news happening now to experience it along with us. >> jon: america's news hq starts now. >> melissa: sean spicer announcing that u.s. military dropping the mother of all bombs in afghanistan. this was the first time it was ever used in combat. hello, everyone. spicer addressing it right off the top. >> at around 7:00 p.m. local time in afghanistan last night, the united states military used a gbu43 weapon in afghanistan. the gbu43 is a large powerful and accurately delivered weapon. we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely. >> dana: we've got live fox team coverage. jennifer griffin at the pentagon, the adviser to four u.s. ambassadors, united nations and ben collins a former g beret who served three tours in afghanistan. all of them standing by with

analysis. but we begin with kevin cork just out of the white house briefing. kevin, sean spicer referring a lot of reporters, questions over to the pentagon today for more details. will we get more details from them? >> you know, that's a very good question, dana. i would guess that we'll get more granular detail about why this decision was made and what exactly it means. and jen griffin will help us unpack all of that. it was pretty interesting. keep in mind they're usually pretty puntual here. then you finally saw the press secretary come out and offer very little in the way of det l detail. usually we expect to get more information. understanding, again, from his perspective, you want the information that's coming out to be accurate information. and given the fact that this just happened not terribly long ago, at least in terms of our reporting, he wanted to make sure he sent all the questions

at the pentagon who could give us the best blow by blow. how this decision was made and what this means moving forward. i did find it compelling, however, the fact that he described this as the most powerful nonnuclear bomb in our arsenal. that tells you something about not just the magnitude of 21,000 pounds, it tells you about the willingness of this administration to use what it has available at its disposal. we'll give you more information if we get more. for now, dana, back to you. >> dana: thank you very much. for more on this, let's bring in jennifer griffin. she joins us live from the pentagon. lot of news to unpack here, jennifer. why do you think they decided to use such a massive bomb? they must have had incredible intelligence to tell them exactly where to drop it. >> it's really not clear, dana. in fact, there are no briefings scheduled for the pentagon and no spokesman plans to come on camera to explain to us what the decision making process was.

what we can tell you, sean spicer was asked whether the president was the one who ordered this bombing in afghanistan. but we're told, in fact, general john nicholson had all the authority he needed to use this weapon and it was his choice to use what is known as you mentioned the mother of all bombs, a massive air blast. this is the first time it's been used in combat. it has an radius of one mile wide. it is a 21,000 pound bomb. it is pushed out the back of an mc-130 plane. it is gps guided. and in sense, it would wipe out those tunnels where u.s. forces have been trying to find isis. this is the same area along the pakistan border as really tora bora where al qaeda was hiding for all those years.

in terms of the estimates of the number of isis fighters in afghanistan, the u.s. military puts the number at about 1,000. president trump announced yesterday that his national security adviser hr mcmaster was getting on a plane tonight to head to afghanistan. we know general nicholson has testified recently that he thinks he needs several more thousand troops there in afghanistan because of the isis threat. but according to sean spicer, they have eliminated that threat in this area. and they took, spicer said they took all measures to ensure no civilian casualties. it's very hard to imagine with such a large bomb being used in an area where there are villages and civilians, that there aren't civilian casualties. dana? >> dana: when you said that the white house said the general there on the ground had all if authority he needed, is that a change from the obama administration?

>> it's interesting. you remember during the obama administration, there were very tight rules of engagement, in terms of the use of the air force in certain circumstances, under what circumstances it could be used. remember, the obama administration was trying to draw down in afghanistan. they left behind what they thought were the minimal needed u.s. forces. they wanted to end combat operations. and they took many measures with tight rules of engagement. it's our understanding that the rules of engagement have not really changed but there are 84,000 troops. that went down in january of this year. the general said he needs more troops. they were trying to transition to more of a training of afghan forces. and president obama at the end of his administration, didn't want to do what happened in iraq, which is to pull out

