A casualty count many look at the map with me and ill tell you what we know right now. Iraqi officials near the town of erbil say 16 fighters from isis are dead, they were killed when american warplanes dropped bombs on their artillery positions. Isis as you very well know has been rolling unchecked all over much of the northern part of the country, taking control of cities, highways, infrastructure, with no organized forces on the ground really with the weaponry to be able to stop them. American planes are also dropping Something Else to those in dire need in iraq as well. Food, medical supplies, water, to the thousands of people, many, many children who have been forced to abandon their homes when isis fighters got dangerously close, for the First Time Since 2011, the United States military is back in the business of direct combat from iraq. From the mountains of north earn iraq to washington, d. C. , correspondents are covering this new captor of hostilities, we have ivan watson in erbil, iraq for us. And we will here president obamas comments from just this morning about the air strikes and the catastrophic humanitarian crisis. And how long he expects to be involved there. But well talk to evan perez, our justice correspondent in washington in a moment. Ivan watson, we have to begin with you in erbil. Tell me, president obama said the air strikes near where you are were part of this long term struggle that will need iraqis to fight isis. Whats the response where you are . Well, i mean, hes put a lot of pressure, he said that the air strikes would be designed to try to give some breathing room for the iraqis, to unify. Its been political deadlock for quite a long time. There are signs of some of that unification coming together. The new president of iraq, the new speaker of the Iraqi Parliament travelled up here to erbil where they met with the president of the kurdistan government. The big question, whats going to happen with the iraqi prime minister, nuri al maliki, who was criticized by many for helping create this crisis by pursuing a policy that favored shiite arab iraqis and the isis uprising has been backed by many sunni arabs who felt disenfranchised as president obama put it, the kurdish officials have said that they are also facing not only the hardcore, many foreign jihadi fighters of this isis movement, but also many arab tribes men who have helped isis push forward and engage in what really looks like ethnic and sectarian cleansing of anybody who is not a sunni, muslim arab in the areas theyve taken over, thats driven hundreds of thousands of iraqi christians, shiites, kurds in the direction of the kurdish north. Brooke . Agagenocide the word that secretary kerry has used in the last 24 hours. Lets talk about these families, theyve fled from their homes, living in construction sites and churches. How much is this humanitarian effort helping, how much more do they need . The hundreds of thousands of people who have come to kurdish towns and cities, those people are pretty much in shock, and appear relieved to find a place where theyre not in immediate harms way. The next question, no one had an answer. The next thing is getting out of iraq. Many of them resigned to the fact that theyre determined to give up on this country entirely, and hoping for sanctuary in europe or the u. S. Anywhere but iraq. There are more immediate needs they have to face, how are they going to feed their families, how long can they sleep on the floors of schools, churches and abandoned construction sites. Can the people help feed them . I was seeing ordinary kurds donating money and food to help these people. Its a major humanitarian crisis, and there needs to be International Assistance to help deal with this wave of humanity. Its something the president addressed. We saw the president this morning at the white house. He wasnt specific as to whats next, how long the strikes will continue or where the next round would target. Were not moving our embassy or consulate any time soon. That means given the challenging security environment, were going to maintain vigilance and enshoo that our people are safe. Its obvious, if youre the president , youre not going to tell the world publicly where youre going to strike, you need the element of surprise, but as far as the timetable, he was very craig, saying it would be a protracted fight, long term. Whats your hed on that . Thats the bringing news out of what the president said today, what he is preparing the American Public for essentially is that were going to be doing this for weeks, months and years. Theres some precedence to that. The u. S. Carried out air strikes in iraq for years to prevent Saddam Hussein from attacking the kurds. What hes setting up for is the possibility that were going to be doing this for some time. Hes trying to buy time for the government in baghdad to get its act together to get an inclusive government that encourages sunnis to move away from isis. And he wants the Iraqi Military to get its act together to start fighting isis. Were facing a long time of these strikes, brooke. Thats long term. What about just more imminently, as far as i know youve talked to Administration Officials today. Are they sharing anything with you as far as objectives . Be it protecting those americans in erbil, at the consulate. We have an American Embassy in baghdad . Thats the other significant thing here, the president is saying were going to protect the consulate in erbil, where we have a lot of american advisers, we also have a big presence in baghdad and hes basically saying were going to make sure that isis does not advance on baghdad. Were looking at a widening scope, and youre starting to hear some reluctance from members of congress. I think this is a difficult situation for the president , because obviously he was very reluctant to do this. But the few choices he had