Playing out across the front pages today. We should note that defense secretary chuck hagel was also with Martin Dempsey at the briefing at the white house and he was asked what kind of threat isis poses to the United States and heres what he said. Isil is as sophisticated and wellfunded as any group that we have seen. They are beyond just a terrorist group. They marry ideology and the sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess. They are tremendously wellfunded. This is beyond anything that we have seen, so we must prepare for everything. The only way you do that is you take a cold steal your heart look at it. Host defense secretary chuck hagel not the only one talking about the isis threat yesterday. Here in washington, d. C. At the Heritage Foundation just off of capitol hill Texas Governor rick perry addressed the threat of isis as well and called on the u. S. To expand its military operations against joh isis and heres what he said. President obama is going to hear warnings from his party. Hes going to hear the word mission and that is all in a very valid concern. How can we not be mindful of that after what we have seen occur yet in this case it seems to me we would be remember the isis version of the mission. Thats when they start following through on the threat theyve been making by sending their recruits into this country. It may be a team of terrorists arising with passports and papers in order just like before or it may be when one of them slips across the unsecure border but what observer doubts that such an attack is not a part of their plan and who thinks it is a good idea to wait and give them more time instead of eliminating this menace right now. Host we want to know what you think about the calls to expand the u. S. Military response to isis. We will start with douglas on the line for republicans from illinois. Morning sir. I feel it was right on the money. I feel we have to eliminate them right away. And our military commanders say we should leave ten, 20,000 troops on the ground . I dont know what the High Water Mark was in terms of how many troops we ever had on the ground but i feel that we should ramp up to take care of them before they take care of us. Markemark is waiting in wiscons. Good morning. Caller good morning. Guest there are Different Countries involved and the option should be put back on the table to have people have to fund the ground. However, it should be reinstalled, number one. And number two, i think it should be paid for by taxing all stock trades. Host that is mark from wisconsin. The conversation on cspan. Russell writes in on the Facebook Page expanded . More like unleashed no more rules of engagement is his comment on the page. Further down below that greg baker writes that it should be un lead and somehow we need to cooperate with the dictators to get the job done against isis. Dont bother commenting about that because i despise the regime as much as everyone else but given the situation i dont think you can defeat isis without working with that entity. We are taking your calls and comments the first 45 minutes. This morning you can see the numbers on the screen. Phone lines are open. As we take your calls also pointing out some of the stories around the country by some of the polling that has been done on this issue as well. Usa today from this week talks about the u. S. Airstrikes in iraq and asks what concerns you more the u. S. Will take to far getting involved in this situation, 51 agree with that. 32 said it is more concerned that u. S. Will not go far enough in stopping the militants into 17 percent didnt know or have another opinion. We are asking your opinion this morning and also has your opinion of the threats change over the past two weeks since the strikes began in iraq. Lets go to mikes waiting on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. We need to make sure what is the origin of the problem and what the isis object if its too formed caliphate throughout the middle east. Thats not going to happen unless all of these middle eastern dictatorships are destroyed and replaced by the isis caliphate. The u. S. Policy unfortunately through the bush freedom agenda of the other consequence was to destabilize all these middle eastern dictatorships that have a natural incentive to keep a lead on islamic extremism precisely because their vital objectives and healed removal of these governments into so the obama response to the arab spring was lackluster as well not recognizing the consequences of whats going to happen if we remove the governments that maybe they dont share our Democratic Values but they do share our strategic goal of preventing a caliphate from forming. Host what do you do in the mouth and . Do you think the threat can be contained in syria and iraq ask caller ultimately we would go back to a system where the governments themselves possess the military hardware and would have a very strong incentive to exit schedule to defeat isis themselves and i dont think they will sit back and do nothing and just a short we will go by the wayside in with caliphate take over. You can ask the saudi king asad himself was fighting to to serious. I dont like any of them on a psychological level. My gut reaction is lets wipe them off the face of the map they are barbarians but you have to look at the broad picture of what the strategic goals are and to judge it dispassionately. I think it is incredibly difficult to decide can we do a targeted strike to take out the bad actors such as isis without further destabilizing the situation and not letting the people who have a natural incentive to defeat isis to do so. If you have airstrikes in the middle east youre going to get a lot of people who have nothing to do with isis so thats my opinion. Host renee is in Los Angeles California on the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. Its