completely, so he agreed to pentagon requests to keep some troops on the ground. but now it looks as though they are going to request more. >> dana: okay, jennifer, thank you very much. we'll continue to see you throughout the day, i'm sure. for more on this, former ambassador -- excuse me, adviser to four u.s. ambassador to the u.n. ben, if i could start with you. in the previous hour, they were talking about the messages that this activity today sends to our allies and to our enemies. president bush used to say you send a message to your military when you take action to this. if you're in the military today and you're on the ground or a mom and dad, do you feel that things are better for your loved ones over there because they have that kind of support? >> well, certainly, dana. i can tell you over the years, starting back in 2002 to where we were just a few months ago, it went to the point from when

you had a ground force commander, the guy actually on the ground, who could see the target, would have had the authority to drop that bomb on his own. fast forward 14, 15 years, it would have to go through a litany of lawyers and you would have to wake people up in tampa and essentially get a u.n. resolution to drop a bomb. what this tells me is general nicholson did have all the authority that we needed and we weren't afraid to do what was necessary. and this sends a very large i think geo political message. but look, the reality of that physical location on the ground and those tunnels and the way it borders pakistan, this was the right tool to take out something that's been a thorn in our side for a very long time. >> dana: rick, you're a perfect person to ask this question. i have been curious of why pakistan has been so quiet. used to be in the news all the time. any blow back? do you think the united states will get any for this action? or do you think pakistan would support it since this is happening on its border?

>> well, look, as you know, you work d hard on the issue of pakistan in the bush administration. we had a difficult time with pakistan. we had public pronouncements that were much different than the private conversations. so i think the answer is privately we're probably gonna get a wink and nod from the pakistanis, who will say, you know, we know that these mountainous areas have been a problem. we know isis is in these caves. so if we can, you know, do anything to help, let us know what we can do without doing too much public help. and that's where i think we have to be able to challenge people to say, look, we need your public support as well as your private support. so i would be pushing for both afghan leaders as well as the entire regions in the area. i think that's where public diplomacy can make a difference

right after a 21,000 pound bomb is dropped. >> dana: ben, when the invasion of afghanistan first happened in october of 2001 right after the attacks of 9/11, the goal was to protect the united states, our national interest, to deny terrorists from being able to have a safe haven from which to plot and plan terrorist attacks. to me, this action today speaks to that original goal. the goal is to prevent terrorists of any kind, taliban, al qaeda, and now isis. how do you see it? >> i would agree with you completely, dana. jennifer griffin said the estimate is that there are 1,000 isis troops or fighters in afghanistan. but remember, that that border line, going into pakistan. most of the isis fighters, the hard core guys came over from essentially what's known as the pakistani taliban. certain splinter groups. so they probably have a few thousand that are over there. that's been the problem, right,

that we have. is that they just move over into pakistan, they come back into afghanistan. it's a very porous border region. to rick's point, which is exactly correct, pakistan i think privately, they have a really good incentive in the sense that they ignored just years ago the fact that isis was even in their country. yet if you look at the number of attacks, from the shia, the mosque, all the way to some of the defense buildings that were attacked, they've lost a lot of people to the pakistani taliban that now essentially changed jerseys to isis. i think they're publicly going to denounce it, but i agree with rick, i think privately they will be happy about it. >> dana: rick, last question to you. how can a hard power hit like this help with diplomatic issues that the president is trying to deal with when it comes to syria, north korea, russia.

how does that change a conversation on the diplomatic front? >> it helps diplomacy quite a bit. and the reason is, is there's a difference between a threated of military action and a credible threat of military action. what we're seeing from the trump administration is a very serious credible threat of military action. whether it be in syria or now here in afghanistan. so the diplomats now have the ability to sit across the table from their counter parts and say, look, we've got to solve this problem. because if we're not able to solve this problem, i got to hand the file to the department of defense and they don't negotiate. so we can drive a very hard bargain with diplomacy in you have diplomats who are focused on diplomacy with muscle not weakness. >> dana: all right. ben and rick, if you could stay with us. we're gonna hold you over. i have got more questions for you. and you have great answers. we are following the latest reports of the u.s. military dropping the largest nonnuclear

