are we going to light our hair on fire every time there's a setback in the campaign against isil? >> we know that hope is not a strategy. the president's plan isn't working. >> all right. well that's the debate raging in washington over the u.s. strategy on fighting isis after the fall of ramadi. is the strategy working or not? let's turn to phillip mudd former cia counterterrorism official. good to see you. >> good morning. >> is the strategy against isis working or failing? >> i don't think we can say it's working. we just lost ramadi. remember last summer and last fall we were talking about the rapid advances of isis. those advances have slowed. the government's had i would say modest success. remember they took tikrit the kurds have had some success. i think though we're missing a basic question here. there are conversation we can have around the margins, whether we have an independent avenue of