robinson, the senior and international defense -- for the rand corporation. nonprofit nonpartisan research institution and we do research both for the u.s. government as well as for frankly any entities. countries, private firms for international institutions. talking with general graham earlier about u.s. troops in afghanistan. we have a heavy presence along the dmz and in south korea. is that a deterrent to kim jong-un and the north korean leadership? guest: it has functioned for many years as a deterrent along with the general regional presence it is generally considered to be a deterrent. koreanse the north regime has taken a lot of aggressive actions particularly with the missiles recently. that is something that i think and i think the

increased focus on exercises that we have seen over the recent weeks and months as an effort to try to boost the effect of deterrent along with the diplomatic overtures that secretary of state tillerson has undertaken. afghanistan, the same goal but different strategies under presidents bush, obama and trump. as the current strategy working from your standpoint? guest: we have 4000 plus troops and i think we will see if that many surge -- many more were added in the obama administration. we will see that many surge has the desired effect. there is an effort to double the afghan special operations forces which i have observed over many and also to double or triple their air capacity and that's a very difficult thing, the air capacity.

because you have to have english-speaking pilots. all of this is really long-term andlopmental efforts happening at the same time to the taliban of course has madeased its attacks and some major gains around the countryside. it is fair with all of this discussion to say numbers matter but how troops are used matters just as much if not more. need toink there is a really examine the way in which the u.s. has been involved in this training and developing a mightforces because there be better methods to be used and we shouldn't neglect. we talking about u.s. troops and that's terrific but they are almost always deployed with other coalition members. nato is a heavy contributor out there in afghanistan. and they are also working to

boost their numbers. i think it's really important to look at lee's as long-term efforts to build up other forces. we were just talking about asia. we have had the truth presence 45,000 in japan. for many years since world war ii. and south korea deployments and guam. these troops have been there for many years and i think there has to be some patients to let these efforts bear fruit. that is not to say we can't improve the training methods. there are small numbers of troops doing the counterterrorism mission. host: we have special ops troops africa dealing with insurgents. are about 6000 u.s.

troops in africa right now and , there areumber about 4700 and djibouti and they are really focused on east trying to do civil affairs type operations and training operations for the east african countries but also a counterterrorism portion focused in somalia where the al-shabab wagingst group has been some very major attacks and that has been a mission going on for a number of years. the other number, there are 8000 .roops in niger that has been the focus of a lot andedia attention recently those troops have been there primarily to help the country's of this lake chad basin fight off isis in west africa and the

boko haram subgroup from nigeria. the department of defense has promised a full accounting of how the loss of these soldiers occurred out there. experience that this special operations force operates in very small numbers in these remote areas and in the theyof nature -- niger were authorized to do these overnightd stay out but they are supposed to go in areas where there is a minimum chance of enemy contact and they make those assessments. obviously in that case that didn't happen. toare waiting for the dod give us the full accounting of what happened. that's really the footprint in africa. small training advise and assist mission's trying to support the growth of these local

counterterrorism units and there's a proposal. france is actually a very big player as well. they have 4000 troops primarily in west africa. they are the former colonies and they have very good insight into the various tribal fishers and .o forth in these countries there are others working alongside us as well. are talking with linda robinson of the rand corporation. phone lines are open. we have a lines that aside if you are active military. that number is (202) 748-8003. from lowell,g us massachusetts. good morning. caller: can you hear me? i don't like the way our military is being treated. johnsonia and the david .

he was tied up a mile away from his unit. his body parts were just found. they don't even know what's in his casket. afghanistan, you're talking about training troops, funding troops. they kill our troops. and you are talking about funding and air force. we funded the air force, right? we bought them planes and they didn't even have any pilots to fly them. we built a gas station and the gas station is useless. host: we will get a response. guest: i agree there are very disturbing reports about what actually occurred in niger and everyone is eagerly awaiting the full story. focal point of a question of why we are there in africa and i will just step back and say this as -- i have been very closely doing research in iraq and syria.