bomb on an isis target in eastern afghanistan. how will this affect the trump administration moving forward? >> what i would tell americans and the global community is that while you can focus on labels, what president trump's leadership is showing is that we're actually getting resulting. fun in art class. come close, come close. i like that. [ all sounds come to a crashing halt ] ah. when your pain reliever stops working, your whole day stops. awww. try this. for minor arthritis pain, only aleve is fda approved to work for up to 12 straight hours with just one pill. thank you. come on everybody. aleve. live whole. not part.

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that you feel like you're a part of the family. i love that i can pass the membership to my children, and that they can be protected. we're the williams family, and we're usaa members for life. call usaa today to talk about your insurance needs. >> dana: fox news alert. the pentagon announcing that dropping of an moab bomb, mother of all bombs, in afghanistan, the largest nonnuclear bomb we have. rick ranell is a former ambassador to the united nations is here. i held you over because i wanted to ask you additional questions. ben, because we have not heard from the pentagon yet, and aparentedly they don't have any scheduled plans for us to hear more about this, can you give us

any insight as to why the general would have chosen to use this bomb for the first time ever in this area? >> certainly. well, it's -- again, i go back to the fact that this rides the border region and those tunnels are a very difficult thing. the kwraoeus fighters have the ability to move back and forth between locations and pop up and attack either the populous or af security forces or americans. if you are, for the first time, organizations like isis and certainly the taliban, you know, they haven't really had the incentive to come to the negotiating table over the past eight, ten years because in their minds they're winning. and to be honest, i think that they are. albeit slowly, but they are. this right here is the first time we've seen that we're taking away some of the incentive to think they're going to get a better deal on the battlefield than they would at the negotiating table.

>> dana: all right. rick, in the past week or two, the united nations has actually been quite busy. there was an emergency meeting held yesterday with the vote regarding the syrian use of chemical weapons against its own people. over at the united nations now, what can you imagine is being discussed in the hallways there? >> well, look, i think that we have a lot of allies and friends at the u.n. who know that isis is a problem. and they know that isis has been running into these caves as other radical islamic groups have been running into these mountainous caves. so the idea that we've been trying to defeat isis but we're not willing to make the decision to really go after them in this way, i think is going to be a welcomed reality at the u.n. they know that isis is a problem. for many of the governments at the u.n. remember, they are

threatened, too, by a radical islamic growth in their own country. and they also -- they know the threat of iran. and so what they're gonna want to do is have u.s. leadership. the u.n. community knows that unless the u.s. leads this type of action is not gonna take place. and so quietly they're going to be saying -- they're going to be thankful for a u.s. leadership, even though, again, publicly, they're going to have to be careful not to enflame people in their own countries. i think it's going to be a good day. nikki haley is probably going around today and reporting back to washington all of the comments that she's hearing about u.s. leadership being back. >> dana: rick, one more question on the president, met with the nato secretary yesterday. yesterday. do you think they discussed

anything like this? >> yes. president trump made clear that nato needs to reform and there's a whole bunch of issues that are on the table that donald trump thinks that nato should be involved with terrorism is one . so there's no question that i think privately donald trump would say, you know, the nato community, all of our allies, the largest and most successful defense organization needs to be involved in some of the world's pressing issues like terrorism. i think they can make a fundamental difference. and they just have to make a strategic change in brussels to actually tackle this very important problem. >> dana: ben, we talked about what this kind of move could -- what sort of message that sends to our military and the green berets that are on the ground and lost one of their own over the weekend from an attack in afghanistan. but what does it say to the afghan military? does this give them a little bit more of, i don't know, some get up and go when it comes to

