably looking for a nice payday. putting american troops on the ground in a private army who are not under the control of the u.s. military, much less even doing that in the first place in my judgment, opens up a whole

can of worms. >> let's go to nancy in austin, texas. you support this move why? >> caller: i do. first of all, lindsey graham never saw a war he didn't want to wage. everyone should know that he was going to be against this. secondly, this gentleman, the people should look on his website because what we're hearing from him is the globalist viewpoint, which is fine. he should announce that from the very beginning. you should actually have somebody like rand paul on for the counter side who very much supports senator rand paul, trump pulling our troops out of there. our troops are in 130 countries plus around the world. we are -- we have been fighting this -- building this empire for a long time. we're broke. let's look and see what this has gotten us. remember we don't talk about it much in the media anymore, but libya. how did that work out? because we basically killed the -- helped facilitate the killing of a leader there and now who owns it? isis and al qaeda.

well that was quite a little thing we pulled off there. so we want to dos the same thing in syria? 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-hard isis fighters, many of whom are the command and control operatives of isis. they have been -- we have been unable so far to get them out of this pocket in the euphrates river valley. many of those folks still part of isis and that we have not been able to beat, are plotting and planning attacks against u.s. forces and in europe, for example, inciting and inspiring. the fact of the matter is, is that when you look at the sheer situation on the ground, we have made enormous progress, but the job is not done. for the president to declare mission accomplished, well, you know what, it's an alternative universal alternative facts. the facts on the ground, putting aside assad and putting -- there's no way the 2,000 troops on the ground are going to get

rid of assad which is why i disagree with lindsey graham about our role in syria. we only have one job in syria, steve, and that is to make sure that the caliphate is completely destroyed. the american people need to know that the president has prematurely withdrawing from syria before the job is done. >> the bbc saying this response from the british government, quote, the global coalition against dash has made huge progress but much remains to be done and we must not lose sight of the threat they pose. the british government remains committed to the global coalition and the campaign to deny daesh territory and ensure its enduring defeat working alongside our critical regional partners in syria and beyond. what about the kurds? >> this is the -- i think this is one of the reasons why general mattis resigned. the american people need to understand that 2,000 troops in syria were special forces as well as air force advisors to

help call in air strikes, largely as a result of the ground offensives that were being waged by our allies, the syrian kurds. the american people need to understand the kurds have been a people without a country for decades and decades. the majority of them live in turkey. the turks want to prevent them from ever organizing and creating their own state. they live in syria, they live in iraq, they live in iran, and the syrian kurds have become, in effect, enlisted by the u.s. military to be the ground troops to fight against isis. once we pull back and withdraw our troops, the turks have threatened to launch an offensive to kill the very people on the ground that protect american troops and fought the fight against isis. i ask the american people, how do they feel, steve, about betraying our allies who did most of the fighting for us against isis? >> the headline from the "washington post," the syria pullout, alarms allies in

iraq. coleman is joining us from tulsa, oklahoma. good morning. >> caller: yes. thank god for president trump preventing us from heading down the path of venezuela. the guest on your program praising the socialists like ma macron and trudeau, i bet he did not have the same objection whenever obama pulled the troops out of iraq. trump is saving us as a nation from the deep state that's now being uncovered and what we've had if hillary and people like your guest continued in control. >> we'll get a response. thank you, coleman. >> listen, i'm very proud of the position that i take as an american who has spent my career fighting for our country and involved with our country abroad as a diplomat and in the intelligence area.

the fact of the matter is, look i understand the wearness of people like yourself who feel like the president is doing what is essential. whether you want to put labels on our allies that's your prerogative. i think president macron and prime minister trudeau represent two of the greatest alleys that the american people could have. the situation in venezuela is out of control and the president himself said maybe we'll militarily intervene in venezuela. why don't you smoke on that one. it was the president of the united states, donald trump, who suggested to militarily intervene in venezuela. >> this editorial from "the new york times," jim mattis was right, asking who now will protect america? part of the editorial reads, no one wants american troops deployed in a war zone longer than necessary, but there is no indication that mr. trump has thought through the consequences of a precipitous withdraw, including allowing isis forces to regroup and create another crisis that would draw the

united states back into the region. an american withdraw, writes "the new york times" editorial board, would be a gift to vladimir putin, the russian leader, who has been working hard to supplant american influence in the region and welcomed the decision saying, quote, donald's right. >> here's my reaction to all of that, steve. the president has had more than ample opportunity to leverage the art of the deal, for example, to the saudis, particularly after the khashoggi murder, why did he not say to the saudis, it's not our fight against isis? you need to put troops on the ground as we withdraw. it is the responsibility of our arab allies to fight the fight against isis, not primarily american forces. we will support you, but you need to put boots on the ground. i've always argued for decades on this issue, that the most important thing that we have failed to do is get the arabs to fight the fight that we shouldn't be fighting. the saudis have consistently

said we will fight to the last american. where are their troops and the troops that are most worried about isis fighting the fight that they should fight, which is why i believe the president lost a major opportunity in this saudi crisis to have said to the king of saudi arabia, you want to get out of jail card for the mohamed bin salman, the crown prince, you need to put a division on the ground in syria to fight the fight against isis. he didn't do that. this man doesn't know the art of the deal when it comes to diplomacy and foreign policy. >> this headline again from reuters, not only syria but also the withdraw of as many as 5,000 troops from afghanistan. jay is joining us from michigan. good morning. >> caller: good morning. first off, i want to say, my son is a green beret right now and i think he's probably in afghanistan. i'm not sure. he doesn't really tell me. after listening to lindsey graham say what he said about -- he doesn't understand why trump