the isis group has migrated out to africa and there are a lot of groups that have been resident there. and local insurgent groups for a number of years. it is a u.s. effort to try to help those countries address their problems. i would say overall that's the u.s. approach rather than going and fighting wars itself. while we do have numbers and we are talking about the worldwide deployment picture now it's worth putting it in context. we had 170,000 at the peak in iraq a number of years ago. 100,000 in afghanistan and we are really talking about much smaller footprints now including as i mentioned africa is very small. there are hazards with operating this way. having spent a lot of my research time with the special operations forces they are generally trained and equipped to operate in these hostile

areas. also mentioned may be of our investments have not paid off or the troops that we are training have not come along as quickly as we would like. and the saddest case is where turns that we are training and fire on the u.s. trainers. that is obviously very tragic and it requires counterintelligence efforts to see people who have infiltrated the ranks of the forces that we are training. host: our guest is a graduate of swarthmore college. also studied at harvard. jared is joining us from minnesota. caller: good morning. do you say is why you are a defensive person when america has always been on the offense since they first came to this land and took it from the native americans by force? and by the mexicans by force and the hawaiians by force?

bases all over the world. when's the last time someone had that? the nazis? i'm not sure if i said the u.s. military is entirely defensive we certainly do have organizations like nato in toope that is designed defend europe and defend the nato alliance. i think it's important to note there are really critical defensive functions the u.s. military place and the more robust the defense is the theory is the less likely we have to go on the offense. certainly the u.s. military has been on the offense and i think , the footprintle is so much smaller than it was 10 years ago. even five years ago. it is very important to note

they have achieved great six success. dislodged the isis caliphate. the numbers are somewhat in dispute because numbers come in on top of the roughly 10,000 that are there. the training equipping and advising its important to note the effectiveness comes when you are willing to put u.s. advisors those locald with forces in the air support that we provide. i think what we are seeing is a new model for the u.s. through these partners. it's a different model from what we are fighting in iraq and the previous surge. we are getting a little bit more forward leaning in afghanistan now because the taliban has been on the march and the afghan military has not come of as quickly as needed. make itr point i might is this defense posture and deterrence posture around the

world is made up of three different parts. we have a persistent presence around the world. i think your number is probably overshooting the mark a bit. 12 example in japan we have bases and 45,000 troops. we have a very robust presence to deter not only north korea but its presence in the region to deter actions china might take to intimidate its neighbors. presence. persistent there is a rotational presence and that's what we are doing in europe now. we are rotating a brigade in and out of poland to be part of the european deterrence initiative and that's a very important armored brigade that is basically there is a signal to russia. were it to have designs on coming across into europe and then there is a constant stream of exercises. important.y certainly in the pacific and

indian ocean. there is a huge naval presence out there. we also have exercises around the world and that was what i dissipated observing in last week in nato that was geared towards a scenario of a major combat scenario as well as some infiltration and asymmetric tactics in the baltics. it's very important that these exercises occur so the troops are ready if they have to launch into action. the signal would be to show adversaries that the u.s. and allies are ready to fight back. host: the dod website have a breakdown of where u.s. troops are. and the u.s. troops support staff necessary to keep these troops in operation are there around the world and what is your biggest concern? concern isiggest

there is perhaps a lack of general understanding. there is a wide support for our troops. especially on thanksgiving day. people want to support the men and women in uniform. understanding the actual policies and what we are doing in different places is an important part of the peace and the reason for supporting troops overseas is that they perform that deterrence function and they are also familiar with the environment in case they have to fight and frankly it's less expensive than if you have to deploy them overseas and i mentioned the model of fighting is much less expensive if you are leveraging your local partners rather than sending large numbers of u.s. troops. the breakdown is, we have large really world war ii legacy