trying to pull together and fight against isis and the taliban? >> absolutely, dana. you hit the nail on the head. and the fact is, when we built the afghan military, it wasn't exactly built to be able to stand alone on its own. and that has two things. one, certainly things like medi vac capabilities, but also air support. when we withdrew the lion's share of those assets and that capability, it really demoralized the afghan military. trust me when i say that when you go out onto the battlefield and you know you've got the power of the u.s. military above you that can drop bombs such as these or even 1,000 or 2,000 pound, you can puff your chest out a little bit. you also know if you happen to get hurt that you've got some of the best medical care that's on its way. it not only demoralized the afghan military when we left, but it also made a big problem in terms of recruitment. hopefully this is the first step for us saying, look, we are not going to abandon you. we are going to stay here and send that message.

i should also point out that it sends the message to the pakistanis from their military and intelligence services. they have never really had the incentive to stop assisting essentially these organizations because to them, it was more beneficial to help their proxies. i think this is sending them a message that, look, your proxies aren't going to win, so you might as well stop supporting them while you can. >> dana: all right, gentlemen, thank you very much. >> thank you, dana. >> dana: we are awaiting president trump to make his first remarks since dropping this bomb in afghanistan. he's got a meeting in the white house and as soon as we see him, we will bring that to you. you always pay

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he's got a meeting in the white house and we'll keep an eye on that. in the mean time, let's bring in chris starwald editor of "halftime report." what did you make of this news? we have 11:00 a.m., the president doesn't -- we don't have any information ab how this decision got made. i suppose that that will come. all of a sudden we have the largest bomb in our arsenal being used for the first time in the conflict we've been in for 17 years, 16 years in afghanistan. >> well, i would imagine that this is in keeping with what seems to be developing as a doctrine of proportional response for the trump administration. you have u.s. special operator killed in that region. and you have a fairly swift and certainly strong response to that undertaking. as we saw in syria, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will be upping troops in afghanistan, doesn't mean we're going to do whatever. but sort of as president ronald reagan did with the bombing of

the u.s. marine barracks in bay route, with bombing of a disco teque in berlin. >> dana: we are awaiting the president, who's going to be making remarks at an event domestic in nature, but i'm assuming he might mention this. when you wake up in the morning, you think about what is the news that people haven't quite talked about yet. i think what you hit the nail on the head today in "halftime report" which i love and everybody should sign up for it. what you wanted to look at today is that the president is having sort of a late honeymoon. there's some shifting policies and that is giving him a little bit of a boost. you asked the question, will his base continue to stick with them. you think yes, they will. >> i think american politics is very tribal. i think the degree to which republicans will vote for republicans and stick with republicans and democrats will stick with democrats is quite

high even in the face of very difficult moments. i think the president's base will stick with him if he delivers on immigration, which in every way he has demonstrated that he will. jeff sessions laid down a very big marker this week on the u.s. southern boarder in talking about enforcing the law in ways that we have not seen. then we get to the tougher question which is that of obamacare. i don't think trump will find much interest among democrats in doing a deal on obamacare. they're interested in seeing him fail. i think he will be forced to go back to his own party on this subject and everything else. so i think temporary -- the honeymoon that the president is experiencing as sinkers and the same sort of global elites that he wants derived, if those people embrace him, we will be back in a few weeks to them hating trump. >> dana: chaos continues. let me ask you something. i would imagine that the base doesn't care much that he would change his mind on the

export/import bank or china being a currency manipulator. all of these things are ancillary, is that right? >> i think there's truth in that. remember, you want to -- when you're president, sometimes you want to do like a west virginia coal truck driver and take your half out of the middle. these are broadly popular things. being against russia is broadly popular. yes, there is a constituency within the republican party that is pro putin. but it's small. that's a small number of people. those who are qasi isolationists are small in number. when you have a president that said, if you gas people, we are gonna light you up. if you are a thug like vladamir putin, we are gonna stand up to you. his international policy will vary broadly. he doesn't have to think about his base only now. now maybe this is in one sense at least the pivot that we have always looked for in donald trump. maybe now it's here. >> dana: all right, chris, thank you very much. >> you bet.

