or is the u.s. military going to be on the ground in iraq and afghanistan for the next 50 years or longer? >> first of all, these countries have democratically elected leaderships and they control most of the territory. in afghanistan once kunduz is retain all of the provincial capitals, in iraq all of the provincial capitals except mosul, have been in the government's hands. political process is not going to start as long as the taliban thinks it can chase away this locally elected government, and it can wait out the american presence, and take down the rest of the country militarily. that's how the taliban thinks right now. we need to make some thinking in different way. >> that's an interesting point, the answer is that they can't wait out the u.s. presence which means making a relatively often commitment to keeping u.s. troops on the ground. >> and i'm very happy to do that because what the taliban is smart enough to also know is that while we couldn't sustain 70 or 80,000 troops doing brunt of fighting and dying in afghanistan for years we certainly can sustain a limited advisory prese

craven: in iraq or afghanistan, the profile was similar. the distances were longer. missionsexity of the we have done both in iraq and afghanistan, the real credit to the bin laden raid really goes, as i have said before come to the president and the national security team and the central intelligence agency and the nsa. those folks in the agencies that located the compound. the president made the very tough decision for us to do the mission. i'm proud of my guys. i think they did a marvelous job. the mission was something that -- and ofn trained course all these seals were hand-picked and had been on many missions. i would not call it routine. nothing about it was routine. but, that was not the hardest part. the hardest part was the decision and the intel. charlie: they did not know if he was there. mr. craven: we did not. that was part of the buildup. we were trying to figure out whether or not-- it had not been confirmed. --r argument on both sides there were arguments on both sides about whether or not it was bin laden. chance.t as a 50% to roll the mission in 24

officers. >> you are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in iraq or afghanistanlause] preventing afghanistan's disintegration means obama is breaking that promise both to the troops and his political legacy. roslyn jordan, al jazeera, washington. >>> al jazeera's jennifer glasse is in the afghan capitol for us and says the extension of the u.s. mission will be welcome news for the afghan government. >> reporter: it comes against a back drop of resurging taliban fighting not only in the north and kunduz taliban taking kunduz city their former stronghold, holding it for three full days and having a presence there for almost two weeks before withdrawing from the city in afghan and taking that back but we also saw fighting in the south, the taliban taking control of the main highway between kabul and kandahar for several days stranding thousands of afghan travelers there and crippling any transit between the two major cities in afghanistan and also in zobel and helman they attacked checkpoints and afghan security checkpoints killing more than 20 afghan policemen this

officers. >> you are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in iraq or afghanistaners and applause] preventing afghanistan's disintegration means obama is breaking that promise both to the troops and his political legacy. we can speak to roslyn now, roslyn how important of a change is this in the u.s. position in afghanistan? >> this is a signal change in the obama administration's policy on an afghanistan, the president had said even though he argued during his briefing on thursday that he was always open to making adjustments, he had always been committed to changing the posture of u.s. forces in afghanistan in large part because he knows that there is considerable fatigue among u.s. voters in particular about u.s. military operations overseas. and there is a sentiment in this country that with the death of osama bin laden three years ago there is no reason why the u.s. should be in afghanistan. however, the president is arguing, as are a number of people who support this move, that it's not just about dealing with the taliban and trying to keep the government of

officers. >> you are the first-class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent in to combat in iraq or afghanistaning and applause] >> reporter: but preventing afghanistan's decent gracious means obama is break that go promise both to the troops and his political legacy. >>> the syrian army backed by russian airstrikes has launched a major offensive in toms at least 75 people, though, have been reportedly killed. the fighting focused on two areas on a highway that links the provinces of homs and ham a. the government meets this route to bring surprise to the north especially in idlib and aleppo and all wants to secure a tour door between eights strong holds along the cost and the capital dudamascus, zeina khodr reports. >> reporter: the battle in northern homs country side has begun, rebels aring under fire. this is a coordinated fight between sear january forces and russia. it's the second time since russia started fighting. it is providing support to allies on the ground as they try to advance in to opposition territory but civilians are caught in the middle. >> translator: this is a civilian ar

