U.S. Orders New Training after Hospital Attack; U.S. and Russia Square Off Over Syria
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, illegal strike. The U.S. is accused of a car crime for the deadly airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan. The Pentagon admits a mistake, pledges a thorough investigation, and orders new training for troops. But after 14 years of war in Afghanistan, aren't there already rules of engagement there? Hostile skies, Russian airstrikes in Syria not aimed at ISIS bring new calls for a no-fly zone. Will that lead to a showdown between Washington and Moscow? Rising rivers. More dams are at risk in South Carolina, where there are now fears the flooding will even get worse. As the death toll climbs, residents are warned the situation remain very dangerous. And eye of the storm. A ship with 33 crew members aboard, including 28 Americans, disappears in the middle of a hurricane. Searchers find a massive debris field. Can they still find any survivors? I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Already, facing a bloody upsurge by the Taliban, the United States is now accused of a war crime after a deadly airstrike on a hospital. The U.S. commander in Afghanistan was up on Capitol Hill today to address concerns about the way the war's going. General John Campbell says the airstrike was a mistake, and he's ordered new training to prevent future incidents. But he also hints the U.S. may need to keep more troops in Afghanistan for a longer period of time. Russia, meanwhile, is stepping up its air war in Syria. And there are new signs it may be preparing for action on the ground, not against ISIS, but to prop up the Syrian regime. As tensions mount between Moscow and the west, President Obama's now under greater pressure to come up with some new options. I'll speak with Senator Cory Gardner of the Foreign Relations Committee, and our correspondents, analysts and guests, they'll have full coverage of the day's top stories. Let's begin with the fallout from that deadly U.S. airstrike on a hospital in Afghanistan. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, has the latest -- Barbara.</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, good evening. A short time ago, Defense Secretary Ash Carter issued a statement expressing deep regret for the attack against the hospital but not yet a full blown apology. General Campbell, the top U.S. commander, on Capitol Hill today, saying it was a mistake. But there have been conflicting reports about what happened at the hospital. Listen to a bit more of what General Campbell had to say.</s>GEN. JOHN CAMPBELL, COMMANDER, U.S. FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN: On Saturday morning our forces provided close air support to Afghan forces at their request. To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command. A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.</s>STARR: But, Doctors Without Borders -- and you talked to them earlier today, Wolf, you know this. Doctors Without Borders, who runs that hospital, says they do not buy it, that they had warned the U.S. of their exact location for months. When the attack started, it lasted 30 minutes. They called up. They tried to get the strike called off. But it went on for some time. All of this coming, as Campbell is also facing questions about the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. Most of the 10,000 troops scheduled to come home at the end of next year. General Campbell now raising the very real possibility, because of the overall security situation -- the Taliban, al Qaeda, and ISIS are on the rise in Afghanistan -- that some U.S. troops will be staying longer.</s>BLITZER: Do they really believe over there at the Pentagon if the U.S., let's say, were to keep 5,000 troops in Afghanistan in the long run that would make a difference, given the less than perfect performance of the Afghan military and police?</s>STARR: Well, the hope is that at least that would give them the capability to continue with some of the training, advising and assisting. But there is also some very quiet discussion, could they get more NATO countries to offer up some troops? That politically may be very difficult for those allies to do that. Not ideal. But well aware that, certainly, President Obama, Congress, not really likely to authorize a substantial increase in the U.S. presence.</s>BLITZER: All right, Barbara, thank you. Russia is stepping up its air campaign in Syria right now. But ISIS doesn't seem to be the main target. That comes amid concern that Russian troops had heavy weapons, will also be used to protect the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad. Let's go to our White House correspondent Jim Acosta. Jim, are Russia and the U.S. now headed for some sort of showdown over Syria?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It sure seems that way, Wolf. The White House is left with few options as Russia is escalating its military campaign inside Syria. The administration is warning Moscow that it's making a big mistake in its intervention in Syria. But the president appears to be unable to stop it.