>> dana: the pentagon is confirming the death of a green beret while fighting in afghanistan. the staff sergeant died of injuries suffered while fighting in the same area where the moab bomb we've been talking about was dropped. he was faced with seven special forces groups at elgin air force base in florida. it's being called the mother of all bombs. i can't pronounce the acronym but i keep trying. what was the target? we'll talk to conner fell who was just there last week about what's going on there. plus new fallout after russia vetoes a u.n. resolution condemning the chemical attacks in syria. but the white house says after trying to abstain from the vote, it's putting pressure on bashar al-assad, along with russia. >> if he continues to show how russia is isolated on this particular matter, that's important. so i think on a variety of fronts, it really was a huge win for the united states. new bike? yeah, 'cause i got allstate. if you total your new bike,

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>> dana: fox news alert. big development in the war on terror. u.s. military dropping its largest nonnuclear bomb in afghanistan. comes days after an american soldier was killed fighting isis. conner powell is live. he was just in afghanistan and is talking to his sources there. what are you hearing? >> we're hearing from afghans also from the pentagon which is around 7:00 p.m. local time a massive explosion over the

nangahar province took place. u.s. pentagon, this was an moab, the largest bomb, as you pointed out, that's nonnuclear. first time we know of that the u.s. has used it in combat operations in afghanistan and anywhere around the world. the target according to the pentagon and afghans on the ground was an isis bunker facility up in the phupb taeupbs. there obviously is a huge concern about civil want casuallies that has a one mile blast radius. but according to the afghans and the pentagon, they are saying this was an area that was an isis pound. there were tunnels, caves and bunkers. this isn't an area that is known to have a large civilian population if any at all. it is really just a mountainous, cavernous areas. the main target was this isis

cavern area. isis apparently has been using these caves to pop up to attack both afghan security forces and u.s. troops operating in that area. we know the u.s. and afghans have been operating in that area in recent weeks and months and this has been a serious problem. it should be pointed out what we heard from afghan officials, and we were just there, fox news, a couple days ago, was that the taliban remains a big problem for the afghan security forces. isis is a concern. it is a growing concern. but overall, if you look at the battlefield, it is not isis. it's the taliban that's the problem there. >> dana: your reaction from the united nations on the bomb drop in afghanistan. eric shawn is live at the u.n. headquarters in new york city. what is u.n. ambassador nikki haley's criticism? >> let me start with the secretary-general. just in the last hour the sg spokesman said he is disappointed that the security council was not able to reach

consensus. ambassador haley far blunter. she blames russia because moscow again vetoed a syrian resolution, this time security council for the eighth time. this resolution condemned the chemical strike. it also called on damascus to cooperate with the u.n. inspectors into that attack such as turning over flight records, flight logs and also military personnel. ambassador haley really gave a serious indictment of moscow's long protection of assad, citing the case of the man who lost 22 family members in the attack. he had to bury two of his 9-month-old babies. ambassador haley directly blamed assad and russia saying it was their fault. >> russia said no to a resolution that would have helped promote peace in syria. russia once again has chosen to side with assad, even as the rest of the world, including the

arab world, overwhelmingly comes together to condemn this murderous regime. >> reporter: the russian ambassador has refuted these charges and defend moscow. he wants an investigation of the u.s. missile strikes last thursday that were a response to the attack. by the way, the syrian ambassador also said he claimed that not have any chemical weapons. of course that echos with assad said in damascus, but the u.s. government says certainly it's not true. dana, back to you. >> dana: thank you. for more, i'm joined by michael walt former green beret commander. michael, one of the things you were telling me earlier today is that the flow of fighters, between the middle east and this region that we bombed today has actually been growing. is that right? >> yeah. that's right. as we're starting to see the iraqi army be mentored by green berets and other americans achieve success in mosul and as

