the iraqi government wanted fallujah back. they had an election coming up.'t want to take kyiv like that. he needs to get to the middle and raise the russian flag and call a win. that's not what is going to happen. you hit the nail on the head. what do they not have the will to fight? the ukrainians had the will to keep their country. once you've seen what the russians do, you lost the war. he's already lost. >> the question then is how many people are going to end up in body bags before it's all over. everyone, every expert we had on from major spencer on have made it very clear russia is not winning tactically this war. it is a disaster for them. but they are killing a lot of people. and it seems to me at this point killing a lot of people is the point. is that what you're feeling and seeing on the ground? >> well, first of all, i really hope kyiv doesn't turn into fa lee -- fallujah. i was there and seen 60% of the city was destroyed and there were so many civilian casualties at that time. kyiv is an extremely beautiful city. it's got an amazing opera hou

ordered to take the city of fallujah, a low-built city of about 400,000. first machine division. one of the most elite combat shock troop thins united states. it took months. the idea this increasingly incompetent russian military is going to go waltzing into a city 10 times the size of fallujah and take it, i think is pretty unlikely. so, buckle up. this is going to go on for a while. >> as someone who worked so closely with president zelenskyy in the past. even when i was there in june, come of his former advisors thinking he's not been tough enough on the oligarchs. did you see this inner strengths in him, even as he resisted president trump back in the day? >> well, thank you for this question. actually the president zelenskyy, of course, was full of very unexpected and unbelievable challenges and he hay be accused in many things. and part of this is opposition criticism. in fact, he did a lot of measures to fight oligarchs inside the country and did a lot of steps to align the legislation. but i know, as the person who's been working with president ze

fallujah had 400,000 residents. it took the best troops in the world a couple of months to subdue that city. and it was a tenth the size of kyiv. from what we have seen of the russians thus far, they are hardly of the quality of the u.s. marine corps. look for a pretty long time for them if they ever take down kyiv. >> and we were covering the insurgency in fallujah for years after that, and admiral i want to play for you something congressman mike mccall, the ranking member on the house foreign relations committee. listen to this. >> we totally overestimated the strength of the russian military. they've proven to be not as effective as we thought. they're in a slow crawl right now, but they are closing in, and we completely underestimated the strength of the ukrainians and the ukrainian people. their will is much stronger than the russian soldiers. >> admiral, i think about when this all started how the discussion was about how it was ultimately going to be a matter of time until the force of the russian military b

>> i was at the battles of fallujah.s to go through fallujah, which had 36,000 buildings. now, you go to kyiv. kyiv has something like 300,000 buildings. you have a giant task in front of you if you're a russian and you don't have the moral our marines have so this idea of fighting street to street, house to house really comes down to the resupplies because the ukrainian defenders i think after a week or two weeks, they're going to be exhausted. there will be no hospitals. there is no way to put the wounded. they need food. they need water. there will be no electricity and at that point, the moral becomes critical. and so far, seth was indicating, the president has done, he's done an incredible job but i also am concerned that he's a single point and you could see how the russians would like to kill or wound him, take him off the battle field and i hope that g g g we know the voice of ukraine isn't focussed just on one person, terrific as he is. we have to know there is somebody else after him. if the ukrainians keep --

fallujah is one tenth the size of kyiv. >> you're hearing zelenskyy, he wants migs, these surface tosiles to defend against russian bombardments. should the u.s. go ahead and provide those things or some of those things? do you think the u.s. is overly concerned about being considered a cobelligerent, a legal label? >> you mentioned earlier of finding the balance. we have to sail a narrow channel here. on one side of the channel is indeed the danger of provocation and escalation of conflict with russia, nuclear arm power. that's legitimate thing to be very concerned about. on the other side are the risks of not doing enough. and creating a scenario where putin can conquer the entire country. i think the administration has done a good job trying to sail that channel, but i would argue the risk over here on the russian side is less than the risk of not doing enough over here. so for one, i would advocate more surface to air missiles, higher reach than those stingers which are quite good under 10,000 feet. they need higher reach into the air stack and secondly i think we should continue

