Political Quotes

“Right. The Iraqi security forces have crumbled. The most dominant power on the ground is the Shia militia, backed by Iran and the Kurds in the north. And by the way, the aid we are providing to the Kurds never gets up to Erbil, and we need to fix that. Iran has inordinate influence in Baghdad. So to get the Sunni tribes to pull off of ISIL, they have to believe that Baghdad is going to be a better venue for them in terms of their political grievances, but they also need to see Americans on the ground to make sure this thing will work. They are not going to pull off ISIL unless we are there. They do not trust the Iraqi security forces. As to Syria, Syria is the biggest problem of all. That is where most of ISIL resides. That is where their leadership resides. That is where they have the largest number of fighters. There is no ground game in Syria. There is no Kurdish presence that has the capability to dislodge ISIL. The Free Syrian Army are being killed as fast as we can train them. Here is the flaw. The goal is to train the Free Syrian Army's young men throughout the region and send them into Syria to destroy ISIL. The problem with that is the moment we send them into Syria to defeat ISIL, Assad will attack them because he knows one day they will turn on him.…”