government or structure have condemned acts of terrorism, condemned going out for jihad in syria, iraq or afghanistan, and issued fatwas to that effect. there is a matter of an expression of opinion if an individual cleric somewhere is expressing his opinion on what is a religious jurisprudence type issue. he's entitled to do so. the incitement is prohibited by law or punishable by law. >> one of the things that i think you did not like is there may be saudis that supported the al nusra front, the al qaeda franchise in syria. the allegation is not that the suede government is doing this, but saudi citizens are doing it. >> a long time ago. it was declared a terrorist organization, nusra, any support going to prosecution. >> am i going to stand up saying there's not a single. of course not. it will be chased. and the full strength of the law would be plied to those people. >> i think we worked through most of them. if anyone comes up, you can let me know. >> critics say saudi arabia >> that's what i want to hear. >> give me all you've got. >> now. >> bootcamp... >> stop your whinin'. >> for bad kids.

though he believes he won't be able to fulfill his pledge to leave office with no troops in iraq or afghanistan. >> all right, jamie for us at the pentagon, appreciate it, good to see you, thank you. the draw down delay comes after high profile attacks. al jazeera has more on how will it be impacted. >> they requested this extense, the afghan c.e.o. has a meeting with american officials while he was in new york at the u.n. general assembly a couple of weeks ago, requests that the forces remain at their current level, because of the resurgent taliban fighting. that happens before country dui city fell, but certainly the security forces knowing they continue to need international help. they say the and then generals here will decide how they will be drawn down to 5,500 troops in 2017. it is a big shift for the obama administration. not just in numbers but also in terms of where those forces will be stations there. initially, supposed to be only 1,000 forces are supposed to stay after 2017, basically the u.s. embassy just behind me, instead those forces will stay around afghanistan. here in abu at

traumatic brain injury and tbi was identified as one of the signature injuries of the wars in iraq or afghanistanand so we focused the rest of this exhibit gallery to give our visitor a chance to understand the nature and functions of the brain, those technologies like these helmets here that help to showcase the protection of the brain, both on the battlefield or on the football field, but the rest of the exhibit gallery gives us a chance to focus on actual human brain specimens showing the graphic nature of real traumatic brain injuries. so you see over and over again on display sectioned or whole brains showing, whether it's a hemorrhage, a stab wound, a gunshot wound or in this particularly unique case here, evidence of a man who was in a car wreck, did not seek medical attention and died ten days later and the medical examiner found -- as you can see in the specimen on the shelf -- the evidence of a hemorrhage which eventually claimed that man's life. so as you move through the exhibit gallery and as the exhibit progresses we then deal with surgical response to tbis, but that gives us a chan

so, you know, in iraq or afghanistan, the profile was similar. i mean, the distances were longer. going into abad abad was 162 miles there, but the complexity of the mission we have done and both in iraq and afghanistan much more complex missions. the real credit in the bin laden raid goes, as i said before, to the president, his national security team and the central intelligence agency and the national security agency and those in the intelligence agency that located the compound and the president making the tough decisions for us to go do the mission. i am very proud of my guys. i think they did a marvelous job, but this mission was something that we had been trained and, obviously, all of these seals were hand-picked to do the job and they had been on many missions before. i won't call it routine. nothing about it was routine, but it was not the hardest part of the bin laden raid. the hardest part was the decision by the president and the intel community -- >> rose: and the day the helicopters lifted off, they did not know if he was there. >> no, we did not. this was part of th