ah, in fallujah, a helicopter is shot down. killing 16 us soldiers. ah, haul braimer is to become washington's fall guy. mm. mm. later rumsfeld and wolf awaits accuse him of wrecking ye. rock with bad decisions. i searched and government under 8 presidents serve very closely with sick secretaries of state. i know what kind of a town washington is. nothing is surprising. if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. rumsfeld halls braimer over the coals, criticizing him publicly for the slow pace of political transition and iraq. previously, he praised bremar's approach as on the mark, awe between may. when i arrived and september, nobody in washington, not the president, not rumsfeld. wolfowitz at faith cheney not fife. nobody said, that's the wrong path. you're on at least paul braimer can claim one trial. ladies and gentlemen, we got him. ah, saddam hussein is found hiding near to creek in winter, so it gives us a dizzy that go to i thought, i guess until he was arrested. what did i thought he was bright from baldwin. christina in his hall, he

we pushed through fallujah and had 20 years of insurgency, i don't know what the game plan is for putint know how he wins this, he can't sustain it. difference between going into iraq and afghanistan and you seen how that worked out for us, we didn't have the world against us. this point, putin has the world against us. what we got to be watching is what is china going to do. >> carley: such a big topic and we'll talk later on the show. your book, book with rob oshg'neal, "the way forward," and it is out today. congratulations on that front. tell us what the book is about. >> dakota: this book is about, everybody is going through something, me and rob took our experiences, more about humanizing us and what we've gone through and how we keep facing forward. no matter what is going on, there is hope in people, not hope in other ideas in fighting and hate. hope and love and that is what this book is about and maybe we'll send a copy to putin, he will need it pretty quick. >> carley: i think that is what this country needs and countries around the world. congratulations on the book. >> todd

but for an attacker to win in a city fight, as our marines did in fallujah, takes extraordinary numbers and also extraordinary valor. jonathan: that last point is the important point. how unique is this, when we see these videos of individuals coming from the russian army into ukraine with seemingly very little appetite to attack, and the ukrainian people pushing those tanks back. what have you made of those videos, reporting from news networks around the world? mark: i have seen the ones on social media where the russians are not coming across well. what we are not seeing are those early insertions done by russian peer troopers into those airfields. those are professional paratroopers, much better trained. but when you are talking about the conscripts that we are seeing on the road that are basically giving up or dying, i think the ukrainians have done spectacularly up to this point. lisa: do you think beer underestimating the morale issue, both on the ukrainian side and on the russian side? mark: i think we have got it about right. i think everyone is surprised at how poorly the russi

think about fallujah in iraq and the trouble marines had there. to hand. with the magnificence resistance of the ukrainian people, i think the russians are not just going to get a bloody nose, a lot of them, unfortunately for both sides, that are killed in action here. and it's going to be a tough fight. >> i wonder when the allied nations, ukraine's allies, their friends, say that they are bringing in assets, infantry assets, air assault assets, particularly because getting in and out of country is so difficult. how is that happening? there have been -- there's been no evidence of any kind of airdrops of arsenal. how are the people of ukraine, whether it's the military or their civilians, able to receive any new assets? >> well, i don't think that the russians have air superiority. and you saw today some, you know, magnificent coverage on cnn of a russian attack helicopter flying very low and by the tree line trying to avoid any kind of surface-to-air missile. it looks like it was hit by a stinger. so until the russians can establish that air sup

about that time we were conducting operations in fallujah.we learned is what we've always known about urban combat. it is door to door, house to house, street to street. it is a slow methodical process. the defender has the advantage by about a factor of ten to one, and you'd better have good troops that are willing to keep pushing, keep pushing until the job is done. >> do you think the russians have the resources to do that in as many cities as they appear to be trying to close in on? >> i think they do. this is the russian way of war. this is straight out of the military academy playbooks for the russians. that's why they have 40-mile convoys to bring in the logistics, to bring in the food and water to conduct these types of operations. >> retired brigadier mark kimmitt, thanks for being with us. nice to see you again. >> thanks, john. >>> we have newly released footage from inside the control room of a nuclear power plant. they're pleading with the russians stop shooting. we have much more on this coming up. ff,... ...swollen, painful. em

