host: aaron mehta mehta is it --aaron mehta is at our desk. first, things are obviously moving fast when it comes to syria and the rack this morning. -- and iraq >> aaron mehta mehta is it aaron mehta is at our desk. first, things are obviously moving fast when it comes to syria and the rack this morning. and iraq this morning. can you get us up to speed? >> i will do my best, by the time i finish this segment something else may have changed. as of yesterday, u.s. troops were moving largely out of syria. a small group will stay in syria, despite trump's statement that all troops are coming out. probably about 300 to 500 will be staying in a small garrison to stay and protect an oil field in the area. everyone else is getting out. i saw some pretty shocking videos of u.s. troops being pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables. >> one of those pictures made the front page of "the wall street journal" this morning. >> and this is an area for the u.s. is wildly popular. it's one of the things were you wonder if there will be lasting damage with our p

host: aaron mehta mehta is it --aaron mehta is at our desk. hings are obviously moving fast when it comes to syria and the rack this morning. this morning. can you get us up to speed? guest: i will do my best, by the time i finish this segment something else may have changed. as of yesterday, u.s. troops were moving largely out of syria. inmall group will stay syria, despite trump's statement that all troops are coming out. probably about 300 to 500 will be staying in a small garrison to stay and protect an oil field in the area. everyone else is getting out. i saw some pretty shocking videos of u.s. troops being pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables. of those pictures made the front page of "the wall street journal" this morning. fort: and this is an area the u.s. is wildly popular. it's one of the things were you wonder if there will be lasting damage with our partners in the region. today the plan has been to move i --s into iraq and do anti-isis operations there as needed. they said that they welcome their friends and we are happy to be t

host: aaron mehta question mark guest: in syria, --aaron mehta? guest: in syria we have been on aeir -- been there from couple of years, but it's a good point. are we going to be there forever providing security because when we try to build up security forces, they haven't worked? the goal is to build them up and get out. we saw it with the rise of isis. an amazing situation where the iraqi military met up with a bunch of isis guys and essentially got routed. following the dry out that obama had pushed through, they responded by surging troops back into iraq. people say this time the military is better, more cohesive, trained better. there is concern that if the u.s. left again, stability would melt away. do you want to talk about troop drawdown and where we are on that? guest: this is an interesting one. president trump mentioned a couple of times during the campaign, as president, why he doesn't under -- how he doesn't understand why we can't get out of there. mattistime secretary wanted a troop increase. again, it would be a surge and then we wo