is doing these type of things, i've kind of got a cynical idea. trump is doing this to distract from his legal problems and his treason. that's what he's become. he's a treasonous president to the people of this country. it drives me nuts. ignorance is not a virtue. trump is incompetent and he thinks he's an emperor. i think he's demented and something wrong with him. if it isn't just due to his criminal ideas about how to run an organization, it has to be dementia. he's either a criminal or he's crazy. have a good day. >> jay, thank you for that call and that comment. there have been reports on a number of fronts that the president had been in touch with turkish president erdogan before announcing his decision on syria, explained the significance of that. >> here's the backstory on that, steve. president erdogan has ininstructed turkish troops to

launch an offensive in northeast syria to take on the syrian kurdish forces that have been supporting american troops and stabilizing that area against isis. he is -- he is determined on behalf of his country to, in effect, eradicate these syrian kurdish forces that have been supported and trained by the united states. he has threatened over the last several years to launch these offensives and, indeed, we almost got to the point where u.s. military was going to have to fight turkish forces, our nato ally, to defend the syrian kurds that are fighting the united states battle against isis. it probably would have happened on this phone call, is erdogan said to the president, i'm going to move no matter what against the syrian kurds and if american troops get harmed so be it. the president said maybe this is the time to fulfill my commitment to get american troops out of syria. the president blinked. that's exactly what i think

happened. >> let's go to terry joining us from rogers, minnesota. good morning. >> caller: good morning. mark, you're a funny guy. two years trump has had and that's plenty of time to solve the problem. people of your thought process have had 20 years, lost trillions of dollars in money, lost u.s. soldiers' lives and yet where does it end? what are you concerned about? diplomats and the france and the -- how they feel. well you know what, if they feel like that, they can increase their debt. step all the way in. i feel there's no reason after 20 years for people with your thought process who are supposed to be so smart, but yet have failed to end any of the wars or sell any of the problems, i think maybe you should step back and look and say, maybe my way of thinking has been a complete failure and i should move on. thank you. >> thank you for the call. >> that's your opinion. i don't necessarily agree with it. you tend to think that perhaps

the united states is the only country that has ever been engaged in an effort to fight isis and al qaeda. do you think the canadians have not fought on our behalf or the french? do you think they would have joined forces with us if we had a president that was determined to insult them and to, in effect, denigrate their contribution? do you think in the end nato would have not -- nato would have played the role it played had it not been for the leadership of good presidents whether obama or bush or even president clinton? listen, you can have -- you can't have it both ways. you can't have the united states safe and protected and not have allies supporting us. but if you think that in the end the united states can just return home and turn its back and pretend that world war i and ii didn't happen and we got to go home, the fact of the matter is that say the same thing about north korea. well then based on your

reasoning, we should just pull our troops out of south korea and let kim jong-un have his way. the president declared the victory in north korea. he said that north korea is going to denuclearize. there isn't one intelligence agency in the united states, not one person who is familiar with north korea, that would agree that president was correct and, indeed, once again, an empty boast on the part of donald trump when it comes to a conflict that he has been unable to resolve. >> this is from michael to provide news on what's going to happen in syria going forward, the mainstream media hasn't had a word on that of what he just put out. >> well, i think in the end, part of the concern that i had about all of this syria withdraw is that the president makes the announcement, but the american people don't really understand what exactly the u.s. military is still facing on the ground in syria when it comes to isis. the president woke up in the middle of the night, one of his nocturnal foreign policy decision, no consultation, announces he's going to withdraw and the american military are

still trying to finish the job against isis. it's like saying, i want to build this building, but i don't want to put the roof on it. that's what donald trump did. he loves -- he wants to slap his name and declare a victory, but the roof is going to start leaking as soon as he pulls the troops out. >> to anna joining us from texas. good morning to you. >> caller: thank you. may 19th, 2005, i lost my nephew in iraq. his fiancee, they have a son, he is hysterical now. she is an army intelligence. she works out of the pentagon. i have another niece who is a reservist and she served in afghanistan. when i hear these people call, they don't know what it feels like to lose relatives. my 25-year-old nephew is a gold star recipient and he fought in

iraq. he saved a lot of lives. he said all they did was protect these blackwater people who come in, rape, start crimes, tell them they're not making enough money and i hear these people calling in talking about something they don't even know. there are lives out here that are being lost. do you think putin is going to just say lie down? when general patton was fired for saying we have kicked germany's butt, we need to go ahead and kick russia's butt because they will rise up again, and then i hear these people call in, it's not a good day for america. americans. thank you so much. thank you for coming on the air today. we have a lot of nuts in this country that don't know what's going on. >> thank you for your call. of course we're very sorry about

your loss and the service of your family members. thank you very much. >> i can't add anymore. it brings back the thought, you know, one of the things that is seared in my mind is when i went to iraq, actually i went to iraq at the request of fox news to do an assessment of how bad the war was doing for roger ailes in 2003 and 2006. i was flying in and out of kuwait and there were american body bags in the cargo plane. young kids who lost their lives in iraq. no one cared whether they were democrat or republican. we have made some terrible mistakes in foreign policy, invasion of iraq was a terrible error. the battle against isis and al qaeda is a war that will never be won. we can never declare victory. it's the scourge of the 20th and 21st century. the attack in france a few days ago in the strassberg market incited and inspired by isis. if the american people knew how many attacks could have occurred in the united states this year