michael o'hanlon, what you see as the united states top priority militarily in syria?: that is a good timeline but i would add one piece which comes before 2014 which is that we started to look for ways to support opposition groups who were rising up in insurrection against president assad, but were very restraint and how we did that. president obama thought it might be better to keep american hands largely out and maybe save our powder so to speak for a new syrian regime. there was enough expectation that assad would fall and he didn't have a lot of money and only had minority support in the country. our role in the early period was in some ways counterproductive. we encouraged insurrection and promised help to the rebels but never delivered. that is part of why they stayed in such disarray, several dozen groups formed in those periods and didn't do a good job of coordinating or cooperating with each other. so in terms of our priorities now, the number one priority has to be to prevent iran from reestablishing actions to hezbollah in lebanon and right up there with th

host: michael o'hanlon welcome back. we are joined by michael o'hanlon -- welcome back. we are joined by michael o'hanlon. we will talk about the collapse of the assad regime in syria. give us a context of the origin of the conflict. it goes back to the arab spring and the rubble movement but then it reached a stalemate in recent years. guest: if anything, the assad regime, he has won the war because he reestablished most of the country. the central corridor where most of the main cities are located in syria, starting with aleppo and ending in damascus, he had control of all that. the exceptions to the rule were primarily in the northeast which is largely desert where our friends, the kurdish groups were in control. that never made turkey happy. turkey has a kurdish population and also a kurdish insurgent movement. that has been a complex relationship. in the northwest, there were remnants of the more extreme this sunni movements, isis, al qaeda, centered around the city to the north of aleppo. that is where groups established a small form of government and control and a

the brookings institution's michael o'hanlon discusses the collapse of bashar al-assad's regime in syria. what to expect from the rebel alliance now asserting control there. and how the transition could reshape the middle east. georgia republican congressman rich mccormick, member of the armed services and form affairs committee, on foreign conflicts ancon gretional news of the day. also, from the center for american progress, brendan duke talks about president biden's legacy. "washington journal." join in the conversation live wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress, from house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings, and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided. with no commentary, no interruptions, and completely unfiltered. c-span. your unfiltered view of government. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. incl

michael o'hanlon that sounds really good.s only going to be in office for few more weeks. so what are we expecting from the trump administration? >> it will be hard to deliver on all those or they are the right words i think that the idea that we are going to keep all of us will keep others. let syria resolve this on their own is correct at one level that they will need help rebuilding the country. so you're going to make a choice at what point do you consider a new government conclusive or not and confident enough that it merits our support maybe even our financial support. that's a big decision and that's not something that the principals can make the decision for you and you have to put the principals out there and watch what happens in secondly let's recall how bad of the track record we as americans have been trying to build democracies in our civil wars. we have not done a good job with it whether it be in vietnam iraq afghanistan and i would underscore one particular thing we got wrong in iraq. they push too soon for e

coming up wednesday morning, the brookings institution's michael o'hanlon discusses the collapse of basharl-assad regime in syria and how the transition could reshape the middle east. then, georgia republican congressman rich mccormick on the federal funding deadline, foreign conflicts and congressional news of the day. also, brendan duke of the center for american progress talks about president joe biden's economic record and legacy. c-span's washington journal. join the conversation live at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. ♪ on wednesday, secretary of state anthony black and testifies on the u.s. withdrawal from ghanistan. we expect questions on the situation in the middle east as well as the russia-ukraine war. watch the hearing live at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress, from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings and committing meetings. c-span gives you

wednesday morning, michael o'hanlon discusses syria, what to expect of the transition. rich mccormick on the federal funding deadline and congressional use. joe biden's economic record and legacy. join in the conversation at 7:00 eastern wednesday morning on c-span, c-span now or c-span.org. >> on wednesday capitol police chief thomas major testifies about bomb threats and reports targeting lawmakers and government officials. life at 240 5 p.m. on c-span3, or online at c-span.org. ♪ ." >> c-span is funded by these companies and more including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? it is way more than that. comcast is creating wi-fi enabled listings so students from low income families can get the tools to be ready for anything. comcast support c-span along with these providers, giving you make front row seat to democracy. >> a hearing to examine the potential effects of president elect donald trump's nasty rotation including a district attorney and the impact deportation may have. also retired army major general encourages administrations to keep immigra

i think what we have to remember, like michael o'hanlon said, terrorism is theater, at its basis, itter. if this is a terrorist motive and you have to realize so many of the attacks in the past, that you have covered and we have been on the air for have been terrorism. it does not mean it couldn't be some other motive, but many have been terrorism. al qaeda and isis have used vehicle attacks any times before. if it turns out to be terrorism, then the theater of terrorism has worked so good for the attackers. now they have worldwide news in the christmas season, across the world, this attack is played out. it will be interesting to see if they are claiming credit, from some group with some connection to the person, they have the alive person to have captured, german police and that will give them a lot of intelligence. about what this was about and what were the exact plans and wells could be involved. that is a step up. may have a name, they can check through indices, with worldwide intelligence, the cia and intelligence agencies. everybody is going to be looking. we know who this gu