like we saw in stalingrad, like we saw in mosul and like they faced in fallujah, this is ugly, brutal fighting. the winner is going to be the one that outlasts the other. >> general, i appreciate your time. thank you so very much. sitting in a house with young men going door to door shooting. they are ready. next, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy speaks to cnn from his bunker in kyiv and what made him emotional. >>> they were born as those missiles raining down wednesday night. now the incredible challenge to get them to safety. >>> we're going live to ukraine's border where a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. we've been showing it to you live. a mother collapsing from exhaustion, her daughter in tetears. anything else you wawanna know? is the hype too much? am i ready? i can't tell you everything. but if you want to make history, you gotta call your own shots. we going to the league! we gotta tell people that liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need, and we gotta do it fast. [limu u squawks] woo! new personal record, limu! ♪ liberty, libert lib

greg palkot says he and pierre were embedded with a marine company during iraq's battle of fallujah. he says that pierre saved his life on many occasions over the years he adds that pierre hated sitting around the newsroom. he wanted to be out chasing the story. and greg noted that even when the worst was happening, pierre would repeat his favorite advice to keep on smiling. and that obviously is a lot tougher today because we lost not only a colleague but a mentor, a leader, and a wonderful friend. we offer our deepest condolences to all who knew pierre and all who loved him. pierre zarkrzewski was just 50 years old. sasha as she is known was just 24 years old. she was serving as a consultant. helping our teams navigate the city. gathered news, speak with sources. our correspondents and producers say she was hard-working, funny, kind, and brave. now to the latest military developments in russia's war against ukraine. we turn to national security correspondent jennifer griffin at the pentagon tonight. good evening, jennifer. >> good evening, bret. remains under bombardment long range

in 2004, when the marine corps needed a doctor in fallujah, he did not hesitate.nze star and the most decorated military doctor to serve in iraq. thanks, doctor, for being with us. thank you for everything that you do. give us a sense of what it was like when you got -- when you left tennessee and you got to poland and you got that call to help ben. >> well, it was a little bit of a progression. i got the call, headed home. got myself packed. got on an airplane and let my family know where i was going. the initial impact was to go with save our allies, sarah barrado that runs it. the board called and said would you go over, do some assessments. i said i would. i got to poland, did some of that. later on in the week that we got the call to move to kyiv till we had to evacuate critically wounded patient. it wasn't immediate from here to there to get him. it was -- i was there at the right place with the right people at the right time and safe our allies put us there. >> martha: they're an extraordinary organization. we've heard interviews with sarah. it's an incredi

we use them in the battle of fallujah to cover the withdrawal of 25,000 civilians from the city. they're not a very effective weapon. if -- they are not designed, classified, as a chemical weapon under international law. if they're used against civilian populations, then it would be a war crime. so it's hard for me to -- i've never seen anybody kill violently in an attractive matter. i never focus on the nature of the weapon as much as, are you targeting defenseless civilians or their infrastructure, yes or no? >> julia, there were more sanctions imposed today, and that of course is on top of the most aggressive sanctions we've ever imposed. besides hurting the general russian population, which, putin has never cared about, are any of these really hurting putin himself or his all of dark's? >> thank you. well, i think what you just said, unprecedented, has to be repeated over and over again. in the history of sanctions, and certainly as long as i have been professionally associated with them, i've never witnessed so coordinated a monster, allies in such a quick amount of time. an

