on the news tonight politicians from both sides of the aisle reactive president trump plans to shift u.s. foreign policy in afghanistan and a u.s. led air strike in the isis held syrian city of leaves over seventy civilians dead and the president will soon hold a rally in phoenix arizona where he's expected to address the wall with mexico a military man sitting in for ed schultz here in washington d.c. you're watching artsy america. good evening we start tonight with reaction to the president's announcement of

a strategy shift in afghanistan the president made it clear the u.s. is not nation building the administration will not set an arbitrary date to withdraw from the country the united states will however empower its generals with the authorization to carry out strikes independent of washington and the president will work with india pakistan and the entire asia pacific region to wind down america's longest running war speaker of the house paul ryan praised the president's plans my travels there i kept hearing the same thing they have the time we have the watchers meaning they will wait us out and if they believe that we have some.

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following counties in pennsylvania carbon and. victory. nowhere is this more evident than with the war in afghanistan the war in afghanistan will enter its seventeenth year this fall so far the us has suffered twenty four hundred military deaths now troop levels in the country have gone from just a few thousand at the start to a peak of one hundred thousand in two thousand and ten and two thousand and eleven and then slimming down to roughly eighty four one hundred troops by the time president trump took over as commander in chief from monday's announcement we learned troop levels will again rise but we do not know by how much or in what capacity we will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities conditions on the ground not arbitrary

timetables will guide our strategy from now on seemingly taking aim at former president barack obama for giving deadlines to his strategy in the country it's not the first time trump has disagreed with his predecessor on how to handle the war in the past trump has advocated for complete withdrawal but now that he sits in the oval office he's changing his tune not only is the increasing involvement in afghanistan he's putting neighboring countries on notice like india to help and most notably taking aim at pakistan pakistan has much to game from partnering with our effort in afghanistan it has much to lose by continuing to harbor criminals and terrorists. like afghanistan any plan with pakistan is short on detail the regional leaders are urging against pushing the country to hard as for afghanistan its president is pleased with renewed u.s. support as the government there loses ground against insurgents. i have

a clear message to all oppositions you're not going to win militarily join peace and accept my peaceful invitation to. the taliban meanwhile is vowing to continue fighting in the region until all american troops leave afghanistan for good for the news with ed schultz i'm seimone del rosario. and for more on this let's go now to john said a leading foreign policy principal at trilogy advisors john good to have you back on the show last night we heard the president say that he would no longer allow pakistan to sort of sit idly by he said in a roundabout way that he would come to coerce them to to join in this fight against the taliban in afghanistan now in reality is a strongman approach to pakistan which is a nuclear state is this a wise move and is it even possible it's a very desirable objective minow i don't know about the wisdom of it given the fact that pakistan has its own interests in afghanistan regardless of what america would

like to see as an outcome there not only is pakistan very much concerned about making sure it's not caught in a vise between a pro western afghanistan and a nuclear india remember pakistan is sandwiched between both of those countries but pakistan is old so deep in its ties to china commercially and militarily and so pakistan may be looking at an opportunity to achieve what we call strategic depth and achieve some level of independence from assistance from the united states now that's an interesting angle there china what role does china play in all of this china i believe has a very strong interest in making sure that you don't have radical islamist entities in afghanistan supporting western chinese what we call we gervase. who are muslims who live in western china largely in very impoverished underdeveloped areas and there's been many types of activities by some of these more radicalized elements but the chinese government has made sure to suppress media coverage of this type of

activity we have certainly not heard much about it on air and western media as you said but you know going back to the president's comments yesterday capitol hill insiders were anticipating the president to announce a very detailed plan for afghanistan including the numbers of troops that will take part in this surge but that wasn't the route that the president took i don't think anyone should be surprised about that there were no numbers no dates no no actual plan of action that was announced is this a fair way for him to approach this announcement to the american people my sense is the white house is less concerned about what's fair as opposed to what they hope will work and hope i think has to be underlined here in many ways it was the anti obama speech because there were no timelines because there were no numbers assigned here and in many ways i think with the president is signaling is he trusts the military to do better than what they've been allowed to do in the past the rules of engagement will be very different here and i think you'll see a much more relentless type of military attacks against terrorist camps terrorist

networks and where the military thinks that they can do devastating impact i think trungpa given that for your hand now as we heard in that sound bite that the president said we're not going to be nation building we're there to kill terrorists he didn't mince any words about that where doesn't this leave a big gaping hole in in in policy though and and a little bit of a role for the state department to play it's going to be a critical component here even defense secretary mattis has said if he doesn't have diplomatic tools available it means he has to buy more ammo that's not the good way to do this you need to see that the military and the diplomatic aspects of the strategy work hand in hand and right now stay. department is in somewhat of a limbo regarding afghanistan we don't have the bastards appointed under president from to afghanistan or to pakistan or an assistant secretary to cover that region so we need to bolster our diplomatic efforts to complement what we hope will be