installations. 36,000 in germany and that is supplemented by a number of other bases in italy, spain, turkey and the u.k. host: 36,000 troops. in italy, 4000 in spain, 2200 in turkey and 8500 in the u.k. and 1500 at nato headquarters. that is kind of our standing footprint in europe that helps exercise everyone together and deter would-be adversaries. in this case the concern is russia. the same posture in asia with regard to north korea but also china frankly is the other concern. we have the large footprint in japan. 45,000. in korea we have 24000 and in qualm 6400. there for dual

purposes. the real costs come when we go large wars.ight we know $2 trillion is roughly the bill from the big wars in iraq and afghanistan. it's frankly much cheaper to keep troops abroad ready in deterrence mode ready to fight. as we are doing right now in africa, iraq and syria. trying to work through local partners to help them be prepared to address those threats. linda robinson, we will go to dean in hot springs, arkansas. caller: i'm a veteran. i was in the cold war along the border. and the balkan war in yugoslavia. comment is to the person running this. i don't see afghanistan is the longest war. i see korea as the longest war because we are still at war with them.

to your guest i applaud her for what she's trying to do is bring the common person knowledge because i have been in nato. i have been in all of these places. we have to tell the public the good things that the military does because if it wasn't for those troops on south korea that freedom korean that came across the border wouldn't be free. you got troops in kuwait helping those kuwaitis when you stabilized their country. some of these people who are calling in saying we don't need this presence, your speaker is correct. if you don't have people staged in certain places you don't have the response time, you don't have the coalition with the locals. that needs to be brought out more to let the public know how

relevant the military is and why we need these helpers throughout the world. host: thank you. i have discussed the importance of ground troops being out there exercising. we should also point out that you can't base in the united states all your air and naval assets and expect them to be out there want to be out there one crisis occurs so by definition those assets need to be out there. a fleet thathrain is based there that provides very important presence in the middle east in the fleet based in japan and certainly covering its a huge single deployment of the u.s. navy. it's very important. there's also air bases. basey provided a critical

for the u.s. to do the isis by moving up from our bases in the gulf it shortens time of travel and it allowed our air platforms to stay over iraq and syria for triple or more the amount of time. having these bases and having the platforms there makes all the difference in the world. host: andre is joining us from chicago. caller: good morning. i have to tell you respectfully i disagree with the last caller and the reasons behind the answer. my question is how does the rand corporation a private think tank with donors get to write and comment on foreign policy and inform hegemony for corporations? i'm just like -- i am offended by that.

there is not naivete on my part about complexities about the world. i think this is part of the problem. that's all i would like to say. of manyrand is one research institutions. washington is full of them. i would invite you to go on to the rand website and we have our research standards, quality and it's atandards well-known think tank that does with objective data in all other methods and withinformation sources are ind by necessity in our reports all of which are published on that for freend available downloads. it's part of our mandate as a nonprofit organization. i think it's very important that the american public be as informed as possible and i would

say that is the community that we are part of. doing research that has to meet these independent standards of quality, objectivity and rigor. host: i want to ask you about the uss john mccain. 17 soldiers in both of those this year. and then you have this cargo airplane carrying 11. three remain missing. were rescued off the coast of japan. what is going on? journal@c-span.org this is not an area that i have done in-depth research in, but i have followed the official pronouncements, including the string of accidents. i understand the chief of naval operations has said that there is some question about whether the strain on the seventh fleet from all of this demand for exercises and the cyclist ration hasnd the sequestration

affected its ability to be fully trained and ready. that is a great concern. many people are looking into this. the navy has been asked to provide recommendations about how it can avoid it. people were dismissed and so forth. there was accountability. the key question, especially the north korea crisis will not be solved soon. and you have this long-term issue with china about how to ensure the peaceful rise of china and be the touring aggression from china but also looking for partnership. this is a long-term military mission along with the diplomatic part. that fleet needs to be funded and ready to do its job. it comes down to the budget issue. doug oft's go to brookline, massachusetts. good morning. caller: in 1988, gorbachev was