appearing in actual battle are huge it took well-trained marines three weeks to clear a large town like fallujah kyiv has 300,000 buildings, nearly three million people. good luck, mr. putin if the marines had a tough time, what will your troops experience in a treacherous urban battlefield ten times the size because the ukrainians have rallied around zelenskyy, because he didn't flee or make some awful deal, putin may actually run out of money. russia made a fault, ugly and embares default. and it wouldn't be the first time an army had to retreat because it's broke check out world war i. check out what happened in germany. you can say a lot of this was known before today's big rally but here's what i see happening. the west is beginning to see a third wave between russia winning and russia losing. it's russia running out of money to win a war because it's going on too long without a lot of progress, and the sanctions are having an impact it's difficult for putin to shell kyiv this is the major story when there is the possibility he might kill visiting world leaders who might never have gone at

gregg palkot says he and peter were embedded with a marine company during iraq's battle of fallujah. he says that saved his life on many occasions over the years. he adds the pair hated sitting around the newsroom. he wanted to be out chasing the story and greg noted that even when the worst was happening, pierre would repeat his favorite advice to keep on smiling, keep on smiling and thank you to brett baer for that . look back at peter's life, jonathan. ive the network for twenty six almost twenty six years. you for nearly as long. i mean we cover wars. it's part of the job description you, my friend have covered a lot more than i have wars and protests along with the likes of trae yanks and mike tobin and greg palkot and benjamin hall and steve harrigan. the list goes on that i'm forgetting. but you know, in that capacity i knew peter you knew him extremely well and i'd like to hear your thoughts about him tonight . a few better people in this world than zach has. a lot of us knew him. you know, you heard brett that reference my first meeting with zach was in 2003 when i was a rel

john, in 2004 in fallujah, took three weeks. 36,000 buildings. you've got the will of the ukrainian people which has been phenomenal. i do not think their bombing in the west or attacking in the humanitarian targets has done anything but to anger them to be even more aggressive towards them. >> anger them, certainly. o outrage the world. one of the things you look at, if putin isn't able to move as quickly as he would, this is what happens. you get residential areas that get bombed. you see the buildings here, bombed. this is a residential area. you see the apartment building. this is a shopping mall where people would go. there it is in one. boom, bombed. that's the flip side of this. putin not moving as quickly as he likes, on the one hand is a victory for the ukrainians. on the other hand, the russian harshness. >> that's the russian playbook. they come in like a bulldozer as my colleague says. they're using dumb bombs and trying to essentially intimidate the people. it's not going to work. it'll take an awful lot of time. for them to do this

then they just let the women and children go and level the city i don't like what we did with fallujah except we were the good guys. >> brett stevens today at the times argues what if putin did not miscalculation. >> i thought it was a fabulous piece. >> the whole idea to get control of the energy-rich part of eastern ukraine. it's what may happen still. >> right i thought that piece is a must read i really truly believe that people don't understand other than zelenskyy that the russians have been adistricted to artillery since 1942 it works for them. tanks not as much. when you have artillery and the other side doesn't have the ability to spot it or bomb it, then it's unassailable you can lob missiles from now to kingdom come after putin's finish with it, the u.n. voted it the most levelled city in the world i didn't know they had that particular nomenclature. there was nothing left. >> yeah. and then today zelenskyy is on the tape suggesting that russia will be sending in new forces. there's a lot of skeptics among them how do they do that given some of the broken supply chains? i'm

there were 10% of those in fallujah, and think about what it was like if you were americans who really know how to fight in let's just say urban environments so, look, david, artillery is what they have -- their strength they've never run out. they didn't run out in '43 they're not going to run out now. i don't want to get too far ahead. >> you didn't make your point, which is you don't believe that the chinese will actually provide arms to the russians >> no. i think the chinese do not like us, and the russians do not like us, so they have commonality, but that doesn't mean there will be troops. i'm looking at things like alibaba and jd jd is -- to sell over jpmorgan alibaba, david these were the blue chips. >> it's the name we focused on the most obviously i spent some time there many years ago at this point already on the campus there with its founder jack ma jpmorgan saying it feels to us like a number of global investors are in the process of reducing their exposure to china in the internet sector there that could lead to significant fund out close from the sector that's the type