we're starting to surround syria, you're starting to see isis flow its fighters, particularly those of afghan and pakistani origin back into the afghan/pakistani border region to grow their base there. i think what we're seeing here is just a further recognition that this is a global fight against isis. what i'm thrilled to see is general nicholson having the authority to use this type of force. we just lost a green beret trying to go in the ground against this tunnel and cave complex last weekend. i have been in that region. it is easily defend and god awful terrain. faced with the choice of sending in hundreds of afghans and americans to clear it out and taking casualties or dropping the largest nonnuclear bomb, i'm glad to see the commander able to do that. i think this is an extension of president trump delegating

authority down to his combat commanders. i don't think you would have seen this approved under the obama administration. >> dana: we haven't had a chance to talk about what the green berets are doing there. we know we just lost one of the green berets over the weekend. what is the range of responsibility that the green berets have in that area. >> they are unique in special operations forces in that they specialize in training and then combat advising local national either guerrillas or in this case the national afghan army. so of course you have your counter terrorism forces that are unilaterally going after bad guys in the night. the real focus is the advisory effort and your green berets are embedded with afghan commandos. small units with large groups of afghan army commandos, helping

them end the fight, calling medivac, air support, help them with intelligence, command and control. i think that will be the long term presence you'll see on the ground. what's amazing that with just a few hundred green berets, you can advise thousands of afghan aerbl special forces and have a real impact. the problem is the obama administration had been tying their hands over -- we're all concerned about casualties. you can't micromanage that from washington. what we're seeing now is letting the commanders on the ground do their jobs like they're supposed to do. >> dana: you wrote the book about the importance of hard power and soft power at the same time. does this hard power action today help with diplomacy going forward? >> it compliments it. as i was saying after the strikes in syria and now with this strike, our diplomats are now emboldened. when they come to the table, they can speak with the

authority of the united states military behind them and our opponents and our allies know that we have the political will to use it. that translates whether you're having a cup of tea with a tribal elder you're trying to win over, or whether you're sitting in moscow with the russian foreign minister. >> dana: all right, michael. thank you very much. we are awaiting president trump's first remarks since dropping the bomb. he talked about it moments ago at the white house, and we will bring that to you next. ugh! heartburn!

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>> shepard smith at the fox news death. stunning denial from bashar al-assad after the latest chemical attack on his own people. syria's tyrant saying the americans faked it just to justify the air strike on its air base. what does this mean with the relations with russia? we'll talk about that. and have the airlines bullied us long enough? the update on the passenger that

got dragged off a united jet. all that coming up at the top of the hour. >> dana: we are awaiting president trump's first remarks since dropping the bomb. he talked about it moments ago at the white house. let's bring in trace gallagher. trace, what do you have? >> reporter: we're talking about north korea, dana. the white house isn't commenting about whether a bomb like the one dropped in afghanistan could be used in syria or north korea. instead press secretary sean spicer is referring those questions to the department of defense. but military experts say the trump administration doesn't need to comment because the very act of dropping the mother of all bombs sends a message that is loud and clear. the question is whether north korea is listening. remember, saturday marks what would have been the 105th birthday of kim il-sung, north korea's first leader and kim jong-uh said he will test a nuclear missile or testing a new missile. even with the uss carl vinson

staged off the peninsula. china has cautioned the u.s. not to escalate what it calls a, quote, dangerous situation, but china state run media is all indicating that north korea needs to back off even threatening to limit oil imports into north korea the north relies almost solely on chinese oil and being cut off could hurt the economy. >> dana: president trump making his first comments since the bombing in afghanistan. >> lot of good offices. this is a special office. we'll go over there and take some pictures. thank you all very much. >> how about that bomb? >> did you authorize the bomb? >> very very proud of the people. really another successful job. we're very, very proud of our military. just like we're proud of the folks in this room. we are so proud of our military. it was another successful event. >> did you authorize it, sir?