here, brooke. One of the platt forms he ran on, ending the war in iraq. Some say its mission creep, others saying its not enough. Evan perez, thank you so much. The president is working with World Leaders to come up with a plan to fight and not just stop, but destroy isis. Did the u. S. Already miss its best chance to destroy them . Plus this. Day by day, its getting worse and worse. More children are being beheaded, mothers are beeb r5i7ed and killed, fathers are being hung. How do you fight an enemy that is so brutal they are beheading children of the families that refuse to convert to islam . Plus, sensitivity to light and sound, even nausea. Excedrin migraine works. And spend your time working hard to get to point b. And b could be here. Or even here. But for you, b is not the end. Capella university will help take you further, because our competencybased curriculum is designed for your profession, to move you forward to where you want to be. Your point c. Capella university. Start your journey at capella. Edu. Your studied day and night for her drivers test. Secretly inside, you hoped she wouldnt pass. The thought of your baby girl driving around all by herself was. You just werent ready. But she did pass. cause shes your baby girl. And now youre proud. A bundle of nerves proud. But proud. Get a discount when you add a newlylicensed teen to your Liberty Mutual insurance policy. Call to learn about our whole range of life event discounts. Newlywed discount. New College Graduate and retiree discounts. You could even get a discount when you add a car. Call Liberty Mutual for a free quote today at see Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. Did we underestimate isil . I think that there is no doubt that their advance, their movement over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and i think the expectations of policy makers inand out of iraq. The president there this morning, hes acknowledging that isis did surprise intelligence types with the speed they moved through iraq. Lets look at that more indepth. U. S. Military, u. S. Intelligence, they knew that isis would pose a threat, the speed to which theyve taken these towns was the surprising part . We were overestimating the iraqi army, we have not had people embedded in these units since we left in 2011, wen did the have an accurate assessment of how bad and atrophied they would become. Lets look at maps, im a visual person, this helps me, and hopefully it will help you as well. Lets take a look. This was june, and so the red parts here, as you can see this, these are the isis operational presence, isis control zones. First to your point, to explain to people, erbil is up here. Mosul is where this the tigres river. Right to the south of the reservoir there, you can see in the north. This is june, and then youll see all the color, once we Flash Forward to august. The reason theres nothing colored there is because theres nothing there. What isis has done is taken everything of value, theyve come down the tigres valley, the euphrates valley, theyve taken the key junctions in the roads, they controlled the Border Crossings, almost every Border Crossing on the syrian border. The one official Border Crossing they control now or have a presence there. Theyre doing the right things. Now you see them moving south of baghdad, threatening the airport. You bring up baghdad, i wanted to talk with that. The president mentioned baghdad this morning, where theres been so much focus. You can see on iraq, much of Northern Iraq is under isis control, the question as far as strategy goes, is it not just protecting 40 americans in erbil. We have a massive u. S. Embassy in baghdad, is that part of this . Yes, it is. The president said were going to protect the american presence there, and he did make a reference to the embassy. He said, were not getting the embassy is not moving, were not pulling our people out of the embassy, that would mean were also going to be available to put air strikes just north of baghdad because the isis people are threatening just north of baghdad. Theyre trying to come around the airport. The airport is critical, if were ever going to have to evacuate americans out of there, the airport is a key part of that, and thats why you saw after the initial assessment of how bad the iraqi army was, we put troops into the airport. Can isis be stopped by air strikes . Theyll be blunted. Is that good enough . If the iraqis are able to get their act together if the army is able to reconstitute itself. If we can give them time to regenerate their capabilities, it can slow them down. Can air power eliminate isis . Probably not. We have seen these ruthless terrorists. How do you fight an enemy like this one . Do you need new rules . The war on isis . Dsl myth 1. It can help your business save money. False. The truth is when you compare our Fastest Internet to the fastest dsl from the phone company, comcast business gives you more for your money. Why pay more for less . Call today for a low price on speeds up to 150mbps. And find out more about our twoyear price guarantee. Comcast business. Built for business. Isis militants are sending a brutal message, convert to isis radical religious views of islam or be murdered, slaughtered. Isis is willing to behead anyone who refuses to join their plight including young children. This video shows desperate people stranded on top of this mountains, isis militants circling below ready to murder anyone who descends. Isis has become the worlds most ruthless jihadist group. Day by day, its getting worse and worse. More children are being beheaded, mothers are being raped and killed, the fathers are being hung. The atrocities are well known, but youre startling with the severity of what youre describing. You say theyre beheading children . They systematically beheading children, mothers and fathers. The world hasnt seen an evil like