A week after a u. S. Raid eliminated the key isis leader the group yesterday captured the city of ramadi. This morning, we are asking our viewers to weigh in on the fight against isis. More than nine months after the first u. S. Strike against the group, has it been worth the effort . Our lines are open. Give us a call. Democrats can call at 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7458002. You can also catch up with us on social media. On twitter, facebook, or send us an email at journal cspan. Org. A very good monday morning to you. We begin with this headline from the Washington Times the story on the Islamic State. The story noting that just one day after u. S. Officials announced the killing of leader, the terrorist group took control of the city of ramadi, gaining control of the entire city, according to the Associated Press reported from iraq. The New York Times put it this way despite fighting in recent weeks in a bid to save the city, eight marked the biggest victory so far this year for the Islamic State. The Iraqi Government had announced last week that they had a new offensive to retake the anbar province, which ramadi is the capital. Yesterday, the special forces soldier, ryan zinke, from montana, talked about the u. S. Effort against isis. Here is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] they are instead outstanding of individuals outstanding individuals, and this is a great operative. We have no plan in syria, what to do overall. You have in the eastern part of iraq, iranian forces, senior military leadership. Im not sure how we will ever remove them from the territory of iraq. This will be an enormous problem for the president , as well as the next president , what to do in iraq, and our policy of doing it from afar, especially in the territory of iraq, by and or operations alone is not working, it will not work. The kurds are isolated, and the sunnis now see disenfranchise. You served in a ramadi, right . I did. You are hearing the iraqi forces having the upper hand over isis, but it is this backandforth going on. Ramadi is a large city. It is enormously difficult to do operations. They left the headquarters. I think the headquarters is symbolic. It does not lead to a greater plan of retaking ramadi as a whole. When you have a script where we will just do it or operations alone in the territory of iraq what happens is the forces that we want to target will move their forces to relocated with hospitals, schools, and make it very difficult to conduct air operations. Host we are asking our viewers this morning for first our first 40 five minutes, is the u. S. Effort against isis working . We will put the phone numbers on the screen for you to call in. The Editorial Board of wall street journal also picking up this topic writing, u. S. Forces succeed while iraqi forces are rerouted. It writes that it undercuts assurances that the war against Islamic State is going well. The reality is that the political limitations that the white house has put on u. S. Military planners has allowed isis to take hold. Other members of Congress Going on sunday shows as well, including senator dianne feinstein, of the Intelligence Committee in the senate. She was on abcs this weekend talking about that special forces raid the happen on saturday. [video clip] senator feinstein my assessment is that it was a success, the kind of want to punch that we need to do more of. I believe that if we are not going to put troops on the ground, then we have to use our special operations forces. To go in and collect intelligence also be able to capture people that might be able to be helpful. This is the second time this has been tried in syria. The first time it was not successful. That was to rescue hostages. Now, this was, i think, a pictureperfect raid. Everything went according to plan. Host another member of congress weighing in on this is republican lindsey graham, a man expected to possibly be in the mix as a president ial nominee or candidate. He writes in his twitter page over the weekend on saturday, great job to the troops that killed the top isis leader, good call by president obama, but this does not make up for the lack of strategy. He writes, the bottom line is that president obama is doing the least possible when it comes to destroying the Islamic State. He intends to pass this problem onto the next president. We want to hear your thoughts this morning, your assessment on the military efforts against isis. Do you think the u. S. And Coalition Partners are winning . We will start with andre calling from georgia. Life for democrats. Caller good morning. I do not think that the effort is being want. I think it is not being won by the coalition. At any time, the u. S. Military could go in and retake iraq with no problems. We would have casualties, of course, but we would be able to be taken. The coalition, the iraqi forces, they have to stand up and fight for their country. We cannot keep hearing the stories about soldiers laying their arms down and running. That would never happen with american troops. We would fight to the death. You have to get these Coalition Troops saudi arabia, whoever else who is involved they have to be more involved. But we talk of a Ground Troops those are the Ground Troops that need to be over there. We could send special forces into do certain jobs. When it comes to an allout ground invasion, i dont think we need to send american troops. Host it something you are in favor of the current strategy, try to get other Coalition Partners to do a better job on their end. Caller that is correct. We are using air power. We do have i think our navy is over there. We have vessels over there who are supporting this, but we need Coalition Troops to go in and take these cities, and take isis out. We need iraqi troops to keep weapons in their arms and fight. If they were to come over here we would have citizens, not even army, but citizens taking up arms, protecting our homes. Iraqis, they need to do more of this. Host entree from georgia bringing up the idea, or at least the possibility, of Ground Troops and discussion that that has sparked in this country. Here is some of the most recent polling on this issue from cbs news. Their poll from earlier this year in february noted that 57 of americans are in favor of using u. S. Ground troops against isis. 37 opposed. That is up from back in october of last year where 47 percent were in favor. 