i want to tell our viewers that you were first kidnapped in fallujah in iraq in 2004. there was sexual assault in pakistan. you were involved in an automobile accident while returning to islamabad. you have truly embodied what it means to be a journalist and prioritize the story. you're a wife and a mother. how is it you balance your dedication, which we appreciate as consumers, your dedication to our craft, and manage in that moment that you have a family who's expecting you to come home safely? >> yeah, it's hard. i guess i have to compartmentalize a lot while i'm in the field. i have to really try and stay focused on the moment. i try not to think so much about my children and my husband while i'm in that moment, though it's impossible because of course the first thing i think of when come upon four bodies and see the body of a child is my own family, and how it would kill me to see that. so it's a combination. i try really hard to stay focused and compartmentalizing things, off and crying when i'm photographing. when i get home, it's important for me to process wha

remember, there are 36,000 buildings in fallujah. the marines took every single one in three weeks there's 300,000 buildings in kyiv that's the tough to take i don't know what putin's plan is what does he get there i think refugee crisis is what we have to follow. >> you argue that -- let's say the discipline the president has had in not committing u.s. troops -- right. not getting involved in some kind of no-fly zone, essentially not getting provoked by russia directly has been market friendly. >> yes i think that his decision to not let ukraine have -- it was him, to have the fighter planes they need was ill fated they need to be able to -- they need to stop the artillery they need to stop the missiles all russia does is fire missiles at hospitals i'm waying for playgrounds what the hell are they targeting? >> pentagon said the scenario of the mix was high risk and low reward they have a lot of anti-aircraft power they need. rather than play top gun in the sky. it. >> right if you can send missiles at hospitals with impunity, i mea

our next guest was warned for action in fallujah in 2004. one of the bloodiest battles in history.ld you characterize this from the russian perspective? >> there is humiliation, world power has top five military in the world and for the outnumbered aspect that russia has with material, technology and true power, why you would want to then take that into a house-to-house situation neuters technology. home field advantage is going to got defender. you put a machine gun behind the door i don't care if you are seal team 6 or marvel avengers you are going to get shot. to me makes no sense from tactical level why putin would want to attempt this. >> brian: if you read your book you actually did go house to house. that's why the name of the book is so perfect and brutal and you see death and destruction all around you. so here's a quick look. you have a monitor right, david? >> i do not. >> brian: just so you know, these are all where the fighting is taking place around the country. they are very spread out and word is there is poor communication between russian forces in the north, the s

once they get in the city, this is urban warfare, this is fallujah, this is mosul.tov cocktail on balcony. every ukrainian if they want one has been issued a kalashnikov. causing damage. it's not going to be easy for the russians once they establish a beach head if they, in fact can do that. >> brian: they always say after a conflict there should be after action report. this is called after inaction. this is why we have this. admiral, have you been calling for this five alarm fire for about five years no. one is listening. now the whole world is listening because president zelenskyy is demanding it and now people are listening. thanks so much, admiral, we will have you back. >> brian, thank you very much. appreciate it and it's great to be on the show. >> brian: meanwhile also appreciate carley shimkus answered the call to deliver the news right now. carley, take it away. >> >> carley: thank you very much, brian. start with this. firefighters battling several dangerous firefighters across the florida panhandle after evacuating nearly 1100 homes. the wildfire taking

greg palkot says he and pierre were embedded with a marine company during iraq's battle of fallujah.e says that pierre saved his life on many occasions over the years. he adds that pierre hated sitting around the newsroom. he wanted to be out chasing the story and greg noted that even when the worst was happening, pierre would repeat his favorite advice to keep on smiling. >> steve: pierre zakrzewski was just 50 years old. we offer our condolences to all who knew him and sasha's family she was just 24 years old. >> rachel: working as consultant and helping our team to city. our correspondents said she was hard-working so funny, kind and brave. this is such a remind of how these foreign correspondents, in particular, risk their lives. so that we can be a better informed nation. our democracy, it's essential that we have this information and they do it professionally and at great risk to themselves. so grateful. >> brian: got to be tireless. no clock. usually different time zones. different shows ask you to come up at different times and you want to provide new information so you never