perspective on the war on isis and the terrorist attacks in france, i am joined from washington by anthony cordesman, from the center for strategic and international studies. anthony, i'm assuming like the rest of the world that was watching what happened last night, this is a game changer for isis, the ability to pull off these coordinated attacks. >> reporter: i think we need to be very, very careful because as you pointed out, france has been one of our key allies in the air campaign, certainly one of the most kent. isis has had weeks, perhaps months in which to try to assemble and put together cells in france. you had previous terrorist attacks there, as you have in other european countries. and horrifying as these casualties are, they consist essentially of attacking undefended civilian areas chosen almost at random out of all the activities in a major city. now, isis did formally declare war two days ago as a result of the step-up in the campaigns along the kurdish areas. but we shouldn't exaggerate that this is some kind of game changer. isis has had ties to external movements and extreme gro