really sad what happened to mr. Foley. However i believe the airstrikes are about as far as i want to go. I dont want to see on the ground. Weve lost enough lives. We are over in iraq and yet we cant continue to police the world. No more boots on the ground. Host you bring up the journalist that was beheaded in iraq by isis. Do you think that has changed Public Opinion in the country . You say it may not hav may not d your opinion on getting more involved but what do you see from the folks you talk to . Caller again it was sad what happened but it was his choice to be over there and i think this is another way of isis just saying this is what we did. I feel sorry for what happened to him but i just dont want to see anymore of our troops being killed over there. Thats what most of my friends are saying is weve just got to kind of stay out of it. Host renee from los angeles. Usa today has a column on the james foley death and what the u. S. Response should be. The headline isis sends a severed head. What is our response . He writes the dramatic death was news media breakthrough for isis that rather thabut rather than e report from the fact americans should understand it as a direct expression of isis and its creed. Isis send a message the only question is what message the United States will send back. Has your opinion changed on the isis fret over the past two weeks over the course of the u. S. Airstrikes that have happened . Is go to marry in california on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I was just wondering the military said today they wan wad to strikes in serious and iraq to subdue isis. Where do the airstrikes stop . Are we going to put boots on the ground or just airstrikes . We are supposed to be out of iraq. We are supposed to be getting out of afghanistan and im sorry about the journalist had lost his life but i just dont see going to war is never glamorous but i just think we should do nothing. Bombing serious and bombing iraq maybe we should view in a few others. Maybe egypt isnt going to please us were turkey. When is it going to stop . Host do you think that is where this is going when we hear these comments by mr. Hagel . Caller and the general come i forget his name, the strikes in serious. We are spending how many millions for the chemical weapons we sold to serious out. Its war all the time. Its got to stop. Thats my opinion. Host lets go to marvin waiting in birmingham alabama on the line for independence. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host goahead, marvin. Caller lets just be honest it was u. S. Drones, u. S. Foreign policy and the Rightwing Bush Administration thats mostly started all of the destabilization of the socalled middle east. [inaudible] theyve taken over libya and we provide our tax dollars they are trying to take over in syria and so we need to look at the reality of who we get in bed with. We created this crazy isis and we should deal with the fact we need to stop destabilizing these governments even if they dont want to be in bed with it would be better than isis and control. Host marvin in birmingham alabama this morning. We are asking your thoughts on some of these calls for the expansion of the u. S. Military response to isis in iraq and in serious. The u. S. Military presence may prompt congress to weigh in specifically on the troop action. Quoting saying this isnt an Administrative Task but truly it is about the power issue and i think its one that has been breached clearly by not only this administration but prior administrations in the authority of the presidency. Another quote from the congresswoman on this issue many of my colleagues share concerns over the Mission Creed in isis and the passage of the Iraq Resolution with a clear indicator that Congress Much of a role in every future military action in iraq. Iraq. But also playing out on the pages of the New York Times as well. The headline despite they are weary of the u. S. Military expansion one other member of congress quoted him as piece is the democratic in california he says most democrats are extraordinarily weary of being sucked into a large education because it will kill a lot of americans and we saw in iraq the last time that it didnt work. We will read that in todays New York Times. Lets go to jack this morning. Although good morning. I wanted to mention that when the president refused to go ahead and bomb syria for the thread whining that he drew got all of those chemical weapons out of serious with the help of putin. We would be in big trouble now. Thank you. From the state department on the u. S. Airstrikes thereve been 90 over the past two weeks since august 8 since those airstrikes began. Those coming from yesterday in the state department. Lets go to jeff waiting in minnesota on the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller hello . Host youre on the washington journal. Caller thanks for taking me. My view is this is no surprise what happened. I served eight years in the military. They mean business. I understand the stress of it but its extremely dangerous and i dont know what it will take for the stronger message and we cant afford to do anything. We have to put boots on the ground in order to get themselves out. Among those calling for increased action a group of human rights activists and state leaders circulating the petition that was started by the mccormick professor at Princeton University and the iraq rescue. Org saying that we call upon the United States into the community to do everything necessary to empower local forces fighting isis come isil in iraq. Consistent with the principle of the doctrine we further believe that the United States goals would be more comprehensive than simply clamping a shortterm live on the wailing violins that is threatening so many innocents in the isils path. Nothing