Violent Explosions Kill 44, Injure Hundreds in China
ARMY GEN. RAY ODIERNO, ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: I believe that if we find many the next several months we are not making the progress that we have, we should absolutely consider embedding some soldiers to see if that would make a difference. That doesn't mean there would be fighting but would be maybe betting them and moving with them.</s>CABRERA: That was General Ray Odierno. He's the outgoing army chief of staff saying that the U.S. should consider embedding American soldiers with the Iraqis to fight against ISIS. So how would that work? How long might a plan like that last? Here to discuss, Bobby Ghosh. He's a CNN global affairs analyst and the managing editor of "Quartz". Bobby, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming in. We always appreciate your expertise. So, you agree with the American general that putting American forces on the ground could be effective, why?</s>BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I think it is inevitable, because it's become clear that we don't really have the time -- it will take a lot of time for the Iraqi military to stand up on their own. That's become very clear. We don't have the luxury of waiting for that to happen because ISIS will continue to make gains. And it may come too late. I know that this sounds like -- to use the expression from another war and another time, mission creep, but it is inevitable. It is what the circumstances on the ground are demanding. We've already seen this creed take place. This was going to be -- well, we are just going to send a few advisors.</s>CABRERA: Now, we have like 2,900 Americans there in this region.</s>GHOSH: Three thousand advisers. And these guys are not all sitting in the Green Zone in Baghdad. They are out -- quite a lot of them are out in close proximity to war. The logical step to some of them is to get into the -- embed with the Iraqi troops. Where I would disagree with the general with perhaps he'd sort of just gliding over some facts, I cannot an American trainer or advisor embedded with an Iraqi, let's say platoon, and goes out into combat and they won't pick up a weapon and shoot.</s>CABRERA: And they are not in the fight, right.</s>GHOSH: That sounds completely plausible to me, especially if they are there to protect these men. I cannot imagine the situation where they are going to watch their men fight.</s>CABRERA: I can understand what you're saying but the American public may not want boots on the ground. In fact, the most recent poll shows 55 percent oppose this idea. U.S. troops could lose lives and we've also heard from other military experts who say it's not all about the U.S. in the long-term. It has to be the Iraqis taking ownership. What do you think of the critics?</s>GHOSH: That's the trouble. We have been saying this from the beginning, the long-term. When this started out, we thought that the long-term meant a few months. But as we have gotten a closer and better look at the quality of the Iraqi troops, we have a better sense of what the long-term means and it's a lot better than we thought. Meanwhile, the enemy, ISIS, is making gains. The quality of their fighting forces has not significantly diminished. If anything, they are getting better because they're getting more and more experience. So, the trouble is, as I said, the realities on the ground are forcing these circumstances. I don't think the president would necessarily want that to happen. I don't think Odierno would want to put their lives at risk. But that's what the circumstances on the ground are going to demand. And he's clearly seen that.</s>CABRERA: Let's talk about what happened in Egypt. A Croatian beheaded and ISIS continuing with the executions, but this was the first time something happened in Egypt. Is this a sign ISIS is still expanding?</s>GHOSH: Absolutely. They have been expanding. They have a lot of presence in North Africa, we know they have a big presence in Libya. We know they a presence in Tunisia. It was a matter of time before they came to Egypt. There's a lot of different terrorist groups operating in the Sinai Peninsula, which is kind of like a badland. The Egyptian military has done an extremely poor job of driving them out of there. We have seen this in other parts of the world. When a terrorist group wants to achieve additional credibility, they announce suddenly that -- well, we are signing or swearing allegiance to ISIS and naming ourselves is. We are building our ISIS franchise here. Something similar is going on here in Egypt. A group that was a local group now wants to become part of this larger ISIS trend. And they are following clearly from the ISIS playbook. They kidnapped a foreigner, issued a video, made an impossible demand, released all the female prisoners --</s>CABRERA: And the instability makes it a right situation for them to get in there.</s>GHOSH: And they used beheading, which is a classic ISIS tactic. It is something we'll see more and more of. And the trouble is that the Egyptian military is very good at beating up on unarmed pro- democracy protestors. Not so good at when it comes to fighting against people who can shoot back.</s>CABRERA: And real quickly, I do want to ask you about Turkey and its involvement in this fight against is. The U.S. now launching those first air strikes from inside Turkey, but Turkey was the life of the party.</s>GHOSH: Several days later and several dollars short. Now, I have sympathy for fur key as they have taken on a huge amount of refugees from Syria. It's not like Turkey is doing absolutely nothing, but they are a member of NATO. NATO is in this fight and shouldn't have taken this long for Turkey --</s>CABRERA: Is this going to change the fight, do you think?</s>GHOSH: It's going to change the fight from the American perspective. But until the Turkish military gets more involved, it's merely a case of allowing a naval base or an air force base. The Turkish military has to get involved to participate in the fight against ISIS. They have the most to lose. They are right there. It's happening on their border.</s>CABRERA: We'll see what happens. Bobby Ghosh, great to have you on. Great expertise. Thank you so much. And we are following a lot more news this morning. Let's get to it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It blew out the glass. It blew out the doors.</s>CUOMO: Explosions described as so powerful they have registered as earthquakes.</s>PEREIRA: Families desperately awaiting word from their loves ones.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our new CNN poll is showing quite a shake- up in the GOP field.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things can change very quickly at this point in the race. Hillary Clinton will probably face a challenge.</s>GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Black lives matter, especially now.</s>PEREIRA: New details emerging on the health of Jimmy Carter and his fight with cancer.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It sounds like it's in or around the liver.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the president himself who announced his diagnosis.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is certainly going to take a toll.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.</s>PEREIRA: It is your NEW DAY. Welcome back to the program. Ana Cabrera joins us this morning. Good to have you. We begin with breaking news this hour -- a series of deadly explosions in Tianjin, China. So powerful, so violent, people could see and feel them for miles. They even registered as earthquakes.</s>CUOMO: Dozens have been killed. These numbers are early. We do know that of those killed, a lot of them are firefighters. They are not really sure what these chemicals are yet and are not sure how to stop it. There are hundreds, as many as 500 in the hospital, emotions with their relatives running very high because word of who is in and who is hurt still not coming. But we do have CNN's Will Ripley in the city where this is happening. There's extensive damage. He's experienced it himself and now he is covering it for us. What's the latest?</s>WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, the latest is, is that communication problems continue to be an issue here. So we switched to our telephone because of the fact that at times during the day, we suspect signals have been jammed. In fact, the Internet police here in Tianjin have been warning people that any false information on this tragedy that will be greeted with very severe consequences. But you can see this damage behind me. I'm standing more than a mile from the blast site. So I'm going to switch the camera here so I can show you, you see that smoke plume off in the distance there, still burning, the fire still burning right now. That's more than a mile away. But look at the force of the blast and what it did to this car right here, to this civic center here, to this light rail station where train service has been disabled. And all of the windows of these apartment blocks have been smashed out. And many of those off in the distance are actually empty. Thousands of people are staying in shelters right now. Ten hospitals are treating the hundreds of injured, and all of this happening, we are told, the result of an industrial accident. Toxic chemicals that were stored dangerously close to residents.</s>RIPLEY (voice-over): This morning, horrific video poring in from catastrophic explosions in a major Chinese port city late Wednesday. Watch this surveillance video obtained by ABC News of a man standing near the entrance of the building. The blast decimating the wall, caving in right on top of him.