baker.p by james in exchange for the demise of natoarsaw pact would not expand eastwards. nato is knocking on ukraine's door and is trying to make advances in the georgia area. if there is any aggressor in this scenario is the united , and theato corporations that they work for. have a nice day and a good thanksgiving. thanks a lot. guest: i would say that the way that i would put -- and i do been very russia has concerned about the expansion of nato. i think that is a big part if you want to look at the context of how europe, the u.s., and

russia have come into some of the conflicts and heightened tension. do remember in your litany the recent aggressor was russia that went into the ukraine and is heavilymea and involved in eastern ukraine. going back to -- i think you are alluding to a number of nato tomits in which promises expand nato to the countries on the perimeter of russia set russia's spidey sense. very concerned. they have accused the u.s. of backing revolutions, movements for more democracy and of peoples that have been caused by these movements. i think there is a complex story here, but i would not call the u.s. or nato the aggressor. i do not believe there is any chance or remove for the ukraine

or georgia to join nato. -- or move for the ukraine or georgia to join nato. we are trying to make the russia involvement in ukraine to back out. i don't see a big movement for anyone to push russia out of the crimea. my personal assessment is that that annexation has been more or less accepted by the international community. host: tar heel, north carolina. click question for you -- quick question for you? caller: about crimea. ukraine, what they tell is false . the wrong people in the syria outflow. russia came in and looked like they cleaned the place up. they're having a meeting right now in russia with all of the other countries involved such as turkey, russia, syria, and iran.

host: what about russia and its disruptive role in all of this? guest: certainly, as we were saying, the ukraine crisis is something that requires attention. there are sanctions on russia for its incursion into ukraine. there is an envoy, the u.s. envoy, who is working quietly. there is the potential to work on a deal for the ukraine. this has been costly for russia. they have had casualties. they have not publicized -- the russian public is not happy when their soldiers are not declared to be in a place and come home in body bags. in syria, there is a fascinating

situation where russia appears to be taking the lead in working out a diplomatic settlement. russia is in support of the assad regime, but is willing to broker a deal in which elections will be held. that doesn't necessarily mean syria, thatder of is very much credibly accused of major war crimes against his own people in the civil war there, doesn't mean assad will be leaving power. nevertheless, russia is taking the lead with turkey and iran and support to look for an endgame in syria. the u.s. is trying to find a way to support the syrian-kurdish fighters that have been the major part of our counter isis effort. that helped to clear isis out of a lot of arab-dominant areas. what you want to have is a local

governance that is acceptable to the local people. view, and not what i would prefer, but he seems to be firmly in the saddle with robust support that russia and iran has given him. the tide has turned in that war. to nato.regards candidate trump questioned the nato alliance. president trump has reaffirmed our alliance to nato. how do they view the u.s. partnership with the alliance that was formed in 1946-1947? nato: the response of countries has been to address specific critiques that the administration made. there is an agreement they are supposed to all devote two percent at the least of their gdp to their defense budget and only a few countries meet that. also, the administration called on them to develop more

counterterrorism capabilities. of theve seen the some terrorist attacks in europe they have a challenge to share information and have a more coordinated response. they are responding to the substance about that. the administration has turned around and become very supportive of nato. as i saw in the exercises, all of the countries they are together working to make nato function. >> the senate budget committee is expected to meet early next week with the provision on drilling in the arctic. it goes to the senate floor later in the week. once the senate passes it, house and senate negotiators would work to reconcile it which would

have to go back for the house and senate for final votes. c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. on c-span, remarks from the justice department official on immigration policy and century cities. we'll hear from acting assistant attorney general chad r eadler. he spoke recently at ashley and university in ohio. ashland university in ohio. >> good afternoon and welcome to ashland university. we are here to celebrate constitution day. this sunday marks