>> everybody knows exactly what happened. what i do, i authorize my military. we have the greatest military in the world and they've done a job, as usual. we have given them total aut vagus. that's what they're doing. frankly, that's why they've been so successful lately. if you look at what's happened over the last eight weeks and compare that to really what's happened over the last eight years, you'll see there's a tremendous difference. tremendous difference. so we have incredible leaders in the military. we have incredible military. and we are very proud of them. and this was another very very successful mission. thank you all. >> are you sending a message to north korea? did you send a message to north korea? >> i don't know if this sends a message. it doesn't make any difference if it does or not. north korea is a problem. the problem will be taken care of. i will say this. i think china has really been working very hard. i have really gotten to like and

respect, as you know, president xi is a terrific person. spent a lot of time together in florida. he's a very special man. so we'll see how it goes. i think he's going to try very hard. thank you. thank you very much. >> dana: all right. that was president trump making his first remarks since the bomb was dropped in afghanistan. i'm here now with geraldo rivera. this is a region that you know very well because you were there in 2001. >> we did 11 extended assignments to afghanistan. and we were there in tora bora probably 100 miles from the scene of this massive bomb being dropped. when the father of the mother of all bombs was dropped, the daisy cutter, in december 2001. let me read you some of my script from then. the scene of the daisy cutter devastation, utter destruction. looks like an lunar landscape or world war i battlefield.

they're saying bin laden may have been in the area where this monster was dropped. it was unbelievable what happened. they had to have, if it didn't kill them, would have to shake their resolve and let them understand that there is no escaping, no escaping now from the resolve of the united states. so the purpose of dropping this bomb, aside from the tactical, you know, destroying the cave complex, tunnel complex, of having flash backs talking about the cave and tunnel complex because that's what al qaeda did in tora bora. but here you have this incarnation of isis in afghanistan where the taliban remains the prime enemy, but here you have this metasti sized group. digging in again with tunnels. our defense department, our leaders with the authorization of the commander in chief, allowed this dropping of the moab, which was so enormously devastating that if it didn't

kill everybody in the tunnel complex, it must have, as i said 16 years ago, shaken their resolve. >> dana: you know president trump very well. what has it been like for you to watch him as he has taken over? he is now 84 days into his presidency. fully commander in chief, with comments like he just made today, saying he's delegating to the military to do what they need to do. >> i'm rooting for him on a daily basis. i love the guy. i want him to succeed. obviously, he's our president, aside from being my friend. the one thing i will say about what he just said there though, i appreciate when he gets kudos to law enforcement and obviously to the military in this context. i don't appreciate it really that he compares it to what obama did during his eight years. i don't think it's necessary to politicize this. the enemy is the taliban, or al qaeda or isis. that's the enemy. and i think that we should stay focused on that. i will say there is a huge and

profound degree of frustration that i experienced personally when we see afghanistan still being fought over with such bitterness and the violence still necessary to get any, you know, minimal law and order in that country 16 years after tora bora. you just wonder here in 2017 we started in 2001. how much longer do we go before we can defeat this very very difficult enemy? >> dana: when president obama basically gave the date when we were going to leave and the taliban, very patient, and allowing safe haven to be created there, that now this change, if there is a change, and i think dropping the biggest bomb that we have in that area would signal that, does that then say that there might be a way to try to get this back on track, in terms of coming to some sort of resolution? i don't think we will be leaving there for a generation because the problems are so great. what do you make of it in terms

of the change president trump is trying to make, whether or not he's comparing himself to president obama? >> well, i was there when president obama sent in the 101st airborne under the command of general campbell one of our best fighting generals. one of our best fighting generals. we surged with over 100,000 u.s. forces there. after we pulled out -- that was in 2012. after we pulled out of iraq. this is the very difficult fight. this is maybe our permanent state. as you suggest, it's generational. the british empire floundered there. the russians tried. alexander the great. this is a very very tough turf i'm talking about, afghanistan. i think iraq is more winnable in the shorter term. and so is syria. more, if i may say, civilized. i know that's iranic to say with all these dead people. but i think we can win there. afghanistan, i have this feeling that my children and my

