Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.
Russian volunteer forces have joined the fight in Syria,as President Vladimir Putin continues airstrikes to abet President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against the self-proclaimed Islamic State and Syrian rebels.
Earlier this week, U.
S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter strongly condemned Putin's advances into Syria, and telling reporters,"By taking military action in Syria against moderate targets, Russia has escalated the civil war, and putting further at risk the very political resolution and preservation of Syria's structure of future governance it says it wants. This approach is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire of the Syrian civil war."But U.
S. initiatives in Syria have been far from successful. In mid-September, the Pentagon acknowledged that a Syrian training program had largely failed. The $500 million program promised to train more than 5000 Syrian fighters within the year. In four months, only four or five Syrian fighters are expected to be alert to fight ISIS.
President Obama came into office promising to extricate the United States from Iraq and Afghanistan. But the U.
S. has left behind a legacy of lawlessness, or crumbling states easily overtaken by terrorist groups,and a growing refugee crisis.
Senator Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) is the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. He discusses President Putin's plans for Syria, the U.
S. response to ISIS, and the refugee crisis.
What you'll learn from this segment:How the U.
S. should respond to Russia's airstrikes and volunteer forces in Syria
How our failures in Iraq and Afghanistan influence President Obama's thinking on Syria.
How the U.
S. response to the refugee crisis factors in.
Source: wnyc.org