46 opposing. You can see, as soon as september 2 the supporting, it was just 39 in favor, and the majority, 55 , opposed. You can see those numbers changing over time in some of the polling. We want to hear from our viewers this morning, your take on the u. S. Effort against isis. Do you think it is working . Here are a few more headlines that americans are waking up to this morning, in the wake of the Islamic State taking ramadi. Iraqi forces retreat as militants seize ramadi one of the lead stories in Richmond Times dispatch. Here is the miami herald key islamic city falls to isis fighters. Here is jail from texas. Caller i just want to say that the u. S. Has done all he can in the situation. Haters are going to hate. We cannot do much more. We have people here who are actually part of this, which is crazy. It is all the freedom we have, and people take advantage of it. I appreciate it. Host david is in madison heights, michigan, life for democrats. Good morning. In the u. S. Winning against isis . Caller can you hear me . Host yes, sir. Caller thank you for taking my call. Please, with all due respect you really should change your name to conservative span now that fox news is your main contributor. Other than that, i think it is a great thing that president obama is doing. Republicans could not get bin laden, president obama got bin laden. He is decimating isis as we speak. I think it is positive not negative. Republicans cannot govern. Republicans just want war war war, and more war. We all know that. As far as lindsey graham, i do not think he has any credibility at all. I really think this is a positive. I hope that isis never gets on our soil. They want a black mark like they did with bush. They want a black mark on president obama. I do not think they will get it. Resident obama, keep up the good work, and every voter out there both these republicans out. Thank you very much. Host that was david in michigan. David, try to be as balanced as possible this morning. Hes that is paid for by fees from cable companies, offered as a Public Service of the cable companies. Try to be as balanced as possible. We will take calls from all three lines this morning. Tony is in district heights, maryland. My for independence. Good morning. Caller are you there . Host yes, go ahead. Caller i totally agree with the last caller. A republicans, all they want is more. They make money from war. War is a business. So is terrorism. It benefits republicans. Terrorists benefit republicans because they are donors their donors our counterterrorist companies, like boeing halliburton. It will not end. They want a never ending war. He keeps them in office. These congressmen, or whoever else. This is ridiculous. I do not care about isis. No one is thinking about isis. A lot of isis personnel are probably iraqi. They do not want is over there getting their resources. That is the only reason we went over there. It has nothing to do with terrorists. At that thing to do with terrorism. It is all about their resources, all about oil. Host toady in district five, maryland. We will show you a map of the latest areas of Islamic State control. You can see, the brown areas on this map from the wall street journal showing the areas that the Islamic State controls. Ramadi here. Just 80 miles away from baghdad. According to the usaid today story, ramadi is the capital of the anbar province. The story noting that the militants had seized control of much of the area last year, held by usled airstrikes. Fighters have made gains against the Islamic State elsewhere in the country, it including recreating the city of tikrit. Some of the data of u. S. Efforts overseas in iraq and syria. Lets go to sam waiting in michigan, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller two quick things. First, while we should never have gone into iraq in the first place, i am tired of carrying iraqis on her back against isis. We should get out of there and let the chips fall where they may. The second thing i would like to ask, rhetorically, perhaps representative graham, is when does criticism stop . Im not sure that we need a representative slamming the president quite so hard. They can criticize him, but they are talking sedition, as far as im concerned. Host we will get back to calls in just a second. We want to update viewers on what is happening this week on capitol hill. To do that, we are joined by neil of cq weekly. What is the schedule ahead of the effort by members of congress to get out of town in time for the memorial day recess . Guest that is always a challenge. It is the challenge was again this week. There are a couple of must pass bills that are sitting on capitol hill. One of which is some sort of action to provide a stopgap authorization for highway programs which lacks in at the end of the house, we see that the chairman of the Committee Chairman of the house in ways and c Means Committee will extend authorization for a couple of months, but it does not provide new money. The big question is how much money will be out there. That will be a question for the summer, for how to find highway projects Going Forward. The other piece, which is currently awaiting consideration by the senate is some sort of legislation to reauthorize nsa surveillance programs. Those programs, under section 215 of the page react, including what to do about the bowl collection of phone records. It