and since kobani, the war against isis in syria has been slow. isis has melted into the civilian population in aleppo, in raqqa, and in other syrian cities and towns. >> the way the forces are intermingled make it very difficult to deliver precision munitions on the target you intend. to do otherwise would be potentially destabilizing in its own way. >> dropping bombs is really not going to kill the islamic state. and so it seems the islamic state is going to maintain its control over the eastern half of syria more or less indefinitely. >> smith: to dislodge and defeat isis, military experts say, will require a ground force. and to that end, obama has now sent u.s. trainers and advisors to the region and pledged $500 million to recruit and train some rebels. >> you know, now they're talking about training 5,000 to 10,000 syrians to fight against the islamic state using title 10. >> smith: so it's no longer covert, it's going to be upfront. >> right, it's gonna be an overt program. and the state department was proposing this kind of help back in 2

for instance, when cnn was reporting on the kobani fighting in september 2014 your cameras were righthots being fired back and forth. that helped the military make different decisions about how to defend there. they helped drive policy decisions and helped prid more impetus to the negotiations we were engaged in with secretary kerry and foreign minister lavrov. it has an impact on policy as it should. >> when the president of the united states brands the american news media, cnn and other tv networks as fake news, what's the impact of that around the world especially in countries where there is no press. >> look at the tweet out of egypt and they parroted the language of cnn and fake news. when autocrats like erdogan and al sisi, it just makes it that much easier for them to crack down on international free press reporting in their own country. he's encouraging this and he's, in my view, putting these reporters' lives literally in danger by doing it. >> yeah. it's a serious, serious problem. john kirby, thanks for what you have done and continuing to do for our viewers. appreciate it