to help us analyze these developments, we are joined from washington by anthony cordesman of the center for strategic and international studies. mr. cordesman previously served in the state department and was the director of intelligence assessment in the office of the secretary of defense. it's nearly 2,000 miles from damascus syria to kabul, afghanistan. and violence seems to be spreading throughout the entire region. what's the bigger picture that we need to understand? >> i'm afraid that is the bigger picture because what we are watching and we have been watching almost since 2010 is a very sharp rise in the number of terrorist incidents. and now what we're watching is civil war and basically some forms of insurgency. >> sreenivasan: we mentioned that suicide pomming in eastern afghanistan today, that the president of that country blames on isis. how significant is it that isis is now involved in afghanistan? >> we need to be very careful. i think part of the problem is it's convenient to blame isis if you're trying to negotiate with the taliban. but a lot of groups have sort of had