this for generations. Theres actually a park in mosul that actually beheaded children and put their heads on the stick and they have them in the park. This is crimes against humanity. Beheading children. How can isis be defeated when their members have no limits. Let me bring in kimberly dozier. Let me began on that mans final thought. I sat here watching that saying to you, how do you behead a child . It speaks to the brutality of their organization, and theyre getting young people involved in their group. Theyre creating child soldiers. They had a powerful documentary, two out of six parts of which have been exhibited thus far. Showing a great amount of access to isis control of the easternmost province in syria. They were interviewing children an chatting brainwashed soldiers. There was an isis member from belgium who spoke to his young child what do you want to be when you grow up . Either a jihadist or suicide bomber. He replied jihadist. I was talking to a writer the other day, who talked to a 14yearold who was kidnapped out of aleppo, and was at the beginning of the brainwashing and talked about the torture room these kids are put in when they dont do what theyre supposed to do, he ended up running away. The point of the youth. Kimberly dozier, to you, can america realistically defeat isis when we talk about looking at the map of the territory and speediness of these cities they have taken . Is it possible to not just blunt them, but destroy them by air strikes . One of the things that isis has done, the mistake its made is to give the white house a clear example, a black and white example of what theyre doing wrong in a way that the u. S. Can do something to stop it, with those tens of thousands of yazidis civilians trapped, the u. S. Can go in and make a significant difference. President obama is setting up the situation where its going to be like yemen or pakistan. Where the model is the u. S. Works through local forces, bolsters them with intelligence and advisers, but doesnt actually commit combat troops on the ground. The air strikes will not drive isis out. But theyll be a great force multiplier, theyll help boost the confidence of the kurdish or iraqi forces. The u. S. Has made clear that its not going to make the decision of when to go after them in the mountain. The president said hes going to leave that to the kurds and his advisers say theyre going to leave that to the iraqi army to decide when to move forward. But heres the issue, they dont have the weaponry that isis has. And you just co wrote a piece with someone embedded with the peshmerga military, its the russians who provided some of the tanks. Weve all seen the sensationalistic headlines, isis standing in front of humvees, its terrifying to think theyve controlled hundreds of millions of dollars. The problem is, this equipment is very, very difficult to operate, it requires an enormous amount of maintenance, you need consultants, servicemen on the ground. I dont think, the piece i co wrote we dont think this is the problem. The real problem is, soviet era weaponry. Particularly antiaircraft machine guns, which have been used to great effect to take down helicopters, i think there was a report today in fact that we shot down an iraqi or kurdish helicopter. This is what we need to worry about. Theres an in built advantage here. U. S. Pilots are heat signatures, we will be destroying our own stuff. Im not as worried about that. I think 50 of the stuff they took was immobile. Have you to deal with these conditions in the middle east, heat and sand getting into the works, who do they have on the ground to help them with that . The reason these guys know how to use russian made material, a lot of the isis command core used to be iraqi army soldiers. They used to be in the macabre, they came from saddams regime. This is a point that is not being emphasized enough. Theyre profession lay trained military. This is not a rag tag militia. This is an army. No one thought they were. Where can we find your piece . Thank you so much. The air strikes and the fighting in iraq has not stopped 3rez obama from taking time away from his family. Listen, hes the president , he can do his job wherever he is. Does this matter that hes playing golf . Can he do his job . Well discuss that next. So i can focus on what matters most. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. Transamerica. Today, more and more people with type 2 diabetes are learning about longacting levemir®, an injectable insulin that can give you blood sugar control for up to 24 hours. And levemir® helps lower your a1c. Levemir® is now available in flextouch® the only prefilled insulin pen with no pushbutton extension. 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Get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, sweating, extreme drowsiness, dizziness, or confusion. male announcer todays the day to ask your doctor about levemir® flextouch. Covered by nearly all Health Insurance and medicare plans. President obama has made it crystal clear, he did not want to get involved militarily in iraq. He got elected to the white house by promoting his opposition to the u. S. Military role in iraq. And now as hes heading toward his final two years in office, he finds himself ordering targeted air strikes in iraq on targets near erbil. Its home to a u. S. Consulate. The president said just this morning, this operation will take some time. Is he acting for the right reasons . Should he have done this sooner . And should the u. S. Be doing this at all . Lets ask ben ferguson and marc lamont hill. Happy saturday. Happy saturday. I want you to listen to a comments the president made near the end of thursday nights air strike announcement. Over the last several years we have brought the vast majority of our troops home from iraq and scan stan. Ive been careful to resist calls for our military. We h