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Both the U.S. and NATO are pointing to mounting evidence that Russia is all in in Syria. Top officials say Moscow has deployed ground forces into Syria and has once again violated the airspace of a NATO partner, Turkey, to carry out airstrikes.</s>JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: I'm also concerned that Russia is not targeting ISIL but instead attacking the Syrian opposition and civilians.</s>ACOSTA: The war of words is ramping up, as well. U.S. officials are furious that Russian bombers appear to be hitting Syrian opposition groups backed by the CIA. Moscow, emphatically claims it's targeting ISIS. The White House is accusing Russia of trying to shift the balance of power in Syria, repeatedly striking outside ISIS and Syrian government-controlled areas and into rebel territory.</s>JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don't think President Putin is playing chess. He's playing checkers.</s>ACOSTA (on camera): At what point does the president say to Vladimir Putin, "Cut it out"?</s>EARNEST: Well, I think the president has made quite clear that Russia should not be interfering with the 65-member international coalition that is seeking to degrade and ultimately destroy</s>ISIL. ACOSTA (voice-over): Moscow says it's agreed for another round of military-to-military talks with the U.S., like the one shown here on Russian television, to avoid any accidents. But it will be tough for both sides to come off hardening positions.</s>ASHTON CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This approach is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire of the Syrian civil war.</s>ACOSTA: President Obama, who's told his team he will continue to support the Syrian opposition, is coming under criticism from all sides, including his 2008 rivals, Hillary Clinton...</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should be putting together a coalition to support a no-fly zone because I -- and look, I think it's complicated, and the Russians would have to be part of it.</s>ACOSTA: ... and John McCain.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I should definitely think we should have more boots on the ground. Not a lot, but we better do something.</s>ACOSTA: But as the president told veteran groups seen here in this little-known White House video, he's adamant he's not launching new wars.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, if I was taking sadder advice of members of Congress, we'd be in seven wars at a time. I'm not exaggerating.</s>ACOSTA: Just last week, President Putin said he was ruling out the use of ground troops in Syria. Now the Kremlin is saying a, quote, volunteer force may soon be fighting there. The White House once again denounced those moves and where Moscow is heading into a quagmire, Wolf. As for Hillary Clinton's call for a no-fly zone, the White House has repeatedly said the president does not favor that -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks very much. Joining us now, Republican Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator, thanks very much for coming in. Let's talk about Afghanistan, bombing of that Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz city killing a lot of people, medical personnel, patients, even children. The executive director of the Doctors Without Borders organization, Jason Cone, told me earlier today they consider this to be a war crime. Do you?</s>SEN. CORY GARDNER (R-CO), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Again, this is under investigation. We have three concurrent, separate investigations taking place. We have an investigation by the Department of Defense, and this is a tragedy. It is a tragic accident, as the secretary of defense has stated today. It needs to be investigated by the United States. It's going to be investigated by Afghanistan government and investigated by NATO. And so all three concurrent investigations are taking place. And we should wait and see before we do anything else to make sure we have the results of the investigations.</s>BLITZER: Doctors Without Borders, Jason Cone told me, that's not enough. You need an outside independent investigation and international investigation, as well. Should the U.S. cooperate with an outside panel?</s>GARDNER: Well, the U.S. is cooperating. Outside of NATO. NATO's directly involved. We need to complete the Department of Defense investigation, and we'll cooperate with the NATO and the Afghanistan investigations.</s>BLITZER: What if there's a United Nations investigation? Would that be appropriate for the U.S. to cooperate with an international investigation outside those who are already inside?</s>GARDNER: Well, I'd be interested to see the results on the United Nations' investigation of the Taliban in Afghanistan. So let's complete the investigations by the Department of Defense. Let's complete -- by NATO and Afghanistan, which we support, which we will be fully transparent and which we will hold people accountable as appropriate, like the secretary of defense said today. This is truly tragic. And there's -- again, we have to find the result of this investigation.