greater military success and many argue though that that afghanistan is really an unwinnable war how is this surge whatever it might play out to be how is this going to be any different than the how the past two administrations have handled it obama and bush one of the toughest things manilla here is that afghanistan is a large the ungovernable country remember this is now a country of about thirty million people four major ethnic groups about twenty minor ethnic groups they all live in mountainous valley areas very much distinct here graphically in politically from one another with very little allegiance to a centralized state they don't care what happens in kabul they care about their ethnic groups and their tribes so anybody is able to bring this together in a cohesive political unit is really difficult for anyone to envision today this estate needs to be broken up and. i will leave that to your political strategists who've been elected by different people now you know as we know this war is wildly

unpopular the country is war weary how would you advise the president if he were your client to have approached this in delivering this message yesterday i will say he did one thing very smartly in his speech yesterday that they think stands out and that is that i believe the american people are not necessarily war weary i think with the president sort of being weary of not winning wars is really word is the malady affecting the american population when it comes to these battles if we go in with clear objectives we win and we come home mission accomplished i think the american people will support that i don't know though that any afghan strategy will help us accomplish that goal but i gotta say going back to the campaign trail as you recall he did say that we're going to win so much that we're going to be tired of winning so i guess we'll just have to wait and see in the coming days how this plays out thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us john said ladies foreign policy principle at trilogy advisors. the u.n. is condemning the death of over seventy civilians in a u.s.

airstrike in the isis healthy area and city of raka on sunday artie's more at guys dad has the latest. well just to bring everyone up to speed racket was once considered the capital of isis in syria and for many months now it has been besieged by the u.s. led coalition and its local allies in syria it is be the brutal siege go to a week goes by without reports of not civilian casualties and this last week has been no exception the u.s. led coalition is accused of killing forty civilians in an airstrike and that's a conservative estimate there are more people believed to be still buried under the rubble we contacted the coalition asking them to comment on this matter and they said that they take reports of civilian casualties very seriously in the they were investigates. but you know if confirmed then if their previous responses are anything to go by we'll hear more apologies some regrets condolences and we'll see

more right not a lot will change we will remember the horrendous price paid by civilians in mosul during the city's liberation as talk of as many as twenty thousand dead killed by isis and killed by the u.s. led coalition by the iraqi military in ceaseless airstrikes they kept apologizing saying how sorry they were out they regretted the loss of civilian life but the bombs kept raining down and the civilian death toll kept mounting it's happening again this time just west of mosul in an area known as a father which the iraqi military says it is determined to retake from isis and to him i know the town of telephone will be next in the march of liberation the heroic security forces are preparing to liberate this region i say to islamic state you have a choice to surrender or die as with mosul that pounding telephone with all they've

caught me styles strikes artillery tanks the sorts of weapons that don't discriminate between isis fighters and civilians now consider that in the middle of this hell there are forty thousand civilians according to the u.n. and the situation is desperate for food medicine even drinking water becoming a luxury and the u.n. is warning that there's a real exodus thousands of civilians or expected to flee from iraq still a far and surrounding communities during the iraqi military operation there's little doubt that isis in telephone will be defeated but the cost will be tremendous the iraqi military. in the u.s. led coalition of show time with him again but it is a price they consider worth. and tensions continue to rise between north korea and

the united states today both countries were pointing the finger at each other during a united nations forum over nuclear weapons for more on this let's go now to our t. is ashley banks with more details. according to media reports it all started when the u.s. envoy said president trump's top priority was to protect the u.s. and its allies against north korea's growing nuclear threat he added the u.s. is ready to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal now u.s. ambassador robert wood said quote north korea's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs pose a grave threat to the entire world and north korea's envoy said quote the measures taken by the d.p. r. k. to strengthen its nuclear deterrent and develop intercontinental rockets as justifiable an illegitimate option for self defense and the face of such apparent and real threats referring to constantly nuclear threats by the u.s. since launch intercontinental ballistic missiles back in july concerns arose over

north korea's development of missiles and nuclear weapons those concerns a double after trouble more north korea it will face fire and if you're e if it threaten the u.s. these comments lead north korea to consider plans to fire missiles towards the u.s. pacific territory of guam trump responded saying the u.s. military was locked and loaded should north korea act and wisely and today the u.s. rolled out new sanctions against chinese and russian individuals and entities having ties to north korea the treasury department said it would target ten entities and six individuals who aided north korea's missile program or deal and the north korean energy treat the department will also sinks in people and groups who allow north korean entities to access the u.s. system financial. treasury secretary steven nugent said quote treasury will continue to increase pressure on north korea by targeting those who support the

