Our Foreign Affairs in Syria, Korea and Afghanistan

The Brian Lehrer Show | May 12, 2017

Fred Kaplan, Slate's “war stories” columnist and the author of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War (Simon & Schuster, 2016), discusses President Trump's approach to Syrian Kurds (very different from Turkey's Erdogan) and North Korea (very different from South Korea's new, less hawkish president), plus the potential troop build-up in Afghanistan.

On the potential addition of 3-5K troops in Afghanistan, @fmkaplan says he doesn't really see what that would do to improve the situation.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 12, 2017

On arming the Syrian Kurds, @fmkaplan says "this is a dilemma" -- on the one hand, Kurds have been most effective force fighting ISIS.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 12, 2017

On the other hand, arming the Kurds will definitely anger the Turks, says @fmkaplan.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 12, 2017

Trump is trying to increase pressure on N. Korea, & S. Korea's new pres. adopting more of a sunshine policy toward N. Korea, says @fmkaplan.
— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 12, 2017

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