This morning by asking you our viewers are you confident in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis . The numbers are on your screen. Good morning. Before we get to your calls about how confident you are in the u. S. Strategy to combat iraq, lets take a look at what president obama said yesterday at his press conference at the pentagon. I do think that because of our extraordinary efforts the homeland is significantly safer than it otherwise would be. Now, in some ways this is arguing the counter factuals, but the attacks we prevent i take great satisfaction in and i am grateful for the extraordinary work that our teams do. I dont think theres any doubt that had we not destroyed al qaeda in the fata, that more americans would have been killed. And we might have seen more attacks like we saw on 9 11, and we have maintained vigilance, recognizing that those threats still remain, those aspirations in the minds of these folks still remain. But it is much harder for them to carry out largescale attacks than it used to be. Host a little more about the president s press conference in the headlines. Were asking you about your confidence in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis. First on our democratic line. Good morning, rob. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Host are you confident in the u. S. s approach in fighting isis so far . Caller i am confident. I think that the president has a very good command of whats going on and hes really an extremely smart human being. And im sure hes doing everything possible. And its not only a national problem, its a global problem. And i think it takes a lot of insight and intelligence and hard work, and study, and discussion with your military and i give the guy a lot of credit. Theres no way that i think that trump could handle all of the input and all of the intelligence and i just hope that he doesnt look to turn a profit on the intelligence that he is receiving. Now that he is a candidate. Host now that youre talking about the president ial race, is the fight against isis your top issue or one of your top issues in this president ial race . You know, its not. Its maybe one of the top issues but i think there is a certain extent that as severe as the problem is, i can that we probably over i think that we have it overblown in our minds. We see tragedies left and right and its a major problem. Its hink that we oversensationalized in the media. Host according to a recent gallup poll which tracks just how important the issue of fighting terror is among americans, it seems to be a downward trend. It seems to mirror what rob said, where in december of 2015, 16 of americans rated it the most important problem. By june of 2016, only 4 of americans said that was the most important u. S. Problem facing us. And we are getting your thoughts about the fight against isis after yesterdays update by president obama. Next, ronald from washington, d. C. Caller thank you for taking my call. Host are you confident in the u. S. s fight against isis . Caller america is by far the most safe. Host you are breaking up a little bit. Caller it really upsets me the way the media and politicians in general [inaudible] host were having some trouble with ronalds connection there. Up next steve whose calling in from florida on our republican ine. Caller its a problem thats insurmountable that the majority of people share the ideology to the point that they wont support the efforts of the outsiders. Were always going to be the outsider influence. But the danger that isis and what weve done, we beat the soviet union in the 80s. The collapse of communism was caused by the economic collapse because they spent so much money trying to keep their military defenses up, and they also afghanistan they got mired down in. We are spending a for tune a for tune. If you go to new york city, the police are everywhere and the majority of them work tremendous amount of overtime. We are spending a for tune on tsa, we are spending a for tune. Who knows how much money is really being spent. Host how would you like to see that money spent and what changes would you like to see in the u. S. Strategy . Caller well the problem is, and you can go back to the root of the problem where we a overextended ourselves. Were into a sunnishiite conflict that is unresolvable. And the difference is almost like in everybody for trump who now they everybodys got him characaterized as crazy. This was not our fight. This was not our issue. We need to protect american interests and american interests is not in the middle east. If we had become energy sufficient and paid a dollar more a gallon for oil we wouldnt be in this mess. Host speaking of mr. Trump, Donald Trumps response to president obamas press conference yesterday in todays Washington Times says were getting your thoughts on your confidence in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis. Rick from philadelphia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to quote to your audience from Ronald Reagan, who, after sending a company of my military marine corps brothers into lebanon back in the 80s and got them all killed, and then he withdrune from lebanon and he addressed the country and he simply said and i dont know why the Republican Party dont get this. He said, we do not understand these people and we do not belong in those parts of the world. Host what would you like to see the strategy be then in combating isis . Caller the strategy of this president now that were there is correct. We do not need massive Ground Troops. That has only offended these people even more. It was when we put troops into saub and put them in cities of mecca and medina that got the hatred for us. We do not need massive Ground Troops there. He is doing it the proper way from the air and hes trying to find friend liss on the ground to do the fighting. Thats what i have to say. Ost up next, richard from minneapolis. Caller good morning. Host what do you think about the strategy to fight isis . Caller well, first of all i think Hillary Clinton and president obama created isis along with george bush when he went into iraq. I mean, they had strong men in harge of libya, egypt, and syria. They were strong men, they were cruel, but they kept things under control. Host let me ask you this. What