is not clear how that debate will go. I am literally, as we speak right now, about to be on my way to philadelphia, pennsylvania. The reason i am headed to philly this morning is because man paul , the libertarian leaning republican from kentucky is holding an event at the National Constitution center, where it seems likely that he is going to announce what his plans are in terms of either filibustering the legislation on the page react patriot act, or what exact we he will do this week. There is lots of moving parts. And the trade promotion legislation is still before the senate. Host i should note for viewers who want to follow the nsa story , viewers can check it out on roll call. Here is the latest story rand pauls and is a filibuster val complicates senates memorial day getaway. Before i let you go, stay on trade for a minute. The majority leader in the senate talking about trade Promotion Authority and what will happen on the senate side this week. What is the majority leader, mitch mcconnell, trying to do this week . Guest the majority leader told George Stephanopoulos yesterday on abcs sunday Morning Program that he wants to get the trade Promotion Authority, and trade adjustment assistance combination bill the fast track bill, as well as the funds to help workers who might be displaced as a result of trade to get that passed through the senate before the memorial day break. I will tell you that late last week senator john soon, number three in Republican Leadership was saying that because there was not cooperation on the side of the democrats, that there was possibility that that measure would sleep into june which seems like a reasonable assessment. Unlike the highway situation or the nsa surveillance situation the trade bill is the one that does not have a firm deadline. The president and republicans in congress, want to get it done, but it is not an urgent priority. Host niels, we appreciate your time. Safe travels to philly. Guest thank you. Host we are back for about the next 25 minutes talking with our viewers about the u. S. Military effort against isis in iraq and syria. You feel like it is working . A lot of news is we can coming out of the region. We want to get your thoughts. Our next call is from jamaica, new york. Good morning. Are you with us . Caller how are you . Host good, go ahead. Caller yes sir. A senator said that if the russians are willing so are germans. They should kill each other [indiscernible] you tell me that on this earth deaths in syria where is the leadership . In iraq, where is American Leadership . Your viewers should understand, if the jewish state was not there, there would have been no wall in this part of the world for the last 1000 years. Host william is up next in waldorf, maryland. Line for republicans. Your thoughts on the u. S. Effort against isis . Caller first of all, thank you for having me on. Thank you for taking my call. I enjoy cspan. I pretty much watch it every morning. I want to say that winning the war we are doing the best we can. I think people sometimes forget how long it takes to try to set in a democracy, or set in democratic ways with individuals who have not been in that type of society before. When you talk about trying to push policy in, and help people, it will take time. Using companies to do this has been going since the beginning of the time. Look, this is business. Sometimes you have to use businesses to get things built and get society built. I have a problem with the whole concept of every republican being about war. It is not about war. It is about getting it done right. When you have a different set of opinions from different people, who we put in congress, and in the white house, it will take time for them to get together and get on the same page. President obama has done a great job. Host how much more time do you think will be needed here before societies can be built the Islamic State would have to be defeated over there how much longer do you think American People are willing to give to that effort . It has been over nine months since the first bombing strike against isis last year. Caller wait a minute. Isis is just another segment of al qaeda and other groups. We are talking about people that have been fighting each other in different types of sects for what . 1000 years . It is not just the Islamic State. Once they are defeated, there will be people who will be upset and will want to do something else. There is going to be another issue. It is trying to get everybody on the same page, and get a system of government that works in that region. Host on our twitter page, richard writes that the middle east equals war without end. Just saying, referring to an earlier caller, iraq was ours in the first place, it seems like it doesnt belong to anyone especially the u. S. Kerry is up next from florida. Good morning. Caller the morning. I have a comment and a statement. Thanks for taking my call. I totally disagree with the fellow that was just talking from maryland. His comments about obama being terrific, or great, in iraq. Oh my god. Obama and hillary i dont want to place blame but come on, people. Ramadi thousands of soldiers were killed there how dare us not protect that stronghold. Other thing is the airstrikes it is nothing. Isis is nothing. We could oblivion them immediately. This is a joke. It is not going to take time to get rid of isis. You go, you take care of it, you load of the bombers, and you get rid of them. We do not need boots on the ground. Here is the deal. If i hear another democrat talk about how terrific obama has been on the mideast, look at egypt. Morsi was sentenced to death. Look at saudi arabia. Look at the snow that we got. Nobody respects this president because he does not lead. He is letting everything go to hell. Host that was carrying a florida. Over the begin, speaker of the house john boehner putting out a statement of his own following