foreign wars with america in the fight, and essentially saying there was nothing going on in iraq or afghanistand now he's leaving a significant force in afghanistan for whoever succeeds him. >> how is this going to go down with the american public? >> reporter: republicans will say i told you so, you should never have gone that far, and saying, look, putting a deadline on when you will draw down the troops, they will say we told you so that you misjudged afghanistan the way you misjudged iraq, that your foreign policy is a failure and a bit of a disaster, and it shows how inexperienced you have been through your entire eight years. barack obama will try to defend his position by saying that he is making decisions based on the situation on the ground, and analyzing what his military experts are telling him. and if the situation changes, then he is changing. but this is hugely embarrassing. it will be an embarrassment for barack obama, and he has to stand up and own it essentially in the next hour or so, and understand why he has gone from an idea of leaving just a thousand troops at the embassy

who may not be sent into combat in iraq or afghanistan. >> preventing afghanistan's disintegration means obama is breaking that promise, both to the troops and his political legacy. >> well, kurt volker is a former u.s. ambassador to n.a.t.o., and says the security situation worsened since the u.s. began to pull out troops. >> recognising that we can't just leave and expect afghanistan to be secure and stable is a good first step. the plan that we have been on for several years has been one of announcing our withdrawal, giving deadlines for na, and decreasing resources and the effort. that has been a signal to the taliban and the afghan people that we will not be there, the taliban will. we are beginning to see the reversal of that, first by saying that we'll stay in some number after 2016. that pushes the next decision into a new administration as to what the strategy should be. if we make a long-term commitment, we have a good strategy, we have to give it time. in terms of what the military forces are going with the aftergan government, the string, e -- afghan government, the training,

i will "not" pursue an open- ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> reporter: the u.s. has been relying heavily on kurdish fighters to carry the war against isis. there has been progress but the administration is reportedly frustrated by the glacial pace and coalition air strikes seem to be having little effect. >> dozens of villages like this one that were liberated from isis months ago are now still completely deserted. now, that's partly because many people here aren't convinced that isis won't be coming back. >> reporter: meanwhile, u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in austria trying to negotiate a cease-fire deal in syria. 19 countries are at the table including for the first time iran. >> i believe the diplomatic situation is today more promising than it has been in some time because all of the stake holders came to this table. >> reporter: well, just like everything in washington, the president's plan is getting resistance even from inside his own party. and republican critics are calling it too little too late. >> 50 troops? boots on the ground? >> not a cha

lie not pursue an open ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> reporter: on capitol hill leaders fromh parties strongly disagreed. republican congressman matt thornbury of texas saying quote i did in the see a strategy for success. rather it seems the administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the president runs out of clock. senator tim cane democrat from virginia said it is time for congress to do its most solemn job to debate and declare war. many experts remain skeptical. >> i'm disgusted. i'm not angry. i'm disgusted. >> they may be really bad options, but if they're the only ones you've got left, they're the ones you use because you passed up everything else. we've passed up a lot of stuff. >> reporter: the white house continues to argue the fact that this is not a large scale indefinite combat operation. any parallels between what's going on now for example and what happened under the bush administration are simply invalid. but by any definition, american forces will be facing combat situations both on the ground and from the skies above. >>> at the white house, kevin c

i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. gwen: pretty unequivocal. admittedly it's not a huge deployment but once again, as in iraq, and afghanistan, we seem to be moving toward war instead of away from it. as the president has stated he would like to. doyle. >> yes, we sure do and as you point out not the first escalation of the american military role in that part of the world. here's the basic problem. we have been at war with isis. the islamic state. for a little more than a year now. and that war is not moving very fast. it's not moving very fast in iraq. it's not moving very fast in syria. in iraq. there has been a gradual escalation of the american presence. most americans haven't noticed. but we now have more than 3,000 troops on the ground in iraq. advising and assisting iraqi troops. but that means you sometimes get in combat and just a week ago, there was a raid on an isis location to free some prisoners. and an american army master sergeant was killed in that raid. ok. now, switch to syria. again, obama administration policy has been in tr