about the idea that we hear from Many Democrats who say the instability that led to isis actually came from the war during the Bush Administration. Caller well, i just said that bush shouldnt have went into iraq. Buthillry and obama made it worse. And i dont know what the answer is. But definitely they made it worse. They dont know anything about the world politics. They went around apologizing to every country in the world and showing that were going to just give up and we did everything wrong. We were the leader of the free world. Theres no reason to go around apologizing for all that. We freed a lot of people in this world. So the way obama went around apologizing, its just disgraceful. Host lets get a little bit more reaction from donald trump, the g. O. P. Nominee for president , to Barack Obamas comments. Up next eric from california on our independent line. What do you think about the u. S. Strategy to combated isis . Caller i want to lead off with the last caller about apologizing. This is the year of divine mercy. Mercy is a form of forgiveness. Islam does not teach forgiveness. Islam is a religion of an eye for an eye. We have to be that example of forgiveness. Because were here in america nd do not demonstrate mercy, we have the year of divine mercy and were not showing it. This is the year jubilee. Host some of our headlines yesterday, president obama also addressed the issue of the 400 million payment that was made to iran saying it was not a ransom. Were getting your reaction to the u. S. Isis strategy. Timothy from North Carolina on our independent line. What do you think about the american strategy in fighting isis . Are you confident in it . Caller yes. I think the strategy were using now is better than any strategy that we have used before. But let me explain something. And you have a habit of breaking in and cutting people off. Ut let me please finish. What happened is that we went over there when bush went into iraq it was the republicans and some of the democrats including hillary who voted for this that got us into this mess when we occupied the land over there. Now, thats what created isis when we went over there and destabilized the area. The way to fight isis is to get out of there. These people are going to continue do this as long as were over there. We need to withdraw from the middle east. If we withdraw the way it was before the gulf war we wouldnt have this problem. We didnt have this problem before. We had very few of these problems right here. Host i just want to ask you a question about that. Are you concerned that withdrawing will create the same sort of instability that would allow terrorist groups to thrive the same way that it did after the iraq war . Caller thats a chance you have to take. Because we do not have the money to stay over there and stabilize the place. It was a mistake that was made, a big huge mistake, and theres no answer to it. Isis is going to break this country. They have created Homeland Security every time you turn around and isis does something we spend billions of dollars. Were already 15 trillion in debt behind this thing that george bush and them did. They havent even investigated. Host according to the latest americans it says are more krnt than ever about the threat of terrorism. Up next, libby calling from from florida on our democratic line. Are you confident in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis . Caller 100 . Host what makes you so confident . Caller because the president and his people around him are maintaining a deliberate calm march towards one end. Theyre not running around helter skelter saying this, doing that. March st remain on the to keep moving forward and they have done that. I am so tired of people in this country worried about every time some out of control maniac wants attention, wants note right, picks up a gun and goes and kills a bunch of harmless innocent people, and then so theyll look like some hero and get international attention, they claim theyre doing it for isis. Host did the recent attacks in places like nice, france, or even here in the United States, places attacks in orlando and san bernardino, do they make you nervous . Are you more concerned about terrorism . Caller i am not nervous. I was born during world war ii. I grew up in the middle of threats of bombs, cold war, everything, and i have lived 99 of my life right here in our most vulnerable state, a finger that sticks out in the middle of the ocean. No, im not worried. Everybody needs to be alert and Pay Attention and do it with calm calmness. Ost up next, bob on our republican line from wisconsin. Caller good morning to you. I disagree with obama 100 . Im a veteran. Why we went there americans are forgetting. Those people were being butchrd left and right. Just like hitler, just like the japanese. Host what would you like to see the president do . Caller i am him to bomb the hell out of them. I want him to attack just like we did hitler. We need to go in there with our boots on the ground and do the job. This pussy footing around is wrong. And that lady who said she is not afraid, thats because weve been so blessed as a nation that we havent been bombed by airplanes, we havent been attacked by Ground Troops. Terrorism is coming here a little at a time which is a good strategy on their part. Get people confused, hurt, and when they start bombing us then i want to hear these democrats and all these other liberals say, oh, i guess i was wrong. No, maam, we need to go in there and kick putt, period, like we did hitler. And i pray that everybody, whovers the next president is which i pray is trump will go in and do the job and let the people live in peace. We didnt declare war on islam. They declared war on us. Host up next, nate from washington, d. C. On our ndependent line. Are you there . Ok. Up next we have janice from new york city. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to make a comment. All of the republicans that are calling in i just twoont Say Something. If you all have children, others, fathers, little babies , and you are concerned, you had better be concerned about trump. Because first of all i think he is a maniac. I think he has a bipolar problem. Thats number one. And you dont want this man to get his hands on a nuclear code because he is going to destroy. This man is so temperamental. He has no control. And if you people are going to sit there and support this man and want him to blow up this country youre talking about isis, forget about isis. You had better be thinking about trump. Host lets take a look at a little bit more about what president obama said yesterday on the ground isis has lost in the middle east. Two years ago isil was racing across iraq to baghdad and to many isil looked invincible. Since then isil has lost at the m, tick rit, sin jar and ramadi and now fallujaha. Syria isil has lost isil has lost territory across vast stretches of the border with turkey and almost all major transit roots into racka. And in both iraq and syria isil has not been able to claim any significant territory that they have lost. So i want to repeat, isil has not had a major successful offensive operation in either syria or iraq in a few year. Even isils leaders know theyre going to keep losing and their message to followers, they are increasingly acknowledging that they are going to lose them. And they are right. From p next manny colorado. Are you confident in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis as the president was laying out . Caller its really kind of shaky how our strategy is right now. We created this. Back in the day we created this mercenaries from the middle east, they splintered off. We created that. President obama has actually helped them along. If his 400 million was not a ransom why did he have it laundrd before it was delivered . 400 nt he just give million and let them launder it . Instead he had it laundrd. We created this. His j. V. Team became varsity. Host let me ask this. Is this a major issue for you or your top issue when it comes to you who are choosing in the president ial race . Caller i havent made a decision. 21 years of active duty for the u. S. Army, proud, prideful, with honor, with distinction. In the end i get host next gary calling in from virginia. Are you satisfied with the u. S. Isis strategy . Caller absolutely. The this is the president that went and got osama bin laden. Like when he took office, i had lost 3 5 of my networth. Now that he is about to leave office, ive regained 4 5 of what i had lost. Another thing about Hillary Clintons emails. Is she just used the regular thing we could have found everything out from snowden by now. Host what do you think about the isis strategy, fighting terrorism . Do you think that things are going well in that subject . Caller yes. Host ok. Next john from ohio. What do you think about the u. S. Isis strategy . Are you confident . Caller im confident that we will never win that war. As a matter of fact, the leaders of this country havent even realized yet that this is a religious war. War was not declared upon the United States by the leaders of another country but by the religious leaders of that region. And until we get the correct mindset how can we win a war against religion . Ask we going to lost john. Next tina from florida. Are you confident in the u. S. Strategy to combat isis . Aller im afraid not. Host why are you not . What makes you lack confidence . Caller because i see it as a very complacent. I think were giving too much and were not getting the correct defense strategy. I know that the president wants to play out a beautiful picture of all the wonderful things that he has accomplished in the big theater. But the problem is that they already have brought issues to us and they dont care if its going to be in iraq or making our lives impossible and deadly when we go out to a movie, when we go shopping. For the lady that said she is not afraid, i wonder if something would happen near her if she would not be afraid any more. Host let me ask you this. Most of the president and other leaders military leaders have said its difficult to guard against the sort of lone attacks that weve seen in places like san bernardino. Do you think that theres anything that can be done . To fight that. Is it even possible to fight that if somebody is a lone wolf . Host it started, it created by us by removing whether the fight in iraq was good or not we should have never removed the forces. Just because a bad decision is made somewhere doesnt mean that the next manager of the company is not going to have to do risk management. I think mr. Balm has been a good obama in some areas. He was too worried and concerned atthe peace and dnt attack by removing from afghanistan, and iraq, left the open vast area for isis to grow. Isis is very astute. Theyre not going to tell us what theyre doing. They want to come to america and hurt us because they dont like our way of life. Now, again, the 400 million at they said did not know if it is possible that theyre going to get their hands on. Once they get their hands on were going to see a surge again. But they are here. They will keep coming. Im an independent. Im not too happy at all with either party. I think they both lack a lot of integrity. Host in an opinion piece on fox news. Com, matt said blame barack obama not donald trump for the rise of isis, putting the blame on the president. Edward from texas on our democratic line. Do you agree with that assessment . Caller well, i agree with obama is taking his time rounding up what these crazy people are doing over there and people think that its just like youre going to rush in there and just end this whole thing. These people are just like everybody else and can blend into the crowd. So you can do all you want and theyre still going to be all around, just salt and pepper. Host do you think that theres any way particularly with these bone wolf or small scale attacks, any way to prevent that from happening . Caller i think thats here to , y until somehow or another if its cool to keep doing theyll keep doing it. If theyre in a bad way mentally they can trick them in and they think if theyre going to die special things would happen. Really bad part is how much money we can spend every year keeping ourselves safe from religion. They always talk about how great it is but look how terrible it is. Were getting a lot worse than we are getting good when it comes to religious stuff between the christians and muslims, those two have the longstanding fight and bringing it over here. Were going over there and kicking up the dirt. But ove