</s>BLITZER: Doctors Without Borders said they repeatedly provided to NATO, to the U.S., to the Afghan military, the coordinates where this hospital, the only hospital in Kunduz city, was located, including within a day or two just before this attack. Whoever was responsible for this attack, should they be held accountable and punished?</s>GARDNER: Well, the secretary of defense has said there will be people held accountable for this. But that can only happen after we have a thorough investigation, a complete investigation to find out what happened. General Campbell testified today before the Armed Services Committee. He talked about the retraining that will take place on rules of engagement, and I think that's something that's very critical. You know, a number of things have happened over various theaters, whether it's somebody who has created an incident accidentally -- whether it was a car accident, whether it's a property accident, involving property, retraining occurs regularly.</s>BLITZER: You know, this is what's shocking to me, and correct me if I'm wrong. When you say retraining occurs routinely, for 14 years, this is the longest war in U.S. history, 14 years since October 7, tomorrow, 2001, exactly 14 years, the U.S. has been engaged in combat and Afghanistan. And all of a sudden the U.S. needs to retrain troops about appropriate engagement rules, rules of engagement, as they're called? It sounds pretty shocking that the U.S. has to do this at this late stage.</s>GARDNER: Well, again, retraining on a variety of missions has occurred over the past several years. But the fact is this: this is the first year that our train, advise, assist program has been in place, completely giving it to the Afghan security forces. And so this is a new year in terms of what the role of the Afghan forces is going to be and how the United States is going to work with them, the Special Forces at work. That's why we will have this investigation, find out what happened. But the bottom line is this: this highlights even more the decision by the White House on what they are going to do with troop levels. As the Taliban become more and more emboldened to take action against Afghan security forces that may or may not be up to the pace that they have to be in order to defend, protect the country, it is going to be more and more of a challenge for us, and that's why I'm concerned about the troop levels.</s>BLITZER: Because the president wants almost all U.S. troops out by the end of next year. Now there are reports maybe 5,000 should remain. You want those troops to remain in Afghanistan?</s>GARDNER: I don't think we can decide a withdrawal based on a political time frame. That's what we saw in Iraq. This past March I was in Afghanistan. I visited with President Ghani. I was in Iraq. I talked to Abadi. But the question is this: we have to not adhere to a political time frame...</s>BLITZER: But do you want troops to remain in Afghanistan?</s>GARDNER: I think we have to have troops remain in Afghanistan to make sure that we are completing our train, advise and assist role and to make sure that we don't have the implosion that we saw in Iraq. When we had a political withdrawal, to meet a political promise on a political time frame in Iraq, we saw what happened. We cannot allow the same thing to happen in Afghanistan. I have spoken to General Campbell in Kabul who has expressed concern, today before the Armed Services Committee and in Afghanistan, that we do not create a critical withdrawal of troops that result in a catastrophe in Afghanistan. And remember, if we had a policy -- a foreign relations policy from this president that actually was about leading instead of following, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.</s>BLITZER: I want to get on, I want to talk about Syria, the no-fly zone that's now being proposed. But that train and equip program in Afghanistan, the U.S. still has 10,000 troops there, another 4,000 NATO troops, not necessarily working so well in the fifth largest city in Afghanistan in Kunduz City, where some Taliban guys come in and all these Afghan troops run away.</s>GARDNER: I think you know that the Taliban are reading the news, just as we are, about the president's decision to withdraw by the end of 2016.</s>BLITZER: There's still 10,000 troops.</s>GARDNER: I think you see that they want to withdraw down to 5,000. They know what this president's plan is to do, and it's to leave Afghanistan. I don't think that's appropriate in terms of the train, advise, assist force. And we cannot create the same vacuum that we created in Iraq. This president has an opportunity to lead. Let's make sure that we avoid the mistakes of the past, that we learn from the past.</s>BLITZER: I hear what you're saying, Senator, but it's sort of very depressing after 14 years, tens of billions of dollars the U.S. has spent training these Afghan military personnel, police, they still are not capable of keeping peace, fighting the Taliban. They still need U.S. troops there after 14 years.</s>GARDNER: This is the first year the Afghan forces been in the fighting roles without the U.S. actively fighting with them. They're completely in the train, advice, assist mode.</s>BLITZER: We're going to have more. I want to talk about Syria, what's going on over there. It's not a pretty picture either. Much more with Senator Cory Gardner right after this.