most have traveled for days or weeks from syria, iraq or afghanistan, just to reach the turkish coast the six-mile journey across the aegean sea they pay turkish smugglers a small fortune as much as $1,500 apiece. half price for kids. when they finally land on lesbos, scared, exhausted many have no idea where they are. we notice one of the first things they do is unwrap cell phones protected in plastic. and want to call their relatives to let them know they didn't drown. ahmed dahsem and his wife and son left syria six days ago. where are you hoping to go? >> germany. >> why germany? this is your son? do you hope he gets a new life in germany? we hope a better life for him. [ innibldiscer] >> reporter: so you feel safe now? >> just kiss the ground. >> reporter: in the hour and a half we were on this stony stretch of beach, 15 dinghies arrived and elsewhere on the island, there were plenty more. some 4,000 people land here each day. nearly 3/4 are syrian. and they don't stay on the beach very long. >> they have an internal clock and desperate to got to europe quickly as possible. >> re

most have traveled for days or weeks from syria, iraq or afghanistan, just to reach the turkish coastor the six-mile journey across the aegean sea they pay turkish smugglers a small fortune as much as $1,500 apiece. half price for kids. when they finally land on lesbos, scared, exhausted many have no idea where they are. we notice one of the first things they do is unwrap cell phones protected in plastic. and want to call their relatives to let them know they didn't drown. ahmed dahsem and his wife and son left syria six days ago. where are you hoping to go? >> germany. >> why germany? this is your son? do you hope he gets a new life in germany? we hope a better life for him. [ indiscernible ] >> reporter: so you feel safe now? >> just kiss the ground. >> reporter: in the hour and a half we were on this stony stretch of beach, 15 dinghies arrived and elsewhere on the island, there were plenty more. some 4,000 people land here each day. nearly 3/4 are syrian. and they don't stay on the beach very long. >> they have an internal clock and desperate to got to europe quickly as possible. >

i will not pursue an open ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> reporter: the white house argues in that statement, the president was pledging that he would send no forces to syria in a lasting deployment to overthrow the regime there like the u.s. did in iraq in 2003. the announcement comes as the four-and-a-half-year-old civil war ravages the nation. missiles hit a damascus suburb. diplomats are meeting in vienna to discuss a possible cease fire. >> we have to be creative and determined in deciding how we go and where we go from here. >> reporter: this has russian forces keep operating in syria. the u.s. says they are only trying to help the bashar al- assad regime. >>> the oakland police department is celebrating the graduation of a new academy class. [ applause ] 35 cadets joined the force at the scottish wright center. seven are women and several of the graduates are also bilingual and speak languages including cantonese, vietnamese and hindi. this graduation increases the number of sworn officers to 735. mayor libby schaaf has said she wants to have 800 officers on the stre

i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> reporter: today administration officials said the situation is different than it was in 2013, but the mission is not. >> would you acknowledge or reject the notion that this is mission creep by any definition, and if you reject it, how do you explain it to the american people? >> kevin the mission hasn't changed. >> mission creep occurs when the mission occurs, when the mission expands, when the mission becomes something it wasn't at the outset. there's no change in strategy. >> reporter: leaders disagree. republican mac thornberry of texas saying -- senator tim kaine, democrat from virginia said -- many experts remain skeptical. >> i'm disgusted. no, i'm not angry, i'm disgusted. they may be really bad options, but if they're the only ones you got left, they're the once you use because you passed up everything else. we passed up a lot of stuff. >> reporter: lou, the white house continues to argue the fact this is not a large-scale indefinite combat operation, any parallels between what's going on now and what happened with

who may not be sent into combat in iraq or afghanistan. >> but presenting the disintegration means that obama is breaking that promise, both to the troops and his political legacy. al jazeera, washington. >> okay, patty could haines with us, have there been signs that obama had been. coming around to this for a long time in light of all the advice. rather sudden. i shut you saw the commander from afghanistan, she testified recently, and put the president in a bind. he said if he had to go down to 1,000 troops just stationed. he wouldn't be able to perform counter terrorism. and it's important to point out negotiate a deal and they have that in affan stan have & have faith in the new leadership they say the fact he is keeping the status quo is proof the strategy is working. the president himself said he was always going to be flexible on this. if you look at statements from the campaigns and every time he announced a troop draw down he was definitive. it is clear when he leaves office the promise the troops would be home is a promise not kept. >> january 2017 he leaves office and wasn't

