Deepening Unease Between Russia And The U.S.; Living With The Wounds Of The Terror Attack In Nice
JONES: The war in Syria has now been dragging Moscow and Washington's relationship through the mud for some time and many experts think the situation between them has not been so bad since the Berlin wall was pulled down. They have not been seeing eye-to-eye over Syria for a considerable amount of time, Russia helping the government pulverize much of Aleppo into dust. You'll remember, of course, they are both (inaudible) Ukraine as well and just two flash points in America and Russia's broadest struggle for influence and also for power, but where is that argument taking the rest of us? Let's bring in CNN political contributor, Michael Weiss, to find out. Michael, this geo-political battle that's going on. We know that we got John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov meeting in Geneva tomorrow to try to talk about Syria again, but this is a broader picture, isn't it? Is everything in Syria on hold until we have a new president in the White House?</s>MICHAEL WEISS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I would say to. Barack Obama is meeting with his national security team today I believe or possibly Sunday to discuss options in Aleppo, but most reporters have come to the consensus that Obama has no intention of really dramatically changing his policy. Now I have seen some evidence that Syrian rebels have begun to receive some man pads, which is to say surface-to-air missiles. Whether or not that was authorized by the U.S. government or it's simply the Turks or the Saudis or the Qataris, you know, becoming fed up and trying to change the balance of power remains to be seen. It's also not big enough consignment to dramatically down Russian helicopters or Syrian helicopters. I think look, Moscow is now at a point where Barack Obama is a lame duck president. He's got 100 days left in office. They're waiting to see who becomes the next president. They are actively plumping and trying to sway the election in favor of Donald Trump, who is now a complete dumpster fire of a candidate. And the one thing they want to see is Hillary Clinton. They consider her to be a hawk, to be very much an establishment Democrat in the mold of John F. Kennedy or her husband, a former president who will inaugurate a policy of, shall we say, containment of Russia. I think the Clinton team realizes that we are now approaching a new cold war and you don't have to take my word for it. I mean, listen to the former director of MI-6 who said exactly this in the British press this week. He said if not -- we're at a more dangerous point than we have been since the collapse of communism and the trouble now is before it was two nuclear super powers, Russia is a nuclear power obviously, but it's not a super power. Its economy is very weak. Putin has shown to be erratic in his behavior and unpredictable. So the likelihood for any kind of confrontation, a direct military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia is growing all the time.</s>JONES: Hillary Clinton has already said that should it be her administration, she would offer a no-fly zone. And if it is, another Clinton administration that we see, if Russia is threatened then with war or conflict, what kind of an arsenal does it have to take on the west, to take on the world?</s>WEISS: Well, the thing it doesn't have that significant of a deployment in Syria. There are about 40 aircraft. A few handful of which are the most serious in the Russian arsenal in terms of air interceptors so establishing air superiority. What they have done, though, is they have deployed some of their most sophisticated antiaircraft systems such as the S300 DM and the S400. These are theoretically capable of taking out U.S. war planes, but I'm told by defense experts and people who know military matters much better than I that the U.S. F-22 can actually invade the antiaircraft systems that Russia has got. Look, this is doable. There is a very piece that was published by (inaudible), the left Israeli newspaper, discussing exactly the logistics of the no-fly zone. You heard formally the chairman of the Joint Chiefs several years ago say it would require about 70,000 U.S. personnel to implement. That's probably not true. That was probably an exaggeration because there was a politically not to do a no-fly zone back then. But we already have, you know, many countries in theatre waging this war against ISIS. We have a French aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. We got a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. We're flying sorties out of multiple countries. This can be done. Now the real question, million dollar question is what would Russia then do? I am increasingly at the persuasion that Russia is not prepared to go to war with the United States over Syria. The Russian military does not think that the Assad regime is capable of taking back all of the country. So why would he go to war for a client that he himself, meaning, Mr. Putin, he was something of a busted flush --</s>JONES: Now that is the question. We will have to leave. We are out of time. Michael Weiss, we appreciate it. Thanks very much for your analysis. We want to turn now to Nice, France. The French president will be there on Saturday morning to lead a minute of silence remembering the 86 people who lost their lives there in a horrific terrorist attack back in July. CNN's Melissa Bell has more.</s>MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Slowly at first, the white truck made its way down (inaudible) then with the crowds that gathered for (inaudible) firmly in his sights, (inaudible) sped up.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It all happened so quickly. The truck was going about 70 miles per hour. My wife was about 10 feet in front of me and she screamed out loud, Greg, look out there's a truck. I looked straight ahead and I saw the truck in front of me, a big white truck. I had a choice to either to jump to my right or jump to my left because the truck was swerving so I had to make a decision which way to jump. I decided to jump to my left, and thank God I did because if I didn't, I would have been dead.</s>BELL: Eighty six people did die in the attack and those survived suffered horrific injuries, road clash injuries, but on a massive scale. Greg's leg was fractured in eight different places, but amidst the chaos, all he could do was wait for help.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An ambulance didn't come for me because they were too busy with people who are dead or who are more injured than me. So a Good Samaritan, a French gentleman came by in his car and picked me up and whisked me to a hospital.</s>BELL: That night 300 people were treated here. It was the first time the doctors had seen anything like it. Sadly the man who saved Greg's leg doesn't think it will be the last.</s>PROFESSOR PASCAL BALLEDIA, HOSPITAL PASTEUR: Unfortunately, this is what we have to face. We have to realize that that we're in war.</s>BELL: (Inaudible) was the third major terror attack in France over in 18 months period, but for the first time, the victims were mostly families.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have hatred, of course, for that person, you know, I have a lot of anger when I think about it. Why me? How could it be me and my family?</s>BELL: Greg's 10-year-old daughter was also injured in the attack, but she was one of the lucky ones. That night ten children lost their lives.</s>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I was shouting like help, help. There was ambulances everywhere and people trying to help and taxis and it was just like a crazy night.</s>BELL (on camera): Do you know -- do you wonder about why what happened, happened?</s>UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, I know that for some reason, it happened and I know that it is not like it was there for some reason it happened and only God knows what it's for.</s>BELL (voice-over): Three months on the senseless of (inaudible) attack is remembered every day with flowers, poems, and toys. Melissa Bell, CNN, Nice.