I really think you need to rethink a strategy about a safe zone, a no-fly zone, some protection from Assad's barrel bombs.
We can't wait years for Assad to leave and we turn the guns of the opposition and the Syrian army on ISIL.
Which only exacerbates the sectarian conflict, which makes ISIS look good to the Sunni chiefs in Anbar.
I want to submit for the record an extraordinary speech by Robert Gates in 1992, when he was head of the CIA, on the dan...
I consider this extremely grave, a grave issue, because if we don't have reliable intelligence, as policymakers, and if ...
A strategy that ignores Assad... I just think in--I'm--I think we now need to recognize that that's not a logical strate...
we've got to find a strategy that allows us to move Assad aside in some way, working with the Russians, if necessary, or...
we're not going to defeat ISIS with just airpower. Everybody knows that.
Assad and ISIS are evil twins. ISIS largely came into existence in reaction to Assad.
it makes the ISIS look invincible and more powerful, and that's--helps in their recruiting, and it becomes a self-fulfil...
If we can work with other parties, particularly Russia, to move Assad off the stage, then you've got an Arab army, a Mus...