at one point in time in a country far, far away, not iraq or afghanistan, we were pursuing a target and we had interpreted listening to the two individuals on their devices. we thought again they were going to link up with a very high-value target in this particular country. so we stood ready to conduct a strike. and as the operation evolved and we were continuing to pull in technical intelligence, we took the opportunity and took the strike and while it was a bad guy, it was not the bad guy we were looking for. later on, i was asked a question about the quality of the intelligence and how i viewed the risk and how that risk was, in fact, presented to the decision makers up the chain of command. it is something as a user of intelligence and a conveyer of the quality of the intelligence and the need for action that i never forgot. suffice to say -- and i'll talk a little bit more about it -- you have to be certain the quality of the intelligence you get is, in fact, reducing the risk. we have other types of intelligence where we have large sensor devices, and we use this quite a bit in i

i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> with respect to the situation on the ground in syria, we will not be placing u.s. ground troops to try to control the areas that are part of the conflict inside of syria. >> the resolution we submitted today does not call for the deployment of u.s. ground combat forces to iraq or syria. >> joining me now is a lease labott. great to have you on here. it's a huge story today. tell me about what we're learning, where the americans are going and what precisely their role will be. >> well, we're talking about a small team now. it's about 50 special forces. this team of commanders will be going to the northeastern part of syria to be looking at helping kurdish and arab troops on the ground there battling isis. their stronghold is raqqa. that's where they will be expected to help the kurds and these syrian arabs make a push. they will be in a train and assist role. they will not be a front lines role. but this does put u.s. troops in the battle l field on the ground. when the president makes these announcements he's not put

president obama's claim that americans would not be involved in a combat role on the ground in iraq or afghanistan. martha raddatz was there to see what that noncombat role really looks like. >> reporter: this dramatic video taken by kurdish special operations forces shows that deadly, daring raid and the freeing of hostages, one after another. five u.s. helicopters carried kurdish troops and 30 u.s. special operations soldiers to the isis-held facility. a firefight broke out. delta force team leader joshua wheeler playing a pivotal role, up to 20 isis militants were but master sergeant wheeler, a highly decorated father of four, was shot dead. wheeler had survived 14 tours in iraq and afghanistan, but it was this train and assist mission, a mission that was not supposed to involve combat that ultimately took his life. >> that's an inherent risk that we ask people to assume, again, it wasn't part of the plan, but it was something that he did and i'm immensely proud that he did that. >> reporter: the train and assist mission in iraq is much the same as the one president obama described for afghanis

. >> you are the first class to it graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in iraq or afghanistan[ cheers and applause ] >> but preventing afghanistan's disintegration means that obama is breaking that promise to his troops and the legacy. >> the taliban's reach in afghanistan is at the widest since 2001, according to the new york times. u.n. security officials rate the threat level at high or extreme in good half of the country's districts. since the american invasion. the u.n. has convicte evacuatedf its offices in afghanistan over the past two weeks. >>> president obama's change in afghanistan is a change, which has been pushing for months to keep troops in the country. >> reporter: the afghan government actually requested this troop extension. the afghan ceo, abdullah abdullah, had a meeting, requesting that the u.s. forced remain at their current level because of the insurgent taliban fighting around the country, and that happened before kunduz city fell to the tall began on the 8th. but knowing that they needed international help. it was not so much about the strength of the