children's children will still know that american soldiers are there fighting and dying. >> dana: well, we appreciate your expertise. it's a good souvenir to have. >> it was on the head of an al qaeda guy. all that was left. >> dana: that's something else. we still have michael walsh who is a fox news contributor. what is your latest thoughts as we try to wrap up this hour as to what president trump just said? >> not only president trump, but i just wanted to comment on geraldo's point about how long we're going to be into this war. i truly think, as we discussed, this is going to be a generational effort. we don't have a choice, really. >> dana: but we do have a choice of how we fight it. we didn't ask for this war, but we do have the ability to choose how we will conduct ourselves. even if it is a generational war, you take the fight to the enemy, it's more likely that you will be able to achieve your

goal. >> that's absolutely right. what afghans, what the taliban, what the pakistanis in the region have heard, we're leaving, we're leaving. so of course what are they going to do? they're going to hedge against this and maneuver rather than work with us. i think the first thing we can do, without putting an additional boot on the ground is say, look, stability in afghanistan in south asia and redeeting these terrorist groups is in america's national interest and we're going to do that for as long as it take. that does not mean hundreds of thousands of groups on the ground. what we can do is work in an advisory effort, as we were discussing, hit the taliban leadership hard with a counter terrorism effort. then provide the enablers that the afghan army needs. air support, medi-vac, other things. general nicholson on the ground requested a few thousand more troops to thicken that advisory effort and make it more tactical. i think you're going to see

hovering between 10,000 to 20,000 in afghanistan for the foreseeable future. just as we have had anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000 troops in south korea the last 80 years to stablize and build that government. >> dana: and that has been a good investment, actually. >> and they're now the 12th largest economy in the world and a huge american ally. >> dana: all right, michael. thank you very much. we appreciate you sticking around for us. all right everybody. we'll be right back. yeah. uh, hello!? a meeting? it's a big one. too bad. we are double booked: diarrhea and abdominal pain. why don't you start without me? oh. yeah. if you're living with frequent, unpredictable diarrhea and abdominal pain, you may have... ...irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea, or ibs-d. a condition that can be really frustrating. talk to your doctor about viberzi, a different way to treat ibs-d. viberzi is a prescription medication you take every day that helps proactively manage both diarrhea and abdominal pain at the same time. so you stay ahead of your symptoms.

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at safelite, we stand behind our work... because the ones you love, sit behind it. (parents whisper jingle) safelite repair, safelite replace. >> a new report out about a v.a. hospital so dangerous, it's putting veterans' health at risk. peter doocy has more. what problems are we having here? >> there's $150,000 of equipment that hasn't been inventories ed. the inspector general checked out the v.a. here in d.c. it serves 100,000 people. out of 25 sterile storage areas, 18 were dirty. on one visit, they ran out of

blood lines to treat dialysis patients. an operating room ran out of vascular patches, which means no vascular surgery that day. an entire floor didn't have the tubes that go into a patient's nose to give them oxygen. the operating room was out of the critical equipment to prevent clots forming for surgery called a sequential compression device. since beginning of 2014, patient safety has been compromised due to unavailable equipment 194 times. the v.a. inspector general didn't think that management was doing enough to solve these problems even though they say they knew about some of them. so here we are, dana. >> peter, thanks. that's interesting. it's been about three years since those problems were first reported. all right. this has been an amazing news hour. more to come. i'm dana parino.

here's shep. >> shepard: it's noon on the west coast, 3:00 in d.c. 10:00 be in damascus where bashar al-assad has spoken. the first interview since the gas attack. obviously it's america's fault. you'll hear from assad himself. russian president vladimir putin saying washington and moscow are in a deadlock. president trump tweeting that everything will work out fine. as new satellite images show north korea may be preparing to test a nuclear weapon, we send a reporter to the country's capitol to bring you a first hand look at life there or as much as the government will let you see. >> you're looking at thousands of citizens of pyongyang coming out in an