short of the instruction as a fighting force would provide longterm protection of the victims. That petition signed by a thousand so far including the president of the ethics and religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist convention. Benjamin carson, Johns Hopkins pediatrician Plastic Surgery and wellknown conservative speaker and thinker. As we talk about the call to expand that response and whether your opinion has changed on the past two weeks. Good morning. I would like to see us withdraw. Nobody has talked about how much it costs in iraq suggest after the ordinance. Where are the jordanians, the saudis, the egyptians a all have sophisticated air force. I think we should just withdraw and let isis go to the borders when these people are willing to help us then we can return. I dont see how the United States has the responsibility to be the sole provider of the air cover in the countries that dont want to help. For the troops to do training we did that and 20,000 iraqis dump their uniforms and weapons and ran. So how are you going to get those people to defend their country . We already lost 5,000 troops and nobody talks about it, but theres ten times that that are needed and have arms and legs blown off and have their minds mound and we are responsible for 50 or 60,000 veterans that need to be taken care of forever. This stuff that we are doing is nonsense. Host they are bringing up the calls to come to congress and to seek approval of what hes doing. Where do you stand on whether the president needs to go to congress and get them behind this effort . Caller they are responsible for taking us to the war and leaving it to the presidency because they dont want to commit to anything as ridiculous. I dont see this thing. Everything we touched a starkly i was a history major and everything we touch historically has turned. We got rid of Saddam Hussein and now we are fighting sunnis and because we put in the government we turned the iraq he hegemony over to iraq. Weve got to get out. We are borrowing 40 cents on the bowledollar to do all that we ae doing over there. The headline of his opinion piece when the u. S. Abdicates the disaster usually follows he writes the withdrawal of american peacekeeping forces have almost invariably lead to catastrophe. He writes it is impossible to predict the future and equally impossible to the neighboring syria the sobering fact is that president obamas disengagement from the region as a matter of political principle and he is unlikely to alter his course at the evidence of american withdraw is now palpable and clear as the image of the isis atrocities. What is more worrisome . The result to sustain the burden of leadership or the prospect of a world in chaos and uncertainty . Thats his piece in the wall street journal if you want to read it. In new york on the line for independent. Good morning. Caller thank you for having me. Its my first time calling in. In relation to the United States politics i believe that our Foreign Policy to this point has created this threat and that is something we need to take into consideration before considering extra military force. Now i do belief it is far more real than anything we have ever faced but there is a place for the military involvement. I think that it needs to be held as well because the United States is looking to be going after Something Like this alone. They looked into specifically what those specifi specific thre and why isis is such a threat. Some of the issues they bring up in their analysis is the better in troops. The story noting that it includes experienced officers from Saddam Husseins regime and also notes the part of the reason it is such a threat is that several thousand fighters may hold passports of western nations including 10250 americans. There may be more muslim british subjects fighting for the Islamic State and fo for britais military. The defense confirmed there are about 600 british muslims and its armed forces at home and abroad. Government estimates put the number of the state fighters in serious and iraq at 500 to 800 the other reason its such a threat is the territory that isis controls the Islamic State controlled its own territory which gives it a secure base to plan, train, regroup and recruit. If you want to read more of the breakdown that is the lead story in usa today. On the line for republicans. Caller thank you for having me on this morning. I think the border has kind of gotten knocked off of the same pages in recent days over the isis problem but it seems to me that and im not much in favor of the boots on the ground either but if we dont do something we will have boots on the ground over here and they arent going to be ours. I live pretty close and i like our friends from the south and they are good hardworking people. All of these people have come over here and they are not all kids. They get people stirred up pretty good all over this country. Host one other story on the u. S. Foreign policy this story from the watchdog they broke the law talking about the Prisoner Exchange they broke the law when it transferred the fivetime and detainees from Guantanamo Bay from the Government Watchdog Agency the Government Accountability office into the pentagon violated the 2014 defense appropriations act which requires the pentagon to give certain congressional committees 30 days of advance notice before any detainee transfers from wonton amount they happened. The sevenpage finding is in response by the rate doubled in law may curse for an opinion which has fresh criticism of the Obama Administration decision to swap the taliban commanders. Thats a story from the hill also had several other papers today. The rollcall paper noting that one senator republican senator on capitol hill wan wants a spel counsel to investigate president obama on the Senate Intelligenc