i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> today administration officials said the situation is different than it was in 2013. but the mission is not. >> would you acknowledge or reject the notion that this is mission creep by any definition? and if you reject it, how do you explain that to the american people? >> kevin, the mission hasn't changed. >> mission creep occurs when the mission changes. when the mission expands. when the mission becomes something that it wasn't at the outis the. there's no change to the strategy. >> but on capitol hill, leaders from both parties strongly disagree. republican congressman mack thornberry of texas saying quote i do not see a strategy for success. rather it seems the administration is trying to avoid a disaster while the president runs out the clock. >> senator tim cain, democrat from virginia says it's time for congress to do its most solemn job, to debate and declare war. >> many experts remain skeptical. >> i'm disgusted, no i'm not angry, i'm disgusted. they may be really bad options, but if they're the only ones you'

i will not pursue an open-ended action like iraq or afghanistan. the resolution we submitted today does not call for the deployment of u.s. ground combat forces to iraq or syria. >> joining us now, jim acosta at the white house with more. jim, what's the white house saying about this announcement? >> reporter: well, they are saying this is going to be basically a deployment of 50 or so special operations forces that they will be serving an advice and assist role. white house press secretary josh earnest said they will not be engaged in a combat in syria but could potentially be involved in raids like the one we saw last week in iraq, a rescue mission during which a u.s. soldier died so it raises the question about these promises that president obama made to the american people when the war on isis began and that he would not be putting u.s. combat troops on the ground to take on isis. we asked josh earnest about that during the briefing today and it got a bit testy. here is what he had to say. >> it would be great if we had a moment of clarity and y

far less than in iraq or afghanistan at the peaks of the wars.e had more than 100,000 americans at a time in those complex. a substantially sized country, 23 million people, thet the size of bosnia and initial international force in bosnia was about 50,000 people. coupleextrapolated, a hundred thousand peacekeepers. we could find a more economic and sufficiently to do it but i think we will probably need, someday, 2018, 2019, 20 30,000 -- 20,000 to 30,000 u.s. troops and we could scale it back. host: next up is martin on independent line. go ahead. caller: i think it is time people paid attention to the turkish government and the situation. to be courtney did effort on part of the turkish --ernment to promote isis there seems to be a coordinated effort on part of the turkish government to promote isis and the turkish people movement. the explosion is clear evidence of this and the people of turkey, as well as the people of kurdistan, need to be recognized politically and supported for diplomatic recognition and the remains inamanda prison like ne

most have traveled for days or weeks from syria, iraq, or afghanistan just to reach the turkish coast. then, for the six-mile journey across the aegean sea, they've paid turkish smugglers a small fortune-- as much as $1,500 apiece, half-price for kids. when they finally land on lesbos, scared, exhausted, many have no idea where they are. we noticed one of the first things they do is unwrap cell phones protected in plastic. they want to call their relatives to let them know they didn't drown. ahmed dosum and his wife and son left syria just six days ago. where are you hoping to go? >> ahmed dosum ( translated ): germany. >> cooper: why germany? >> translator: his nephew is there. >> cooper: this your son? you hope he gets a new life in germany? >> dosum ( translated ): we hope a better life for him, and to never suffer like his father. these marks are from the bomb, the barrel. >> cooper: barrel bombs. so, you feel safe now? >> dosum: thanks to god. >> translator: he just kissed the ground. >> cooper: in the hour and a half we were on this stony stretch of beach, 15 dinghies arrived. a

i will not pursue an open- ended action like iraq or afghanistan. >> but now the white house says the u.s. will deploy less than 50 special operations forces to fight isis. they will go to northern syria to help kurdish and arab forces with logistics and bolster their efforts but the white house says they won't have a combat mission and insist this is not a change in strategy. >> when the president has talked about combat situations, the president has been quite clear that he does not contemplate a large-scale long-term ground combat operation either in iraq or syria. that was his policy at the beginning of our counter-isil operation and it's our strategy today. >> critics blasted the president's move. republican presidential candidate lindsey graham says it shows weakness and will do nothing on the ground. he says the u.s. should establish a no-fly zone inside syria. in the newsroom, dick brennan, cbs 2 news. >>> meet the mets, meet the mets >> back to the championship chase as the mets get ready to play game 3. last time they won a world series 29 years ago. steve overmyer caught up