advancement of nuclear and ballistic missile programs and i salute them from the american financial system russia and china reacting to the sink since a russian senator said quote these sanctions are legal in themselves because the only thing recognized by international law is the sink sions of the un security council we must react in principle to this insane and confrontational policy and the chinese embassy spokesperson said beijing of poses unilateral sanctions out of the u.n. security council framework we strongly urge the u.s. to immediately correct its mistake so as not to impact bilateral cooperation on relevant issues the u.s. hopes that by putting pressure on china one of the major allies it will force north korea to give up their nuclear ambitions however manila experts are warning people still move forward with a missile launch towards qualm all right thank you for that update actually banks.

rescue workers have found the bodies of ten missing sailors in the damaged hole of the u.s.s. john mccain the navy vessel flooded after a collision with a merchant ship near singapore on monday admiral john richardson has ordered a one day operational pause for the entire seventh fleet in the pacific to review safety measures the crash with a civilian vessel was the second this summer in june the u.s.s. fitzgerald rammed into a japanese ship off an insulin killing seven u.s. sailors. and the president might be losing his edge in key swing states according to a sunday poll conducted by n.b.c. news and maris according to the weekend poll six out of ten voters in michigan pennsylvania and wisconsin feel now embarrassed by the president's conduct in all three states between thirty four and three. six percent of voters approve of the president's conduct while fifty four to fifty six percent disapproved then

candidate trump unexpectedly defeated hillary clinton and all three states in the twenty sixteen presidential election meanwhile the president will soon hold a rally in phoenix arizona to advocate for border wall funding for more on all of this we're being joined now by our political panel this evening we have mitch caesar a former democratic chair of florida and john jordan he's a g.o.p. strategist and former intelligence officer gentlemen thanks for being with us tonight as you just heard what these polls have to say have to say about the president's popularity but if the polls are as accurate as they were leading up to election night what might actually be the president's popularity right now mitch can we start with you. sure i mean no what i think is occurring is the fact that some of this is clearly a response to the terrible situation that just occurred in virginia and also these are folks who are used to going for democrats or republicans i think this is the first place this was the blue wall for her really good for hillary clinton and obviously it broke for her i see it reforming i'm not being overly optimistic

because we've always underestimated donald trump but i think what you're seeing is based on his character issue trump's these folks are becoming rapidly disenchanted apparently they don't want to vote for hillary clinton so they voted for trump i think there's some regret now democrats are doing very well in polls without specific people running so it's a generic situation but i think this is the beginning to show some cracking at the edges john what do you make of this is this buyer's remorse. it's really tough to say i mean the media coverage of president trump since charlottesville the media has done a very good job of driving their narrative. polls are very fluid things are very dynamic and they're their accuracy is even been called into question as we saw last november so i think we need to do is to. a step back and say this is one data point this is one company's data point one moment in time and look at the questions being

asked it's about trump's popularity not about the popularity of the democrats or the republicans or other candidates specifically so i think we have to be very mindful of the limitations of polling and not to read too much into them at the end of the day there's only one poll that really is going to matter and that is next over amber when we deal with the midterm elections so a lot happens between here and there so i you know it's hard it's hard to it's hard to get too worked up about and you're right about that one of the things that got his base very riled up is the talk of the wall and right now the president is in arizona prepping for yet another campaign style rally focusing on border security and the wall and those optics and sound bites they work great for the media cycle but guys where is the real policy on this and getting mexico to pay for it john. well first of all we don't know really and to my understanding we don't really know what the president's going to say just yet so let's not get too far ahead of

ourselves the wall you know it's a kind of a metaphysical thing seventy percent deportations are up seventy percent immigration in net immigration this country illegal immigration is down seventy percent and a lot of people are here illegally are leaving so we talk about the wall of physical wall that we just talking about the enforcement of existing immigration law which the administration is doing and it seems to be working. what's your response to that. well obviously he's going to arizona because he loves rally you see his set is march it's in effect immediate gratification for him which is like tweeting that's very important that we psyching on a day to day basis to get that positive reinforcement on the wall issue i would not be surprised if he brings it up i'd be a little surprised if he says russia is going to pay for excuse me not russia mexico's war. but you know it doesn't matter what he says here's the problem he's going there for

a rally and he's attacking jeff flake who is a senator there as is john mccain neither one of them is going to show up he's attacked both of them he's undermining the senate's trying to control the senate try to be controlled by republicans in two thousand and eighteen to maintain that superiority as the story that just broke about his lack of funds and friendship with mcconnell that's part of the undermining of them attacking republican senators it doesn't bode well for doing well arizona's great to talk to that audience and feel good but for the greater good of what he's trying to accomplish it just doesn't do it he really can help themselves let's switch gears a little bit here to foreign policy last night announcement was supposed to be to tell the american people that he wasn't going to tell us anything apparently that's what it turned out to be he told us he was going to tell if anything the new approach to afghanistan will be opaque he will send people's sons and daughters

to a sixteen year conflict zone and not tell these parents what their kids will be sent there for what do you make of last night's announcement mich. well it's interesting i look upon that is just another donald trump shiny object of some things here that you don't want to talk about anymore that because it's bad for the president he'll come up with a new showing object to draw your attention somewhere else his policy is no different than his two predecessors george bush or barack obama he was convinced by the generals which then led banned in a group he would now with attack and begin see for when the america first theory and he's no longer an isolationist in theory but i really really look upon this since it's no change from previous administrations they were the real game play and it's showing an object's diversion that's that's kind of where i'm at unfortunately john he's not telling the american people what the plans are or what he may get at i mean you got to hand the democratic talking points are completely predictable it

is completely different because for the first time the enemy doesn't know what we're going to do even through part of the bush administration all through the obama administration we would announce timetables troop deployments what we would do even rules of engagement if ever there was a recipe that history has consistently shown is a recipe for military defeat that is it all we have to do is look at our own history closely vietnam to see what happens when you telegraph what you're going to do all they have to do is have a watch and wait and then at that point your intelligence dries up because the people there on the ground who would help who would help us are afraid to because they know when we're going to leave so for the first time america is truly unpredictable and they don't know who or what is what is going to happen so this is this is a fund this is a fundamental change in the american approach to the war in afghanistan over the last eight nine years and real briefly down then let's talk about north korea that

the rhetoric from the camera team continues what options does the president actually have to handle this volatile situation let's go with mitch first. i'm not sure they have a. the number of options they will be blamed on china china has not really responded is now if sanctions going that way i think donald trump honestly came into the presidency which he's actually almost admitted that things are very different from the other chair on the other side of the desk and expect this to be a walk in foreign policy is difficult being the president is difficult certainly far more than anything else i don't think there's a lot of opportunities unless he has some allies which remains to be seen and john jordan last word for you. i could be specific there are three s. three basic options except in a nuclear armed north korea a military a military attack which is the cost would be prohibitive or third potentially threatening the destabilization of north korea this is not really been talked about in the media that much but by electronic warfare cyber warfare shutting down their

state television pamphlets going over the border. basically sending a message to the north koreans that we can take away the most important tool that that regime has and that is the absolute control of information and anything will get their attention that is it moreover it will get china's attention because china is afraid one last thing on one thing only with regard to north korea and that is an unstable destabilize regime and millions of refugees coming out is definitely a new idea there thank you so much we got to leave all right there gentlemen mitch caesar and john jordan thank you very much. thank you and rage that is and are pulling down confederate monuments across the country following the events in charlottesville now the war on monuments is spreading beyond the confederacy artie's trinity chavez has more confederate statues are not the only ones being called into question we are here aca lumba circle where the famous statue of christopher columbus is now in the middle of some major controversy and city

officials look to remove controversial monuments the legacy of christopher columbus is a complicated one some believe him to be a brave pioneer who discovered america and other. consider him to be a ruthless men who were enslaved abused and murdered native americans the seventy six foot tall structure is only one of the statues on the long list of monuments that will be reviewed by city officials this is a part of mayor bill de blasio efforts to reevaluate quote symbols of hate on city property something city officials are doing all across the nation the deadly violence in charlottesville gave a new urgency to the process of taking down confederate monuments. was being vandalized before their removal was on monday the president at the university of texas at austin ordered the immediate removal of statues of robert e. lee and other prominent confederate figures from the main area of campus saying such monuments have become symbols of modern white supremacy and neo nazi ism. represent. a system of oppression. against

a community community in the black community. do not need the protection and the public space and over the weekend duke university in north carolina remove the statue from the entrance of duke chapel after parts of lease face were vandalized other states removing confederate statues include california florida and ohio just to name a few and the bronx community college also removed the busts of robert e. lee and stonewall jackson from the hall of fame for great americans new york governor cuomo said in a tweet there are many great americans many of them new yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall these two confederates are not among them mayor bill de blasio says that there will be a ninety day review of the hate symbols that are on city property and he will announce a task force to complete this in the near future reporting in columbus circle trinity chavez r.t. all right that's the news tonight follow me on twitter avenue and i'm going over.

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